Complete New Season information coming soon!
Westport Community Theatre announces auditions for its September 2026 production of What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck, directed by Richard Mancini. Auditions will be held at Westport Community Theatre on Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29 at 7:30 pm. The play opens the 2026 – 2027 season and runs September 11 – 27, 2026.
Winner of the 2019 Obie Award for Best New American Play and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play, and a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, playwright and actress Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me breathes new life into the U.S. Constitution and imagines how it could shape the next generation of Americans. In the 1980s, fifteen-year-old Heidi Schreck earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful, and achingly human show, middle-aged Heidi resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives.
Within the setting of a rural American Legion hall, the character of Heidi (portrayed in the original production by the playwright herself) addresses themes including the Constitution, women’s rights, immigration and domestic abuse as they relate to the women in her family (including her great-great-grandmother, who came to the U.S. from Germany as a mail-order bride), to herself, and to others related to significant legal cases in American history. Discourse about the 9th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution – including citizenship rights and what it means to be “American” – is central to the show.
Auditioners will read from the script; roles are available for three actors (2 female, 1 male), as follows:
Heidi: (mid-40s-50s) Throughout the play (which is not-quite a “one-woman show,” but almost), Heidi addresses the audience directly, communicating her story as both herself in the present, and narrating her performance of her 15-year-old self as a Constitutional debater in the 1980s. About halfway through Part One: “The Contest,” she dispenses with her teenage persona entirely and continues as her present-day self – strong, funny, and with a poignant personal story to tell involving four generations of women in her family – for the rest of the act. At the start of Part Two: “The Debate,” the actress portraying Heidi introduces herself as herself, then introduces the Debater (an actual teenage debater), with whom she will debate the topic, “Should We Abolish The United States Constitution?”
Legionnaire / Mike: (Male, 40s+) This important character begins the play representing a World War II veteran member of the American Legion who moderates the contest that 15-year-old Heidi participates in. He then eventually morphs into MIKE, a gay, middle-aged actor (and a representation of “positive male energy”) who shares his own story while assisting HEIDI in telling hers in Part One, and moderates the debate in Part Two.
Debater: (teens) – The DEBATER, who appears only in Part Two, should be a teenage girl of any ethnicity; debate or public speaking preferred. Smart, feisty and engaging, she will participate in a lively debate with “HEIDI” (part scripted, part spontaneous, and moderated by MIKE) on the topic of “Should We Abolish The United States Constitution?” – often interacting directly with the audience, and debating “for” or “against” on alternating performances.
PERFORMANCE DATES:
September 11 – 27, 2026
10 Performance Dates:
Fridays, Saturdays @ 7:30 pm
Thursday, September 17 @ 7:30 pm
Sundays @ 2:00 pm
For more information, please contact info@westportcommunitytheatre.com
or director Richard Mancini orsonround@gmail.com