“The Constitution was built to protect that small group of rich white men, and I believe that’s what it continues to protect, ultimately. I’ve run into this idea that the document is somehow neutral. It’s such bullshit.”WSWD: There’s an idealism in the play that’s really touching. Idealism, but also a kind of honest anger. Schreck: I grew up worshiping this document, as a very innocent 15-year-old. I was nerdy and loved politics and loved reading about government and had utter faith in this document. And while creating this piece over the past decade, I started to wonder what it means to rely on a document that enshrined slavery from the beginning, that left out women. What does it mean to build a nation on that, and what are the real and psychological scars that are left from that? WSWD: It makes me think of so-called “originalists,” like the late Justice Antonin Scalia. As a white male conservative, he kind of shared your youthful wonder about the Constitution being a magic document. A magic document that privileges a minority. Schreck: Yes. The document was built to protect that small group of rich white men, and I believe that’s what it continues to protect, ultimately. I’ve run into this idea that the document is somehow neutral. It’s such bullshit. In fact, to be neutral at this moment is actually to be a force of oppression. You can’t remain neutral without upholding the status quo, which is oppressive, which is violent, which is racist. WSWD: Between this play and 2014’s Grand Concourse, I sense a theme of public service or civic-mindedness. Where does that come from? Schreck: Definitely from my parents. My dad was a history teacher, my mom was a debate coach. They urged me—I’m not gonna say forced—urged me to do this contest, so I spent my four years of high school studying the Constitution and giving speeches about it. And they were also social justice activists, so I grew up working in soup kitchens, working with young people. I was just at my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in Wenatchee, Washington. I hosted, and it was packed with people from the community whom they had worked with and kids they had coached. Their values are that it’s your obligation to give back as much as you can to your community. That’s why I love being a part of the theater community so much.
“It’s hard to make a document work for people who were left out of it at the very beginning.”WSWD: Like many playwrights, you’re also gigging in TV: Billions, I Love Dick. Is there a change of headspace writing for a series versus theater? Schreck: One thing that has sort of changed in my playwriting is, I feel very excited now when I’m writing a play, to do things onstage that one can only do in the theater. That’s part of the impulse behind why sections of What the Constitution Means to Me are extemporaneous. The play is very much about the audience’s connection with all of us as performers, and it has a very live, sometimes chaotic feeling to it. I think that’s in part because I’m just so happy to be back onstage. I really missed it.