Last weekend, the University of Idaho Repertory Theater put on four powerful productions of the play “What the Constitution Means to Me.” Head of acting and professor in the UI Theatre Arts Department, Kelly Quinnett starred as Heidi Schreck, giving a strong and emotional performance.
“What the Constitution Means to Me” is a 2017 play written and originally performed by Heidi Schreck. The play is personal, intimate and was inspired by Schreck’s experience competing in the American Legion Oratorical contests for scholarship money as a 15-year-old from Wenatchee, Washington. In the competition, participants addressed parts of the U.S. Constitution and their personal connections to them.
In “What the Constitution Means to Me,” Schreck reflects on the debates she competed in as a teenager and the U.S. Constitution again as a 40-year-old. Through evocative storytelling, Schreck talks about how the U.S. Constitution has affected her, women in her family, and left out almost everyone besides straight white men.
Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me” premiered on Broadway in 2019 and was nominated for numerous awards, including a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize for Drama also in 2019.
David Lee-Painter, the director of UI’s production of “What the Constitution Means to Me,” has been teaching the script in his play analysis class since 2018. After 29 years teaching at UI, Lee-Painter chose “What the Constitution Means to Me” as the final play to direct before he retires.
“[‘What the Constitution Means to Me’] has been an opportunity to create with my dear friend, Kelly Quinnett, on material that we’re both really passionate about, and to work with my wife,” Lee-Painter said. His wife, Nancy Achali Lee-Painter was a co-director on the production. “We used to collaborate together and so it just feels kind of like a nice coda on my time here [at UI], getting to be nostalgic about all those years here, and being able to share a piece of theater that I really love.”
The Forge Theater, where the performances took place, was a very intimate setting for an emotional and personal autobiographical play. The audience surrounded the stage on all four sides. Throughout the performance, Quinnett was active in moving around the stage and the audience, interacting directly with them.
“It’s an intimate interaction with the actors and with a play that’s an intimate examination of one person’s experience and interaction with the constitution as the lens,” Lee-Painter said. “Heidi Schreck’s story is really moving as what it is to be a woman in this country and live with the constitution, but it’s also funny and thought provoking.”
Jeff Davis, UI theater graduate alumni and the actor who played the Legionnaire in “What the Constitution Means to Me,” described the play as high energy and an emotional rollercoaster.
“There are parts that are very funny, there are parts that are very pointy and there are parts that are very troubling. There is talk of abortion, there is talk of domestic violence, but there are also some really witty, light and fun moments,” Davis said. “What I hope people take away from it, is that I hope they just really step back and remember, that yes, the constitution for everything that it has going for it, still has flaws and it still relies on the kindness of strangers—the Supreme Court or Congress—to interpret what it’s saying and historically that’s left a lot of people out. I hope, even if not to seek change, they will recognize that.”
Georgia Swanson can be reached at [email protected]