MICHEL MARTIN: You may have to wait until next year to catch a live show on Broadway, but guess what? Right now you can stream a Broadway show online. And one of the latest releases is Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me, which is now on Amazon Prime. And if you're not familiar with it, it is Schreck's award-winning one woman play about her relationship with the document that created the framework for American democracy. HEIDI SCHRECK: When I was 15 years old, I would travel the country giving speeches about the United States Constitution for prize money. This was a scheme invented by my mom, a debate coach, to help me pay for college. I would travel to big cities like Denver, Fresno. I would win a whole bunch of money, bring it back to put in my little safety deposit box for later. I was actually able to pay for my entire college education this way.

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Thank you. Thank you so much. It was 30 years ago, and it was a state school. But thank you.

MARTIN: And Heidi Schreck is with us now to tell us more. Welcome, thank you so much for joining us.

SCHRECK: Thanks for having me.

MARTIN: Well first of all, congratulations on everything, on the play. The story is true by the way, right? Just so that people know that this is not a fictionalized account. The fact is you did travel around the country. This is what you did. This is how you paid for college.

SCHRECK: I did. I had a very ferocious mother who said, you will do this contest, and you will pay for college this way. And that's what I did. I'm very grateful to her.

MARTIN: Well one of the reasons we called you-- besides the fact that we want to let people know that even though you can't go to Broadway in person, you can see plays online, which is something that might have been hard to do before the pandemic. This is a moment when a lot of Americans are maybe especially aware of the Constitution. Given the Supreme Court's key role right now, given how much focus there is on the court with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the battle over her replacement. Actually, the focus on the court has really been going on for the last couple of years now. And I just wondered, how does it feel to have your work suddenly out there in this new format?

SCHRECK: I'm happy that it's out there right now. I spent over a decade working on the show. I started it at a very different time. And I've been listening to Supreme Court cases over and over again for years now while creating the show. And I ask a lot of complicated questions and deep questions about this document and whether it's still serving us and what our relationship is to it.

I look at it through a very personal lens. I look at four generations of women in my family through the lens of the Constitution. And I think the play asks a lot of questions that people are discussing right now. So I guess I would hope that given that we're all talking about the Constitution right now, I think the play might offer some ideas and some things to think about in lieu of these hearings right now.

MARTIN: Well that's one of the things that's so fascinating about it because on its face, it's kind of a tough sell. I'm just trying to think, how would I write the ad for this?

SCHRECK: Totally.

MARTIN: But people are people. Well obviously, before Broadway shut down and the fact that people-- that there was a willingness to put it on Amazon Prime shows you that people are really hungry for this. And they are interested in figuring out what is their connection to this document.

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1. What issues does the play raise, according to the story?

2. Why does the playwright feel hopeful about what is happening in America?

3. what debate takes place at the end of her pay, and why did the playwright decide to end that way?

I need help plz!!!