Always…Patsy POSTPONED

Dear MTC Patrons,

A GIFT TO THE COMMUNITY. 

The Mendocino Theatre Company is excited to announce that it will present the award-winning play WHAT the CONSTITUTION MEANS to ME this summer!  Preview performances will be June 26 and 27. CONSTITUTION opens Saturday, June 28 and will run until Sunday, August 3.

In this moment—when our nation faces deep divisions, when the very fabric of our democracy feels frayed and uncertain—What the Constitution Means to Me is not just a play. It is a call to action.

Heidi Schreck’s remarkable work offers more than personal memoir or civics lesson; it holds up a mirror to our American ideals and the systems meant to uphold them. Through humor, heartbreak, and unflinching honesty, the play asks us: What did the Constitution promise us? What did it forget? And who was left out?

This production is rooted in a simple but urgent truth: civic involvement is not optional. In times of national upheaval and strife, understanding the foundations of our government—the document that governs our laws, our freedoms, our futures—is more than academic. It is survival. It is resistance. It is hope.

Schreck confronts the contradictions and compromises embedded in the Constitution, particularly as they affect women, marginalized communities, and generations yet to come. By reliving her teenage self’s debate speeches and reflecting through the lens of lived experience, she guides us through complex truths about our legal system, our personal histories, and our collective responsibilities.

As a director, my goal is to honor the play’s emotional intimacy and intellectual rigor while reminding our audience that this conversation is far from over. The Constitution is a living document—but only if we choose to live with it, challenge it, and rewrite it when necessary.

The final moments of the play—when the audience is invited to engage, to vote, to imagine something new—are not symbolic. They are real. The future of our democracy depends not on a few, but on all of us.

May this production stir something in you: a question, a reckoning, a resolve. Because what the Constitution means to you—to us—is not fixed. It’s still being written.”

The play stars Beth Richmond who returns to the stage after a twelve year hiatus. Beth read the script while she was abroad in Europe. This is the text message accepting the role, that was sent to the director after her reading. “Ok, Beth. I’m crying on a park bench in Athens, the birthplace of democracy as I finish reading this extraordinary play. So…..no fair!!! I am in daily despair as I read the news, seeing people I love drawn more and more dangerously into the crosshairs of this terrifying administration…I have been actively wrestling with the question of what I can do that will make a difference,  something substantive that is more than just virtue signaling from my place of privilege. There is no way that I can say not to this opportunity. So I am saying yes.”