The Constitution speaks, but do we still listen?

By Rich Fahey
STONEHAM – Can a document written and signed in 1787 and then ratified in 1788 serve the needs of a much different population of 349 million people some 238 years later?
That – and much more – will be debated and discussed in Heidi Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me” at the Greater Boston Stage Company through April 26.
Schreck’s play is a well-constructed, evocative, deeply personal work that was a finalist in 2019 for the Pulitzer Prize in drama.
It could hardly be more relevant than it is today in our deeply divided country as the document in question is continually folded, bent, spindled and mutilated according to the views of whomever is talking about it.
And Schreck herself – in the form of Janis Hudson, the actor who plays her — leads the interrogation of the document.
Schreck put herself – and in later productions, actors portraying her – at the center of the production, unafraid to lead the way and express strong opinions about the document’s strengths and weaknesses.
Schreck, a native of Wenwatchee, Wash., put herself through the University of Oregon by competing in events about the Constitution sponsored by the American Legion. But she was just 15 when she fell in love with the document, and in her 40s when she wrote the play, and what she has learned in the ensuing years informs what the adult Heidii ended up including in the 90-minute piece.
The Constitution also serves as a portal into many other pressing issues, and Schreck pulls no punches in describing how the Constitution came up woefully short when it came to protecting the rights of women. She , rattles off a long list of harrowing statistics about violence against women at the hands of men.
She is also a strong advocate for reproductive rights, and Roe V. Wade comes in for some spirited discussion.

Schreck asks audience members to raise their hands if “they are white males and own property” and then rightly points out that when the Constitution was being written, only white men with property were allowed to be at the table, and they could hardly be trusted with making sure the concerns of women, for one, were being addressed. That was largely where the amendments came in.
Schreck doesn’t pull punches when she details family members who were victims of domestic abuse that the law couldn’t prevent, and what then left the women incapable of defending other family members when they were threatened.
And, because the Supreme Court has played such a large role in making the Constitution what it is today, there are several sound clips of the justices – all male and all white until the arrivals of Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O’Connor — debating vital issues and showing themselves to be clueless about what they were debating.
But there are also humorous moments, such as when Shreck muses about her obsession with Patrick Swayze and “Dirty Dancing.”
Hudson is the actor who plays Heidi –until she doesn’t, when she firmly injects herself and her own views into the production. She stalks the stage, a dynamic presence on a mission to promote awareness of the document that provided the guard rails for a nascent democracy.
Actor Joseph Marella. who appears earlier in the show as the American Legion representative, is called back onto the stage as a “non-toxic male presence” and is invited by Hudson to tell his own story, talk about himself as a person and express his own feelings about how he represents and how he would like to be seen.
It is a theme that repeats itself; Hudson takes on Shreck’s high school persona before morphing into Schreck as the adult woman; she then adopts her own persona and her own personal feelings.
As herself, Hudson will also participate in a debate over whether the Constitution deserves to be kept or trashed, joined by one of two student debaters: Ayannah Joseph or Maya Feldman. Audience participation is encouraged – cheers or hisses and boos, your choice – as the spirited verbal tussle unfolds.
At a recent performance, Joseph, a 16-year-old student at the Boston Arts Academy, was a poised, confident opponent as she called for keeping the Constitution, and Hudson took the side of trashing the document and starting over.
Theater-goers will also receive their own copy of the Constitution so they can “play along” whenever the document – or certain amendments – are discussed.
Director A. Nora Long has cast wisely and in program notes also declared her love for both the Constitution and Patrick Swayze.
You may find yourself or another audience member being drafted to declare the winner of the onstage debate, but the real winners will be those who have attended and joined the cast and the other audience members asking important questions about a document that still speaks to us 238 years later.
The Greater Boston Stage Company production of “What the Constitution Means to Me.” Written by Heidi Schreck. Directed by A. Nora Long. At The Greater Boston Company through April 26. Greaterbostonstage.org.
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