{"id":82970,"date":"2019-03-31T20:26:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T00:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/what-the-constitution-means-to-me-is-the-first-must-see-show-of-the-year-review\/"},"modified":"2019-03-31T20:26:22","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T00:26:22","slug":"what-the-constitution-means-to-me-is-the-first-must-see-show-of-the-year-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/what-the-constitution-means-to-me-is-the-first-must-see-show-of-the-year-review\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What the Constitution Means to Me\u2019 is the First Must-See Show of the Year: REVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018What the Constitution Means to Me\u2019 is the First Must-See Show of the Year: REVIEW<\/b><\/p>\n

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When writer-performer Heidi Schreck was 15, she traveled the U.S. giving speeches about the Constitution for prize money that paid her college tuition. As an origin story, it sounds almost impossibly quaint. Who can imagine mustering such civic zeal today? <\/p>\n

As recent<\/a> events<\/a> sadly continue to prove, women<\/a>\u2019s full humanity is still on trial more than 200 years after being omitted from our founding document. Schreck interrogates the legacy of America\u2019s legislation of women<\/a> by revisiting those teenage<\/a> debates in What the Constitution Means to Me<\/em>, which opened on Broadway tonight after an acclaimed and extended run downtown last year.<\/p>\n

The result is by turns deeply funny, heart wrenching, inspirational, and one of the most searing and enlightening pieces of political theatre in recent memory. If you have been paying attention and are mad as hell, if your faith in America has been tested past the breaking point, if you feel like putting your head between your knees and wailing until your voice runs hoarse, get yourself to the Helen Hayes Theatre. You\u2019re in excellent company.<\/p>\n

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The rules of competition, as laid out by Mike Iveson (playing an American Legion moderator, and later himself), encouraged young speakers to make their arguments personal by demonstrating how the Constitution\u2019s legalese actually affected their lives. Schreck takes this approach to the entire piece, illustrating specific clauses with family lore that reaches back through generations of women<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Her great-great grandmother was considered a \u201cgood immigrant\u201d when she arrived from Germany \u2014 after her husband ordered her from a catalogue. Her official cause of death was \u2018melancholia\u2019 at the age of 36. Grandmother Schreck\u2019s second husband was horribly abusive; Schreck\u2019s mother is the one who turned him in. <\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat does it mean,\u201d Schreck asks, \u201cthat the document will not protect us from the violence of men<\/a>?\u201d The statistics are startling, but nothing new. As Schreck puts it, \u201cmore American women<\/a> have been killed by violent male<\/a> partners in the last century than Americans have been killed in wars, including 9\/11.\u201d And that\u2019s just women<\/a> killed by men<\/a> who supposedly love them. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think you can feel it kind of humming underneath\u2026 everything,\u201d Schreck says, referring not just to the threat of violence women<\/a> face every day, but to the deadly consequences of such disregard for their lives. <\/p>\n

When Schreck began work on the show 10 years ago, she could hardly have imagined it would greet a country in the midst of a constitutional crisis. But it\u2019s more than timing that makes Schreck\u2019s performance one of the most thrilling and alive on New York stages right now. Schreck is a remarkably sincere storyteller with a gift for staying uncannily present in the room and in the moment, an even greater feat in the show\u2019s move to Broadway. <\/p>\n

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In Schreck\u2019s hands and under Oliver Butler\u2019s direction, What the Constitution Means to Me<\/em> feels like a vital conversation, a sit-in, and a seance of sorts for the soul of the country. It even turns into a live<\/a> debate. New York City high school debate champs Rosdely Ciprian and Thursday Williams alternate performances sparring with Schreck in a showdown ultimately judged by an audience member. The question? Whether we ought to keep the Constitution or scrap it and start over. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom says when you get worried that everything is moving backwards, that things are getting worse instead of better, you should imagine a woman<\/a> walking along a beach with a dog,\u201d Schreck says. Picture the dog scurrying back and forth, but recognize that the woman<\/a> continues to move forward. The world has no choice but to follow. <\/p>\n

Photos by Joan Marcus.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post \u2018What the Constitution Means to Me\u2019 is the First Must-See Show of the Year: REVIEW<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2018What the Constitution Means to Me\u2019 is the First Must-See Show of the Year: REVIEW<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n