The word “shall.” Just one little word. But a word central to a landmark Supreme Court ruling and contextual to Heidi Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me,” which since 2023 has been the most-produced play in America.
It makes its San Diego premiere this week at North Coast Repertory Theatre, directed by Shana Wride and starring Jacque Wilke in the role that Schreck herself performed countless times. Unfolding like a personal narrative onstage, “It’s a very personal play about generational trauma and about being a woman,” said Wride, “and she (Schreck) uses the filter of the Constitution to try and understand it.”
Take that Supreme Court case in 2005. In the case of the Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzalez, a woman sued a police department for not enforcing a restraining order against her husband, who later murdered their three children. The high court’s decision, which denied the plaintiff’s claim and was assailed by human rights advocates and activists for women, focused on the use of the word “shall” (as in, whether the word “shall” means the police had a mandatory or discretionary requirement to enforce the restraining order).
Snippets of oral arguments from that case are in “What the Constitution Means to Me.”
The play features three characters and a second-act debate. It also includes Schreck’s reflections on immigration, domestic abuse and the question of whether the Constitution indeed provides equal protection under the law, particularly to women.
“Even though it is about some hard truths, it also gave me hope,” said Wride, who like a lot of people first saw “What the Constitution Means to Me” during its premiere run on Amazon Prime Video during the COVID-19 pandemic years. “Heidi has a really great perspective on some tricky subject matter. It’s universal and challenging, but not alienating.”
Wride considers Wilke, an actor familiar to San Diego audiences who’s now based in Denver, “the greatest gift you can give a director. In a show like this typically the relationship between the performer and the audience is paramount. In the case of this show, you’ve got Jacque in place. Check. You have an understanding of the play. Check. The play was created by the person who made it famous so you have to figure out a way to make this true for the person who’s taking on the task.”
The North Coast Rep production, like other stagings of “What the Constitution Means to Me” around the country, is also being bolstered by the contributions of Missouri-based dramaturg Ashton Botts. The Solana Beach production is the 10th “Constitution” for which Botts, an actor/director herself as well as a lawyer, has been a dramaturgical resource.
“It’s a little bit of ‘Constitutional Law 101,’” said Botts, who described her role as looking at the play “through a legal or constitutional lens. The script is really a good map, I would say. Nothing I do impacts the script itself. All the lines remain as written. I just help provide context.”
Botts’ work with Wride, the cast and production team — all done long distance — was capped by a three-hour virtual presentation for their benefit, “particularly the case law that Heidi (Schreck) doesn’t explicitly mention in her play. We put those pieces together so that the actors feel fully informed when they are delivering their lines or in talkbacks afterward.”
A talkback with the cast and director Wride will follow the March 7 performance.
As both a lawyer and a theater artist, Botts has a solid and insightful perspective on this play.
“What’s really special about this show,” she said, “and the way Heidi’s constructed it is she’s endeared herself to the audience as just a human person and she uses the Constitution to weave in and out of her own story.”
“At the heart, this is a story about brave women. Even if you aren’t familiar with the Constitution or politics or your rights under the 14th Amendment you have a mom, you’ve been a child, you know someone who perhaps has experienced something like domestic violence and you’re just a person in this country.”
‘What the Constitution Means To Me’
When: Now in previews through Friday. Opens Saturday and runs through March 23. 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. and Sundays
Where: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach
Tickets: $52-$74
Phone: 858-481-1055
Online: northcoastrep.org
