Above: Actress Elizabeth Heflin in UD REP’s presentation of What the Constitution Means to Me. Photo provided.
By Jim Miller
It seems a lot of people already have something to say about the season opener for the University of Delaware’s Resident Ensemble Players (REP). In a manner of speaking, perhaps they are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.
Starting Friday, Sept. 13, REP will present eight performances of What the Constitution Means to Me over the following two weeks. After Constitution debuted on Broadway in early 2019, Peter Marks of The Washington Post called it “endearingly funny” operating on an “advanced level of enchantment.”
“It would be hard to identify a work for the theater with its finger more cogently and rewardingly on the pulse of America right now,” Marks wrote as the opening line of his preview, which praised the monologue-heavy work of Heidi Schreck, who both wrote the play and performed in it.
Although that review was more than five years ago, many involved with this REP production feel Constitution is even more appropriate amid the climate of our current election cycle. With wisdom and wit, the show looks at our country’s founding document in a fresh and thought-provoking light.
“The arts have long been used as a means for social advocacy,” says REP Program Coordinator A.R. McGinty. “If we were to draw a Venn diagram of plays that are heartfelt and entertaining and plays that are challenging and designed to create discussion, you would find Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me right in the middle.
“It’s the perfect cross-section of art and civic engagement.”
For actress Elizabeth Heflin, the opportunity to carry the torch that Schreck did with Constitution is an opportunity “to tell an engaging story.”
“Or more accurately, live it onstage so that we can all connect to each other through this experience,” Heflin adds. “Hopefully, you’ll laugh, maybe cry, recoil, certainly feel something with other humans.
“If a play happens to deepen one’s convictions or allows us to see through another’s eyes, and it leads one to take positive social, civic, or even personal action, then that’s fantastic.”
Certainly, Betsy Renzo, the executive director of the Delaware Law Related Education Center (DELREC) hopes the show will create constructive conversations. Her organization works to increase knowledge of the law and help eliminate barriers to law careers for Delaware students. They plan to bring public-school students to one of the matinee performances in reverence to Constitution Day on September 17, followed up with a discussion with local lawyers.
“Teachers are asked every year to consider teaching about the U.S. Constitution on Constitution Day, but that puts the burden on our teachers,” Renzo says. “This performance, on the other hand, brings engaging content to students, exposes them to conversations with attorneys in Delaware, and takes the pressure off teachers to do so.”
In addition to embracing opportunities like this one, DELREC also writes curricula that meets Delaware’s civic standards and goes into classrooms to “facilitate engaging debates that foster transferable advocacy skills,” Renzo says. That said, she hopes the impact of show goes beyond its timing or any particular demographics.
“These types of shows are critical for young people as well as older people, during an election year, or not,” Renzo says. “We get our news in 10-second clips on TikTok and Instagram these days. We exist in silos and echo chambers. Our social studies teachers get less and less time in the classroom for civics — and yet our democracy depends on an informed public.
“Shows like this one help to remedy this lack of understanding.”
— What the Constitution Means to Me runs at the REP Sept. 13-22 at the University of Delaware. For tickets and more information, visit Rep.Udel.edu.
