AT DEZART PERFORMS: WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME
--by June August
If word-of-mouth has reached you about What the Constitution Means to Me, now riveting audiences at Dezart Performs, you have to hurry to get the last remaining tickets. You could not hear the drop of a pin, not a sneeze, not a cough, not a sound during the compulsive power of that performance. Robyn Cohen is so exquisitely cast that I almost can’t imagine anyone else in the role. According to the Desert Sun, Robyn was highly determined to get that role, and deservedly so. Kudos also to Craig Wroe in the dual roles of Legionnaire and Mike, to Tia Laulusa as the Debater, and to director Craig Wells.
I was eager see the play for a personal reason: my own connection to the American Legion Oratorical Competition. I identified with the girl whose life story and experiences provide poignant insight into the U.S. Constitution. At the age of fifteen, I entered the competition and delivered a speech titled “Our Living Constitution.” It was not my idea to enter; it was my mother’s. That’s another thing I have in common with playwright Heidi Schreck. She was also fifteen when her mother urged her to enter the competition. We both made our mothers proud. I have included a photo of my medal. I have treasured it for 70 years.
More about the play. I found it exhilarating, enlightening, exciting, entertaining, exasperating, intense, passionate, consequential, and especially appropriate in view of the current political climate. The play deserves a larger audience than any one theatre can provide. I read online that a film version was streamed by Amazon Prime several years ago. I don’t know whether that version is still available, but I urge those who cannot see it at Dezart to look for it.
The oath of office taken by the President of the United States includes the words “…and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” In the play, Heidi Schreck calls the Constitution a crucible. Both technically and biblically, a crucible is a vessel designed to burn out impurities. That’s what I think of when I hear phrases that demean immigrants, deny women agency to their own bodies, issue threats to anyone not ascribing to one specific set of values. But that is the current political climate.
Why should a theatre reviewer like me share the playwright’s passion? For one thing, what would the Broadway musical as we know it today be without the contribution of immigrants—not only refugees from harsh political regimes in Eastern Europe, Russia, Germany, and Ireland to name a few, but all those victimized by forced immigration in the belly of slave ships?
Schreck reminds us that the framers were wealthy, white, male landowners. In the 18th century, they produced a document that protected and defended themselves. Written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and subsequently amended twenty-seven times, our Constitution is the longest surviving government charter in the world. She also reminds us about the complicated, challenging process required to amend it, particularly in recent years. The Constitution is only a document. The contents need interpretation. As a result, that document will protect and defend us only as interpreted by members of the Supreme Court. There’s the rub.
As the coda to the play, we played an audience-participation game: A debate that asked whether we should abolish or keep our Constitution. I won’t reveal the winner of that debate, but I would ask, “Should we enlarge the Supreme Court to include members with more representative values than today’s nine-member panel”? You decide. That’s why we vote.
Meanwhile, get over to Dezart and see What the Constitution Means to Me.
What the Constitution Means to Me will run for five more performances, on Friday, January 26th, Saturday, January 27th, at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, January 28th. The Saturday performances are the only ones still available. Performances are at the Pearl McManus Theater, in the Palm Springs Woman’s Club, 314 S. Cahuilla Road, Palm Springs, CA 92262. To purchase tickets, call the box office from Tuesdays through Fridays, from 10 a.m. through 2 p.m., at 760-322-0179, ext 1, or buy them online at the Web site, www.DezartPerforms.org. Dezart, as a 501(c)(3) organization, welcomes donations, either through the Web site, or by mailing to Dezart Performs, 611 S Palm Canyon Drive Suite 7538, Palm Springs, CA 92264.
The rest of Dezart Performs’ 2023-24 season consists of:
A Case For the Existence of God (March 1 – 10) by Samuel D. Hunter. An emotional and thought-provoking drama directed by Michael Shaw, this play delves into the fragile worlds of Keith, a mortgage broker, and Ryan, a yogurt plant worker, as they bond over their shared experiences of marginality and the realities of financial insecurity.
Mr. Parker (April 12 – 21), a drama written by Michael McKeever, whose play Daniel’s Husband was the sell-out sensation of Dezart’s 2020 Season. Directed by Randy Brenner, the play finds 54-year old widower Terry Parker adjusting to a newly single life after the loss of his partner of 30 years.
PRODUCTION PHOTOS: David A. Lee
PHOTO OF AWARD MEDAL: June August