What the Constitution Means to Me

Content Warning: This guide includes discussions about domestic violence, violence/rape against women, incestuous rape, child abuse, human trafficking, and abortion.

Heidi Schreck, dressed in a blazer, tells the audience that she paid for college by winning American Legion speech and debate competitions at age 15, urged by her mother, a debate coach. In these contests, she argued about the US Constitution, which she loved fervently. Now, in her mid-forties, her award-winning speech lost to time, she wants to understand why she loved it so much. The set is an exaggerated recreation of an American Legion Hall from Heidi’s memory. Debaters were expected to connect personally with the Constitution, which made Heidi uncomfortable, unlike her frequent nemesis, Becky Lee Dobbler, who likened the Constitution to a patchwork quilt. As her teenaged self, she remembers the Legionnaires as old white men smoking cigars. One Legionnaire enters to moderate the competition, asking audiences to avoid applauding, because that can influence the judges. Heidi compares the Constitution to a crucible, or a witch’s cauldron, which is “warm-blooded, steamy” (16), and alive. The founders performed a spell and created a living document that would grow and adapt as society changed.