September 29, 2026
The Constitution gets personal in SVSU production
Saginaw Valley State University’s first production of the 2026-27 academic year is a thought-provoking play that breathes new life into the United States Constitution and imagines how it will shape future generations of Americans.
“What the Constitution Means to Me” by Heidi Schreck will run from Wednesday, Sept. 30, through Sunday, Oct. 4, in SVSU’s Malcolm Field Theatre for the Performing Arts.
An American Legion hall may be an unlikely place to find a 15-year-old girl, yet in 1989, high school student Heidi Schreck made the rounds of Legion posts around the country, participating in Constitutional debates to win prize money for college. Nearly 30 years later, playwright Schreck produced “What the Constitution Means to Me,” exploring themes like domestic abuse, women’s rights, immigration and the history of the United States.
SVSU associate professor of theatre Tommy Wedge directs the play. He explained that he and several students saw the production at the American College Theatre Festival in 2025.
“Our students were so keyed in,” Wedge said. “They were buzzing about it all during the festival.” Wedge recognized that this was a play that would engage college students and also attract younger students into a theater and get them talking.
“This idea of making politics and history present, I think, is really powerful,” Wedge said.
Set in an American Legion Hall, the play features just three characters: Heidi, played by Ella Koenigknecht, an English education major from St. Johns; the Legionnaire, played by Jaiden Gardner, a theatre major from North Branch; and the Debater, played by Lexy Andres, an environmental science major from New Lothrop.
The first half of the play is an intimate portrait of Heidi Schreck’s life, Wedge explained. “She talks about how she paid for her college tuition by going to American Legions and talking about what the Constitution meant to her. And she won all these competitions.”
The second half of the play introduces a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate, with one of the actors proposing to abolish the Constitution and the other proposing to amend the Constitution, then someone in the audience votes to determine the outcome.
The play is fitting for this election year, and the theatre department is collaborating with Cardinals Vote, an SVSU nonpartisan initiative focused on connecting SVSU students with opportunities to engage in the democratic system through voter registration, candidate and ballot information and turning out to the polls to ensure student voices are heard in the electoral process. Cardinals Vote is collaborating on the lobby display and will have a table outside the theater.
Wedge said the department is also collaborating with St. Clair County Community College and will stage the production at the college in Port Huron following the run at SVSU.
“What the Constitution Means to Me” runs Wednesday, Sept. 30-Saturday, Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 4, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 (plus fees); there is no charge for SVSU students. Tickets can be purchased online or at the box office beginning one hour before showtime.