‘What the Constitution Means to Me’ starts new season for Guild Hall Players

“What the Constitution Means to Me” was the most-produced play nationwide during the 2023-24 theater season, and there are more productions of it scheduled this year than last.

Guild Hall Players will stage the autobiographical comedy-drama next weekend as the opener in its 2024-25 season, and artistic director Phil Speary said it was a logical selection.

“We try to do plays that have some serious substance,” said Speary, who is also directing. “It’s really important issues and it’s a recent American play. It’s very funny, but also thought-provoking.”

“Constitution” is based on playwright Heidi Schreck’s mini-career of winning oratorical contests nationwide as a 15-year-old, then revisiting the themes again at age 45.

“She reflects on what she’s learned and how her opinions and her understanding of things like the Constitution have changed over the years,” Speary said.

The 2017 play was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in drama and received two Tony Award nominations.

Speary chose Miranda Windholz, whose Wichita theater credits include “Three Sisters” for Guild Hall, “Glass Menagerie” for Kechi Playhouse and “Titus Andronicus” and “Barefoot in the Park” for Wichita Community Theatre, to play Schreck.

Windholz was already familiar with the production from its filmed version, made for Amazon Prime in 2020, which is shown regularly by a theater instructor at Butler Community College, where she works.

“It was definitely on my radar, but I never thought I’d get to play Heidi,” she said. “That was a surprise to me to be asked to do it.”

Windholz said she likes the character/playwright, who speaks to the audience throughout the show.

“She’s very smart, she’s very capable, confident with what she is saying,” Windholz said. “But there’s also a really strong sense of humor that runs through her, so even when we’re talking about these very serious things there’s always an undercurrent of humor, which I appreciate. In the end, she always tries and never becomes cynical.”

When audiences leave the theater, at St. James Episcopal Church, Windholz said she wants them to consider their own beliefs.

“It’s a show that makes audiences think,” she said. “I don’t think the purpose is to sway anyone to think anything different about an issue or about politics. I just want people to leave the show and think about what they saw and maybe make connections in their own life – why do I believe this way about this issue? Is there anything in my past or in my family history that pulled me that way?

“Getting that understanding of other people and their opinions, especially about politics, from their own personal experience,” she said. “Having understanding builds empathy, even if we never agree with each other.”

There are two other characters in “Constitution,” one an American Legionnaire who helps the 15-year-old with her speech, and the other a present-day teenager debating the adult Schreck.

“It doesn’t tell you what you’re supposed to think,” Speary said. “It tells you to think about what you believe and what you feel and what you know about our shared history.”

‘WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME’ BY GUILD HALL PLAYERS

When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Sept. 26-28; 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29

Where: St. James Episcopal Church, 3750 E. Douglas

Tickets: $12 adults, $10 students, from 316-683-5686