By TR Robertson
Solana Beach’s North Coast Repertory Theatre’s production of Heidi Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me” brought the sold-out audience, for the opening night production, to their feet with rousing applause for the performance they had just seen on stage from Jacque Wilke, Andrew Oswald and Genevieve Tai. This mostly autobiographical play takes the audience on a whirlwind trip through the teenage and college life of Heidi, through the relationship she has with her mother, grandmother and the life of her great-great grandmother, using a debate about the Constitution and a discussion centering on the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Schreck’s play has won several awards and was nominated for numerous other awards, becoming the most produced play in America over the last three years. The play won an Obie Award for best New Play in 2019, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play 2019 and was nominated for a Drama League Award and for two Tony Awards as well as a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize 2019 for Drama. It began on Broadway at the Hayes Theatre on March 31, 2019.
The play is a little over 90 minutes in length touching on an array of topics including women’s rights, sexual assault, domestic violence, racial equality, immigration, the writing of the Constitution, the Supreme Court and some questionable decisions the court has made and interpretations of several of the Amendments in the Constitution and how they relate to the world today. Pretty heavy topics making this seem like a potentially somber play, but this play is anything but that. It uses humor, great personal stories, a fast-paced dialogue and tremendous performances to entertain and educate those watching the play. All of this begins with an intro by performer Jacque Wilke, as Heidi, explaining how she will discuss her love of the Constitution by taking the audience back to when she was a 15-year-old teenager taking part in debate contests that were sponsored by the American Legion in her home state of Washington. Heidi would enter the debate contests to win money which she would then put away to pay for her college tuition. Heidi explained she competed against Becky Dobson who use the theme, “The Constitution is like a Patchwork Quilt”. Heidi would use the theme that the Constitution is like a caldron, where numerous items would be placed in the caldron and stirred around to come up with some type of mixed potion. The debate was overseen by Andrew Oswald, who played an American Legion member and later in the play would play Mike, who would discuss his early struggles with his own sexual identity. As Heidi took part in the debate, questions were posed to her about the Ninth and the Fourteenth Amendments. As she responded, this led to stories and examples of her great-great grandmother, an immigrant from Germany, who came to the U.S. as a mail order bride and Heidi’s grandmother and mother as she discussed the domestic violence they dealt with. All of this was related to the Ninth Amendment, referred to as the “penumbra of the Constitution” dealing with rights by implication rather than specify, and the Fourteenth Amendment dealing with citizenship and equity rights and the various clauses attached to the Amendment. Heidi would change from portraying her 15-year-old self to playing herself today when she discussed an abortion she had hidden from her mother. Along the way Heidi would give examples of prior Supreme Court decisions which are discussed in terms of being questionable in today’s world. She refers to the pitfalls these decisions can bring, especially with women’s rights. Heidi also refers to the Constitutions “negative rights” and “positive rights”. One of the Supreme Court decisions she presented in detail was the Town of Castle Rock vs Gonzales where a woman sued the town and their sheriff’s department for failing to protect her and her children when she had a restraining order against her husband. The husband murdered the three children. The court decided against the woman arguing at length over the word shall, as in shall protect. The police were told in the restraining order they shall protect, not that they must protect. A number of statistics are brought up, especially those dealing with domestic violence. One was that in the 2000’s more women have been killed by their partner than people killed by any act of terrorism, including those women killed in the 9/11 attacks.
In the final part of the play, Heidi introduces a young high school debater who will debate her on a topic, for tonight whether or not the Constitution should be abolished. This is also an audience participation portion of the play where the audience is instructed to cheer for various points made by the debaters depending on whether you supported abolishing the Constitution or keeping the Constitution. After a short debate, one person is chosen from the audience to decide who won. On this night the audience member selected voted to keep the Constitution, but with changes made in certain areas.
“What the Constitution Means to Me” is a fast paced, funny, witty, thoughtful, emotional, slightly historic trip through parts of the Constitution and the effect some of these parts had in the life of one particular individual as well as the effect on others. Jacque Wilke is absolutely amazing in her portrayal of Heidi and makes this civics lesson extremely enjoyable to listen to and empathize with when hearing her personal stories. Wilke is a veteran performer who has been in numerous productions and is a Criag Noel Award winner. Andrew Oswald, as Legionnaire/Mike, has also appeared on a variety of stages in San Diego and beyond. The opening night performance of the Debater was played by Genevieve Tai, a student at Sage Creek High School and theatre actress appearing in local theatre and school performances. Genevieve had great stage presence and handled herself admirably as she debated Heidi (Wilke), representing the Abolish the Constitution position. Appearing in future productions as the Debater will be Em Danque.
Schreck’s play is directed by Shana Wride, and she said she was thrilled to direct this production and loved the cast and thinks the play presents a valuable lesson and is perfect for the time we are living in. Wride has both performed in and directed other plays at NC Rep. Her design team included Set Designer Marty Burnett, Light Designer Matthew Novotny, Costume Designer Elisa Benzoni, Sound Designer Evan Eason, Props Designer Audrey Casteris, Production Assistant Ali Flores, Dramaturg Ashton Botts, and Debate Consultant Minia Curtis.
“What the Constitution Means to Me” will be on the North Coast Repertory stage until March 23rd. Tickets are available at 858-481-1055 or go to www.northcoastrep.org. Next up for NC Rep will be the World Premiere of “Peril in the Alps” by Steven Dietz, a Hercule Poirot mystery.
