Heidi Schreck

I'm Andrea Henderson, St. Louis Public Radio.

What the Constitution Means to Me is a play based on playwright Heidi Schreck's high school job winning cash prizes and debates about the Constitution at American Legion Halls.

A production of the show is now on stage at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, directed by Nancy Bell.

St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin asked lead actor Michelle Hand how important each night's audience is to the show.

You saw the difference right there.

Right then and there.

The playwright, Heidi Schreck, writes in the piece, as a note, this script is a blueprint for a living encounter, and it is essential that the performer establish a genuine and spontaneous connection with the audience.

What does that tell you as the actor about how to approach this material?

So what the Constitution means to me has been a little bit of a mini phenomenon since it came out.

The playwright, Heidi Schreck, It's her story, her musing about her experience as a constitutional debate scholar.

in high school and how the Constitution shaped her life, both in its contents and in what it means to people in presenting it

in that

It is heavily weighted towards one-woman show.

But there are some other folks on stage, including some actual high school debate students from the St. Louis area.

this particular team of the director, Nancy Bell, and the person playing the Heidi Schreck role, Michelle Hand, had a very successful run of this show in those same roles at Max and Louis Productions.

So this is, it's not a recreation of that.

Um, it, it seems like it's moving forward.

The, we have a wonderful screenwriter, Heidi Schreck, who is writing the screenplay right now.

Great.

Um, and you know, things happen in Hollywood to have it fall apart, but right now it looks like it's really moving forward.

Um, it, it turns out I was talking to, um, Leslie, who found-- who's the head of the Blackburn Prize, last night.

And this project, they f- they founded it six months ago and then got 36 writers on board who are f- uh, winners and finalists of the Blackburn Prize, which include Lynn Nottage, Sarah Ruhl, Haruna Lee, Heidi Schreck, A.K. Payne, Heather Raffo, Taylor-

Like insane

...

Yeah.

Totally.

Like I, yeah, I just read like, you know, Migdalia Cruz's play and Heidi Schreck's play and I was like, okay, I gotta, I, I gotta, I gotta cut to the heart of the thing.

[laughs]

Yes, okay.

As I said, we're in our 14th season, so our opening play is What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck, and I'm directing it.

We thought this was a perfect time for this play, our 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence and right before the midterm elections.

Very

good timing.

This play has won lots of awards, and it's Heidi Schreck.

It's based on her own experience.

When she was 15 years old, she traveled around the United States competing in contests, debate contests, sponsored by the American Legion.

We are here at the Montpelier Performing Arts Hub, for those of you who are here for the first time, whose proprietor, Qiana Bromley, is not here because she's rehearsing her opening on October 1st, uh, her l- one-woman show, What the Constitution Means to Me.

Uh, I've seen that show actually when Heidi Schreck did it, and it's wonderful.

Um, so, and I hope to engage you in some audience participation by later asking you who you'd like to see and hear from in our October and November shows.

Bernie Sanders, not yet committed.