The Nature and Value of the U.S. Constitution

The play’s overall focus and purpose are defined by its considerations of the nature and value of the U.S. Constitution. Full consideration of the history of the document and of its complex relationship with American society is beyond the scope of this analysis, but it is perhaps enough to note some of the circumstances and perspectives within which it was created, circumstances discussed by playwright and performer Heidi Schreck. Specifically, the Constitution was written by relatively wealthy, relatively educated older white men at a time when slavery was a norm, women had no right to vote or to own property, and the land upon which the United States was built was being systematically taken from its Indigenous inhabitants. All these components of the Constitution’s origins, and therefore of its nature, are, along with many others...