Reviews of What The Constitution Means to Me
Local Reviews
"The play is highly engaging, funny, thoughtful, entertaining – all of the things we go to the theatre for – and also very informative." —BroadwayWorld
"She {Heidi Schreck} treats the question of what the Constitution means to her ... as a matter of vital importance. She {Heidi Schreck} demonstrates reasons to care and to engage." —OregonArts Watch
"Lingafelter is a formidable local talent... Lingafelter is an absolute light in this performance.... You need a real dynamo in the role and PCS found one." —Portland Mercury
Critic Reviews
“Schreck’s autobiographical play cuts away at both the U.S. Constitution, examining the threads that make it up and hold it together, while carefully exposing the scar tissue the document has left on her and her family’s lives.” —The Seattle Times
“Deeply personal, Schreck transports the audience to her fifteen-year-old self who competed in Constitutional debates across the United States. In fact, she was so adept and victorious, Schreck was able to win enough prize money to pay for college.” —Forbes
“These moments of meeting her past self gives the show a lightness and potency that is not mere nostalgia, but a reclaiming of power.” —DC Theatre Scene
“Shattering, galvanizing and very funny, Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me close reads an old text in new and breathlessly exciting ways.” —the Guardian
“This unconventional Swiss Army knife of a play combines civics lessons, character study, personal history, stand-up, and nostalgia for high school forensics. In case you haven’t thought about the Constitution since high school, you’ll definitely think about it once you see it.” —Observer
“A personal window into the most profound questions about our nation.” —Oregon ArtsWatch
“ In viewing the U.S. Constitution through the lens of its impact on her family, Schreck shows in graphic terms that violent oppression, ignorance, and misogyny have been woven into the Constitution so finely and so thoroughly that they seem as natural as the air we breathe.” —Chicago Sun Times
“Note the last two words in the title of Heidi Schreck’s hit show, What the Constitution Means to Me — this is a highly personal take, not a historical or legal lecture. Yet Schreck succeeds in widening her autobiographical play into a paean for basic fairness: The American Constitution, admired as it is, fails to protect all of us from violence and discrimination.” —The New York Times
In The News
"Seeds for the career of the acclaimed playwright, whose "What the Constitution Means To Me," were planted and nurtured in Oregon." —Oregon ArtsWatch
"Star Rebecca Lingafelter and director Marissa Wolf discuss staging a play that wrestles with whether the vision of the Founding Fathers can be salvaged." —Willamette Week
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