Written by Heidi Schreck. Directed by Lynn Goodwin.

Playwright Heidi Schreck’s boundary-breaking play breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how it will shape the next generation of Americans. Fifteen-year-old Heidi earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful, and achingly human new play, she resurrects her teenage self to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives. 

Lead Show Sponsor, Suzanne M. Timble
Actor Sponsors, Bill Wesbrooks & Dal Norris
2024 Season Sponsorsed by Erin & Thomas Bunkley III, Bruce Stuart, and the Esther Carp School of Living Fund.

RUNTIME: 90 Minutes
INTERMISSION: None

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm
Sundays at 2 pm

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES

Thursday, May 9 at 7:30 pm: Pay-What-You-Will Preview
Friday, May 10 at 7:30 pm: Pay-What-You-Will Preview
Saturday, May 11 at 7:30 pm: Opening Night
Sunday, May 19 at 2 pm: Community Talk with Theatre Lovers Club

DEBATER SCHEDULE

Thursday, May 9, 7:30 pm: Ariana Roybal
Friday, May 10, 7:30 pm: Shaunti
Saturday, May 11, 7:30 pm: Ariana Roybal
Sunday, May 12, 2 pm: Shaunti
Thursday, March 16, 7:30 pm: Shaunti
Friday, March 17, 7:30 pm: Ariana Roybal
Saturday, May 18, 7:30 pm: Shaunti
Sunday, May 19, 2 pm: Ariana Roybal
Thursday, May 23, 7:30 pm: Shaunti
Friday, May 24, 7:30 pm: Ariana Roybal
Saturday, May 25, 7:30 pm: Shaunti
Sunday, May 26, 2 pm: Ariana Roybal
Thursday, May 30, 7:30 pm: Ariana Roybal
Friday, May 31, 7:30 pm: Shaunti
Saturday, June 1, 7:30 pm: Ariana Roybal
Sunday, June 2, 2 pm: Shaunti

CONTENT DISCLOSURE

Mention of domestic violence
Mention of sexual assault
Mention of human trafficking
Discussions of abortion and its stigmatization
Suitable for ages 13+

RESOURCES

League of Women Voters of Santa Fe County
Office of the Santa Fe County Clerk: Division of Elections & Voting
Planned Parenthood Health Centers in New Mexico
New Mexico Health
Arise Sexual Assault Services
Crisis Center of Northern NM
Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women
Domestic Violence Resource Center
Esperanza Shelter
New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs
New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence
New Mexico Legal Aid Domestic Violence Helpline: (877) 974-3400
El Refugio, Inc
SANE – Southern New Mexico Wellness Alliance (Otero/Lincoln County)
Silver Regional Sexual Assault Support Services
Solace Sexual Assault Services
StrongHearts Native Helpline
Valencia Shelter Services

SUGGESTED READING

The following is a list of research materials that were used in the creation of this play:

–About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy in Twenty-First Century America, by Carol Sanger (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2017)

–African Americans and the Living Constitution, edited by John Hope Franklin and Genna Rae McNeil (Smithsonian, 1955)

–All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation, by Rebecca Traister (Simon & Schuster, 2016)

–Black Resistance.White Law: A History of Constitutional Racism in America, by Mary Frances Berry (Penguin, 1971, 1994)

–The Conduct of Life, by Maria Irene Fornes (Plays: Maria Irene Fornes, PAJ Publications, 2001)

-The Constitution of Czech Republic (1992)

-The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996)

–Equal Means Equal: Why the Time for an Equal Rights Amendment is Now, by Jessica Neuwirth (The New Press, 2015)

–Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws That Affect Us Today, by Cynthia Levinson and Sandford Levinson (Peachtree Publishing Company, 2017)

–The Invisible Constitution by Laurence H. Tribe (Oxford University Press, 2008)

–Men Explain Things to Me, by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket Books, 2014)

–My Own Words, by Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams (Simon & Schuster, 2016)

–Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik (HarperCollins Publishers, 2015)

–The Race of the Ark Tattoo, by W. David Hancock (a play, 1998)

–Retained by the People: The “Silent” Ninth Amendment and the Constitutional Rights Americans Don’t Know They Have, by Daniel A. Farber (Basic Books, 2007)

–Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage, by Pauli Murray (Liverlight Publishing Corporation of W.W. Norton & Company, 1987, 2018)

–Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, by Judith Herman, M.D. (Basic Books, 1992, 2015)

–2.5 Minute Ride, by Lisa Kron (Theatre Communications Group, 2000)

-The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948)

–The Warren Court and American Politics, by Lucas A. Powe, Jr. (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002)

–Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas (America’s Most Controversial Supreme Court Justice), by Bruce Allen Murphy (Random House, 2003)

–Women in Pacific Northwest History, edited by Karen J. Blair (University of Washington Press, 2011)

ARTICLES

-“The Death of the Fourteenth Amendment: Castle Rock and Its Progeny,” by G. Kristian Miccio (William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice; Volume 17 [2010-2011], Issue 2, Article 2, William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law; February 2011)

-“To Have and Hold: Reproduction, Marriage, and the Constitution,” by Jill Lepore (New Yorker, May 18, 2015 and May 25, 2015 Dept. of Justice Issue)

-“U.S. in Top 10 Most Dangerous Countries for Women, Report Finds,” by David Brennan (Newsweek, June 26, 2018)

SPEECHES

–“The Bicentennial Speech,” by Justice Thurgood Marshall (delivered ion Maui, Hawaii, on May 6, 1987, as part of the constitutional bicentennial celebration at The Annual Seminar of the San Francisco Patent and Trademark Law Association).

OTHER

“Much of the research for the writing of this play was done with the help of oyez.org, a free law project supported through Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, justia.com, and Chicago-Kent College of Law. Oyez is a terrific website that makes recordings of Supreme Court cases accessible to the public for free.”