Heidi Schreck

Last updated

Heidi Schreck
Heidi Schreck in What the Constitution Means to Me-1.jpg
Born (1971-09-26) September 26, 1971 (age 52)
OccupationPlaywright, screenwriter, actress
Education University of Oregon (BA)
Notable works What the Constitution Means to Me (2017)
Notable awards Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress (2008)
SpouseKip Fagan

Heidi Schreck (born September 26, 1971) [1] is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actress from Wenatchee, Washington. [2] Her play What the Constitution Means to Me , which she also performs in, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Awards for 2019 Best Play and Best Actress in a Play. [3]

Contents

Career

Schreck attended the University of Oregon and upon graduation worked in Siberia, teaching English. She then was a journalist in St. Petersburg, Russia. She next moved to Seattle, Washington where she started working as an actress and writer. [4]

Schreck's first play, titled Creature, debuted in New York and was directed by Leigh Silverman and produced by New Georges and Page 73. [5] Her following plays include There Are No More Big Secrets (directed by Kip Fagan at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), The Consultant (produced by The Long Wharf), and Grand Concourse (at Playwrights Horizons). [5] Schreck has also written episodes of the TV series I Love Dick , Nurse Jackie , and Billions . [6]

She is the writer and star of What the Constitution Means to Me , which opened on Broadway on March 31, 2019. [7] This play is partially autobiographical, relating her real-life experience in participating in debates as a teen. [4] The play was picked up as a movie directed by Marielle Heller for streaming by Amazon and released in time for the 2020 Presidential elections. [8] The play challenges America's understanding of values and protections as they are outlined in the U.S. Constitution. In particular, Shcreck points out how the document does little to ensure the freedoms and wellbeing of women and minority groups.

Schreck has performed Off-Broadway in, among others, Drum of the Waves of Horikawa (HERE Arts Center, 2007) [9] [10] and Circle Mirror Transformation (2009) and How the World Began (Women's Project, 2011) [11] at Playwrights Horizons. [12]

Schreck is married to director Kip Fagan. As of 2019, they live in Park Slope, Brooklyn. [1] They have two children.

Honors and awards

She won the 2008 Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for Drum of the Waves of Horikawa. [13] She won the 2010 Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for Circle Mirror Transformation. [14] Schreck and the cast of Circle Mirror Transformation received a 2010 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble Performance. [15]

Her play Grand Concourse, performed in 2014–2015 at Playwrights Horizons [16] and Steppenwolf Theatres, received the Lilly Awards, the Stacey Mindich "Go Write A Play" Award for best new play in 2015, [17] and was a finalist for the 2014–2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. [6] Schreck was a Playwrights Horizons Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence in 2014. [5] Grand Concourse received an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays award. [18]

She received a commission from the Atlantic Theatre Company in conjunction with the Kenyon Institute at Kenyon College in June 2016. She appeared at the Kenyon Playwrights Conference and taught a master class. [19]

Schreck was a finalist for the 2018–2019 Susan Smith Blackburn prize for her play What the Constitution Means to Me. [6] What the Constitution Means to Me was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. [20] The play was nominated for the 2019 Tony Award for Best Play and Schreck was nominated for the 2019 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. [21]

Schreck is the co-winner, with Amy Herzog, of the 2019 Horton Foote Playwriting Award, which includes a $12,500 monetary award. [22]

She is the recipient of the 2018 Hull-Warriner Award, presented by the Dramatists Guild of America Council for What the Constitution Means to Me. The award is presented to an American author honoring a work "dealing with social, political or religious mores of the time". [23]

In 2019, Schreck won the Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity award. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Vogel</span> American playwright

Paula Vogel is an American playwright who received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play How I Learned to Drive. A longtime teacher, Vogel spent the bulk of her academic career – from 1984 to 2008 – at Brown University, where she served as Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor in Creative Writing, oversaw its playwriting program, and helped found the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium. From 2008 to 2012, Vogel was Eugene O'Neill Professor of Playwriting and department chair at the Yale School of Drama, as well as playwright in residence at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanine Tesori</span> American composer and musical arranger (born 1961)

Jeanine Tesori, known earlier in her career as Jeanine Levenson, is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater. She is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway musicals and six Tony Award nominations. She won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for Caroline, or Change, the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Fun Home, making them the first female writing team to win that award, and the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Kimberly Akimbo. She was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.

