T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Kate Baldwin and Nicholas Rodriguez co-star in George Street Playhouse’s production of “What the Constitution Means to Me” at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.
In “What the Constitution Means to Me,” the 2017 play that George Street Playhouse is currently presenting at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, the United States Constitution is described as a “crucible” into which “we throw many different ingredients and boil them together, until they transform into something else. Something that is sometimes magic.”
“What the Constitution Means to Me” itself is also a crucible. Its ingredients include playwright Heidi Schreck’s memories of being a 15-year-old who gave speeches on the Constitution; her thoughts, as an adult, on the Constitution; excerpts from historical recordings; a debate on whether the Constitution should be abolished; and a question-and-answer session.
T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Kate Baldwin with Nicholas Rodriguez in “What the Constitution Means to Me.”
In the George Street Playhouse production, which is directed by Laiona Michelle, Kate Baldwin plays Schreck, both as a teenager and an adult in her late 40s. But she also speaks, sometimes, from her own (i.e., Kate Baldwin’s) perspective. Nicholas Rodriguez, who plays the American Legion member who hosts the 15-year-old Schreck’s speech, moderates the debate, and also sometimes addresses the audience as himself. Two young actresses, Niara Beckwith and Wobirba Ekuba Sarpey, alternate as the Debater. Beckwith performed in the show I attended, introducing herself as “a 16-year-old debater from Rutgers Prep School.”
Every element of the play — which ran on Broadway in 2019 and was nominated for a Tony in the Best Play category, and also was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama — was engaging in its own right. But were they really transformed, as if they were in a crucible, into something magical? I didn’t really think so.
“What the Constitution Means to Me” is, by design, messy. Schreck gently mocks her perky 15-year-old self: “My face just fucking hurts from smiling so much,” says Baldwin after she tells the audience she will stop playing the 15-year Schreck and now portray the adult Schreck. Baldwin also pokes fun at the American Legion Hall set, saying, as the adult Schreck: “This is not a naturalistic representation. I got my friend Shoko (Kambara) to reconstruct it from my dreams. It’s like a crime victim drawing. Also, I forgot a door.”
When she talks about the Constitution and relates it to her own life (and the history of her family), her monologues often have the flavor of someone trying to figure it all out, not someone who wants to tell you what to think. Which is fine. The name of the play, after all, is “What the Constitution Means to Me,” not “What the Constitution Means.” And surely it has inspired many of its viewers to do further exploring on their own: To that end, each attendee is given a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution, to take home.
I felt the most powerful part of the play came when Baldwin, as the adult Schreck, talked about the history of abuse of women in her family, and wove that together with an anguished assessment of the Supreme Court’s refusal to do more to protect women. Driving home the point, she plays a tape of Ruth Bader Ginsburg saying, “People ask me sometimes … when will there be enough women on the (Supreme) Court? And my answer is, when there are nine.”
T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Kate Baldwin with Niara Beckwith in “What the Constitution Means to Me.”
My biggest problem with the play had to do with the debate. It is done late in the show but is really more of a digression than a culmination. Baldwin makes the argument that the Constitution should be abolished, and we should start all over with … something else. Her opponent, Beckwith, argues that even though the Constitution may be imperfect, we should keep it. Then a randomly chosen audience member gets to name the winner. (Hey! That’s not very democratic!)
On the night I attended, the audience member went with keeping the Constitution. As I would imagine — or would at least hope — the randomly chosen audience member does, every time this play is performed. I know some of our political leaders are saying insane things these days. But I really don’t think there are many theater-going people in the country who are eager to tear up the Constitution and hope for the best.
If Schreck’s point is to show how valuable the Constitution is by bringing up the possibility of throwing it in the wastepaper basket, and getting audience members to feel how scary that is … okay, I get it, to an extent. But it seems to me like an unnecessarily elaborate way to make an obvious point.
George Street Playhouse will present “What the Constitution Means to Me” through Oct. 13; visit georgestreetplayhouse.org.
CONTRIBUTE TO NJARTS.NET
Since launching in September 2014, NJArts.net, a 501(c)(3) organization, has become one of the most important media outlets for the Garden State arts scene. And it has always offered its content without a subscription fee, or a paywall. Its continued existence depends on support from members of that scene, and the state’s arts lovers. Please consider making a contribution of any amount to NJArts.net via PayPal, or by sending a check made out to NJArts.net to 11 Skytop Terrace, Montclair, NJ 07043.
