Maria Dizzia explores 'What the Constitution Means to Me' in national tour

You could say actress Maria Dizzia is a "strict constructionist."

The text is "the sure thing" for Dizzia, and everything an actor needs to know is there in black and white. That goes for everything from William Shakespeare's plays to the screenplays for TV dramas "Emergence" and "Orange is the New Black," in which she co-starred.

And it goes for Heidi Schreck's "What the Constitution Means to Me," now on a national tour and heading for Chicago.

Dizzia took over the lead from Schreck, who not only wrote "What the Constitution Means to Me," but also originated the central role of Heidi on Broadway.

Inspired by Schreck's experience as a teen competing in constitutional debates to raise money for college, the play examines women's rights and domestic abuse as it shifts back and forth in time between a 15-year-old Heidi and her life as an adult.

During rehearsals for the tour, Dizzia (who plays Heidi but also addresses the audience as herself) had more than the text to guide her. She had the playwright herself.

When Dizzia ran into a roadblock, Schreck was available to help her find a detour.

"She was generous with her history and her experiences," said Dizzia, who saw the show four times during its development and on Broadway.

After seeing the play for the first time at Clubbed Thumb, a New York City company that commissions and develops new works by emerging American writers, Dizzia says she couldn't move from her seat. She was that taken with it.

"I learned so much," she said. "Also, I was struck by Heidi's bravery, how forthcoming she was about situations in her family ... I understood in a very personal way, the legacy she was talking about ... It meant so much to me that she was saying it out loud and opening herself up in that way."

Joining Dizzia in the tour are original Broadway cast members Mike Iverson and Rosdely Ciprian. High school freshman Jocelyn Shek will alternate with Ciprian in the role of the debater.

Like Schreck, Dizzia participated in forensics in middle school and high school. The New Jersey native was also involved in debate and Model United Nations.

"I did not have as illustrious a career as Heidi did," she says, laughing. "I felt my real place was in theater."

Still, she finds it exciting to reconnect with her younger self and rediscover the thrill that comes from delivering a speech that challenges perceptions and long-held beliefs.

Dizzia says she relives that experience vicariously through Ciprian and Shek, who she admits typically best her in the debate over the Constitution that concludes the play.

"They have such command over the audience," said Dizzia, praising the complexity of their arguments. "To me what's most exciting about the debate at the end of the show is asking everyone to think for themselves."

Schreck's play argues that the Constitution, written in 1787, fails to protect women and others because it was written by wealthy, Caucasian men to protect wealthy, Caucasian men.

Performing the role has been an education of sorts for Dizzia, who says she was struck by the notion that "the Constitution doesn't protect me. It protected my father, who was a white man, and he chose to protect me. ... It made me understand the work he did as a father and parent. He understood I, as a woman, was not protected."

"It's shown me I have a lot more work to do as a citizen of the United States," she said.

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"What the Constitution Means to Me"

Where: Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St., Chicago, (800) 775-2000 or broadwayinchicago.com

When: Runs March 4 to April 12. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Also, 2 p.m. March 4, 11 and 25, and April 8, and 7:30 p.m. March 8 and 22, and April 5

Tickets: $30-$85