What the Constitution Means to Me

A collaboration between the UCI Drama Department, Tia La'ulusa, a second-year law student at UCI, and her wonderful colleagues Robyn Cohen and Timothy Thomas Brown has culminated in a production of Heidi Schreck's timely and acclaimed play, What the Constitution Means to Me, to be performed on October 3rd at 7 p.m. at the Little Theatre on campus. The Dean of the School of Law, Dean Parrish, will be joining us for a post-show discussion. This will be a performance for students and faculty from the UCI School of Law and the UCI School of the Arts, as well as guests they would like to bring. You are warmly welcome, as is anyone you would like to invite!

You can RSVP here. Please RSVP if you plan to attend, as we do not want to exceed the theatre's capacity. The play runs approximately 100 minutes with no intermission.

Background on the Play

What the Constitution Means to Me was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2019. It is autobiographical and moves between Schreck's 46-year-old self and her 15-year-old self, who competed for college prize money by giving speeches about the Constitution. Oscillating between Schreck's adult and teenage experiences, the play explores how the Constitution has affected her family in past generations while asking broader questions about whom it protects and how we might better protect vulnerable people.

Schreck asks casts performing this play to keep it updated with current issues and statistics, which we have done. The play ends with a live debate about whether our Constitution should be abolished and replaced, with an audience member acting as judge; during its Broadway run, the results were split roughly 50/50.

The play contains some profanity and adult themes, including discussion of domestic violence and sexual assault. We would consider its content PG-13.

From Tia: Background on Our Production and How It Came to UCI

Before attending UCI Law, I was a professional stage actor for a little over a decade and, in 2024, I was in a production run of What the Constitution Means to Me in Palm Springs. During that run, another cast member, Robyn Cohen, and I decided that the play's value was too high to be limited to people who can afford a theatre ticket. We have since been performing this play in other venues at no cost, and were eventually joined by Timothy Thomas Brown. Schreck has generously continued to waive performance-rights fees because these performances are educational or nonprofit, which has allowed us to share this play with audiences who might not otherwise have access to it. Those settings also make it possible for our cast of union stage actors to donate our performances without the usual contractual requirements. In February, Robyn and I began scheming about how to bring this show to UCI and, after a great deal of help from UCI Law Student Affairs, UCI Drama Department and many others, we have found a way to bring this striking, poignant, and hopeful show to you.

We hope to see and hear you there!