Kari Goetz plays it patriotic in Stageworks Theatre’s ‘Constitution’

Kari Goetz was Stageworks Theatre’s one and only choice for the lead role in What the Constitution Means to Me, the story of playwright Heidi Schreck’s love/hate relationship with the United States’ foundational document.

It’s almost a one-person show, as “Heidi” breaks the fourth wall, addressing the audience, and re-lives the first big moment in her life: At age 15, she competed in a series of American Legion-sponsored essay contests, winning enough money to pay for her college education. It’s a true story.

Goetz, the Tampa actress who has appeared in numerous Stageworks shows, including three iterations of the puppy-love comedy Sylvia, was a teenager when she competed in the YMCA Youth in Government program in her native Fort Myers. She spoke and debated at the local, state and national level. Her 1993 Best Statesman award (“one of my most prized possessions”) is on display in the Stageworks lobby.

What the Constitution Means to Me made its off Broadway debut in 2018, with Schrek playing herself. The 2019 Broadway edition was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and received a Tony nomination for Best Play.

“While Heidi and I have had different specific lived experiences,” Goetz explains, “the foundations of what ignited our love of the Constitution, our fascination with the document and our commitment to the democratic process is interestingly very similar.”

Much more than a rah-rah wave of the flag, What the Constitution Means to Me (directed by Gigi Jennewein) creatively veers aways from 15-year-old, Dirty Dancing-obsessed Heidi’s prettied-up-patriotism to present-day Heidi’s deeper understanding of the document, warts and all.

“I think it is always a patriotic show,” Goetz observes. “Because even when we question the weaknesses, and when we question the misgivings, and when we question government, we are being patriotic. The Constitution allows us the space to question our government.”

Specifically, when young Heidi is asked by the onstage legionnaire (Matt DePasquale) to “personalize” several amendments, the older, wiser Heidi tells … stories. Amendments 9 and 14, specifically, ensure individual freedoms.

They don’t, she points out, address women, who have been victimized and abused throughout American history – even up to the present day, depending on lower and Supreme Court interpretation.

Heidi’s great-great-grandmother was “purchased” from Germany out of a catalog in the 19^th century; she died in a mental hospital at age 36.

Her grandmother and her mother were victims of severe abuse, and Schrek herself suffered “date rape”
as a college student.

She argues that the Constitution is heavily weighed towards protecting the rights of white men, and that others – particularly women – are unfairly given short shrift.

She cites Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales, a 2005 case in which local police failed to enforce a restraining order, despite frequent warnings, resulting in a father murdering his three young daughters.

Says Goetz: “I knew all of those stories. There’s nothing in What the Constitution Means to Me that was new information for me. I had a feminist for a mom, and I remember when Sandra Day O’Connor got placed on the Supreme Court bench; it was a big deal in my house.

“What was so fascinating for me was how Heidi so seamlessly tells those stories in both entertaining and anecdotal ways, but then also brings them home with such powerful personal stories.”

DePasquale’s character sheds his legionnaire hat and blazer and discusses life as a gay man in the United States. And the second act becomes audience-interactive, as adult Heidi debates the Constitution with an actual high school student (Raleigh Lockett).

In this multi-faceted show, Kari Goetz is in her element. “This is the stuff that I am super, super passionate about,” she says. “I am the only non-lawyer in my family. I am married to a lawyer. My father-in-law was a lawyer. So we are lousy with lawyers in my family.

“And I follow the Supreme Court the way some people follow baseball.”

What the Constitution Means to Me runs through Oct. 13 at Stageworks Theatre, 1120 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa. Info and tickets are here.