CULVER CITY, CALIF.: Amazon Studios has announced that What the Constitution Means to Me, created by and starring Heidi Schreck, will premiere Oct. 16 on Amazon Prime Video. The play was captured during its final week on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theater by director Marielle Heller.
“I’m delighted with how beautifully Mari Heller has translated Constitution to the screen, and I’m thankful to Big Beach and Amazon Studios for making it possible to share the show with more people—especially right now, when we can’t gather together in theatres,” said Schreck in a statement. “In light of the moment we are living through, I am donating part of my proceeds from this film to the Broadway Cares COVID Relief Fund and to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Voting Rights 2020 initiative.”
Schreck earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the country as a 15-year-old. In the show, Schreck resurrects her teenage self to trace the relationship with the founding document, and the four generations of women it shaped in her family. What the Constitution Means to Me was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist and won the Obie Award and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play. Schreck’s play also received two Tony nominations, for Best Play and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, and received the 2019 Benjamin Hadley Danks Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters. Directed for the stage by Obie winner Oliver Butler, What the Constitution Means to Me also features Mike Iveson, Rosdely Ciprian, and Thursday Williams. It’s also a forthcoming book from TCG Books, which you can preorder here.
The executive producers of What the Constitution Means to Me are Schreck, Heller, Robin Schwartz, Kyle Laursen, Peter Saraf, aand Marc Turtletaub. The special was 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.