Lisa D'Amour is a playwright, performer, and former Carnival Queen from New Orleans. D'Amour is an alumna of New Dramatists. Her play Detroit was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Dael Orlandersmith is an American actress, poet and playwright. She is known for her Obie Award-winning Beauty's Daughter and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, Yellowman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Nottage</span> American playwright (born 1964)

Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are Black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her play Ruined, and in 2017 for her play Sweat. She was the first woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathleen Chalfant</span> American actress

Kathleen Ann Chalfant is an American actress. She has appeared in many stage plays, both on Broadway and Off-Broadway, as well as making guest appearances on television series, including the Law & Order franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Baker</span> American playwright and teacher

Annie Baker is an American playwright and teacher who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Flick. Among her works are the Shirley, Vermont plays, which take place in the fictional town of Shirley: Circle Mirror Transformation, Nocturama, Body Awareness, and The Aliens. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2017.

Clubbed Thumb is a downtown theater company in New York City that commissions, develops, and produces "funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers." Since its founding in 1996, the company has earned five OBIES and presented plays in every form of development, including over 100 full productions. The company is well known for its annual Summerworks festival each May/June. Throughout its history, the company has produced work by Gregory Moss, Madeleine George, Kristin Newbom, Wallace Shawn, Mac Wellman, Charles Mee, Sarah Ruhl, Adam Bock, Gina Gionfriddo, Rinne Groff, Sheila Callaghan, Lisa D'Amour, Anne Washburn, Sigrid Gilmer, Erin Courtney, Karl Gajdusek, Clare Barron, Jaclyn Backhaus, Tanya Saracho, Will Arbery, Heidi Schreck and others. In many cases these productions were the writers first professional and/or first New York production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. David Hancock</span> American playwright

W. David Hancock is an American playwright, best known for his plays The Race of the Ark Tattoo and The Convention of Cartography. He is a two-time Obie winner for his works with the Foundry Theatre. His experimental, nonlinear work is known for blurring boundaries between artifice and reality, often through unconventional theatrical spaces and an object-centric dramaturgy. As the critic Elinor Fuchs writes, in Hancock’s work, “…we encounter mystery and authenticity at another level entirely.”

The Waverly Gallery is a play by Kenneth Lonergan. It is considered a "memory play". The show, first produced Off-Broadway in 2000, follows a grandson watching his grandmother slowly die from Alzheimer's disease. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001.

Stephen Karam is an American playwright, screenwriter and director. His plays Sons of the Prophet, a comedy-drama about a Lebanese-American family, and The Humans were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2012 and 2016, respectively. The Humans won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, and Karam wrote and directed a film adaptation of the play, released in 2021.

Amy Herzog is an American playwright. Her play 4000 Miles, which ran Off-Broadway in 2011, was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her play Mary Jane, which ran Off-Broadway in 2017, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. Herzog's plays have been produced Off-Broadway, and have received nominations for, among others: the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Actor and Actress ; the Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play ; and Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play (Belleville). She was a finalist for the 2012–2013 and 2016–2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She was also nominated for a 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for her adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House.

<i>Circle Mirror Transformation</i> Play by Annie Baker

Circle Mirror Transformation is a play by Annie Baker, centered on drama classes at a community center in Vermont. The play opened Off-Broadway in 2009 and received the Obie Award for Best New American Play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucas Hnath</span> American playwright

Lucas Hnath is an American playwright. He won the 2016 Obie Award for excellence in playwriting for his plays Red Speedo and The Christians. He also won a Whiting Award.

