Film News

Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me Coming to Amazon Prime

The stage play was filmed by director Marielle Heller.

Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me, now running at Broadway's Hayes Theater, has recouped its investment.
Heidi Schreck in her play What the Constitution Means to Me.
(© Joan Marcus)

Heidi Schreck's Tony-nominated What the Constitution Means to Me will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on October 16. The stage production was filmed live at the Helen Hayes Theater during the final week of its Broadway run, captured by director Mirelle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood).

The executive producers of What the Constitution Means to Me are Heidi Schreck, Marielle Heller, Robin Schwartz, Kyle Laursen, Peter Saraf, Marc Turtletaub. The special was directed by Marielle Heller and produced by Big Beach and Defiant By Nature, Heller's newly launched production company. The producers of the Broadway production – Diana DiMenna, Aaron Glick, and Matt Ross – also serve as producers of the filmed version.

Amazon Studios has also signed a new overall deal with Schreck to create content that will premiere exclusively on Prime Video. In a statement, Schreck said that she will donate part of her proceeds from the filming to the Broadway Cares COVID Relief Fund and to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's Voting Rights 2020 initiative.

What the Constitution Means to Me is described as follows: "Fifteen-year-old Heidi Schreck earned her college tuition money by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In her boundary-breaking new play, the Obie Award winner resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women in her own family and the founding document that dictated their rights and citizenship."

Directed by Oliver Butler, the cast of What the Constitution Means to Me includes Schreck, Mike Iveson (Gatz), and New York City high school students Rosdely Ciprian and Thursday Williams, all in their Broadway debuts. Ben Beckley understudied Iveson.

What the Constitution Means to Me was commissioned by True Love Productions and had its off-Broadway premiere via Clubbed Thumb in 2017. It ran at New York City at New York Theatre Workshop in fall 2018. The production extended twice before NYTW transferred the production to the Greenwich House Theater. The play went on to become a 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, and the Broadway mounting earned two Tony Award nominations, including Best Play and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play (Schreck).