Sam Gold is an American theater director and actor. Having studied at Cornell University and Juilliard School he became known for directing both musicals and plays, on Broadway and Off-Broadway. He has received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, a Tony nomination for Best Director of a Play, and nominations for four Drama Desk Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Nigrini</span> American projection designer

Peter Nigrini is an American projection designer live theater. His best-known designs include Dear Evan Hansen, Fela!, and Here Lies Love. He also works occasionally as a scenic and lighting designer, most notably his longstanding collaboration with Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He is also a lecturer at New York University

Clare Barron is a playwright and actor from Wenatchee, Washington. She won the 2015 Obie Award for Playwriting for You Got Older. She was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dance Nation.

Rebecca Taichman is an American theatre director. In 2017, she received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for Indecent.

Rachel Hauck is a scenic designer based in New York City who is known for her work in Anaïs Mitchell's musical Hadestown on and off-Broadway and in London, John Leguizamo's Latin History for Morons on and off-Broadway, and her extensive off-Broadway work.

What the Constitution Means to Me is a 2017 American play by Heidi Schreck. The play premiered on Broadway on March 31, 2019 at the Hayes Theater, with Schreck herself in the leading role. Over the course of the play, Schreck addresses themes such as women's rights, immigration, domestic abuse, and the history of the United States. Schreck varies the time period in which the play takes place, performing some scenes as her modern self and others as her fifteen-year-old self participating in Constitutional debate contests. What the Constitution Means to Me has received accolades such as a nomination for Best Play in the 73rd Tony Awards and a finalist spot for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

References

  1. 1 2 Soloski, Alexis (February 21, 2019). "Thirty Years Later, Heidi Schreck Has Some Amendments". The New York Times . Retrieved May 4, 2019.
  2. ↑ Horwitz, Andy (October 19, 2009). "Five Questions for Heidi Schreck". Culturebot. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
  3. ↑ Murphy, Hannah (October 18, 2020). "RS Recommends: Heidi Schreck's 'What the Constitution Means to Me'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Larson, Sarah (June 26, 2017). "In Heidi Schreck's New Play, Teen Girls Talk About the Constitution". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 "Heidi Schreck". Playwrights Horizons. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 "The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize: Finalist 2018–19 Heidi Schreck". blackburnprize.org. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
  7. ↑ Paulson, Michael (January 14, 2019). "'What the Constitution Means to Me' to Open on Broadway in March". The New York Times. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Heidi Schreck On Her Evolving Play, 'What The Constitution Means To Me'". NPR. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  9. ↑ Drum Of The Waves Of Horikawa here.org. Retrieved April 1, 2019
  10. ↑ Cote, David. Drum of the Waves of Horikawa Time Out, November 1, 2007
  11. ↑ Simmons, Paulanne. "Review. How the World Began " curtainup.com, January 4, 2011
  12. ↑ "Schreck Off-Broadway" lortel.org. Retrieved April 1, 2019
  13. ↑ "Obie 2008" obieawards.com. Retrieved April 1, 2019
  14. ↑ "Obie 2010" obieawards.com. Retrieved April 1, 2019
  15. ↑ Gans, Andrew. "Drama Desk Award Nominations Announced; 'Ragtime' and 'Scottsboro' Top List" Playbill, May 3, 2010
  16. ↑ Grand Concourse lortel.org. Retrieved April 1, 2019
  17. ↑ "Lilly Awards 2015" the-lillys.org. Retrieved April 2, 2019
  18. ↑ Grand Concourse playwrightshorizons.org. Retrieved April 4, 2019
  19. ↑ "Atlantic Theater Commissions New Works by Simon Stephens, Jennifer Haley & More" broadwayworld.com, May 23, 2016
  20. ↑ "Drama. Heidi Schreck" pulitzer.org, retrieved April 15, 2019
  21. ↑ McPhee, Ryan. "2019 Tony Award Nominations: Hadestown and Ain't Too Proud Lead the Pack" Playbill, April 30, 2019
  22. ↑ Gans, Andrew. "Heidi Schreck and Amy Herzog Named Winners of 2019 Horton Foote Playwriting Award" Playbill, March 19, 2019
  23. ↑ "Heidi Schreck Wins 2018 Hull-Warriner Award" americantheatre.org, May 9, 2019
  24. ↑ "Heidi Schreck". Concord Theatricals. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.