The Milwaukee Repertory Theater has a question: What does the Constitution mean to you?
UWM political science professor Sara Benesh has an answer:
“I think it’s a document that’s a real source of pride for our country. Obviously, it’s a founding document. It’s impressive. It’s unique in the world, and other people model their countries and the designs of their governments after it,” Benesh said. “But it was also created a long time ago, when we had some very different perceptions about who should be involved.”
Several of Benesh’s students also answered that question in a series of videos featuring members of the Milwaukee community. The Rep just wrapped up a run of the play “What the Constitution Means to Me,” a semi-autobiographical story of a young woman who, to earn scholarship money, enters competitions where she has to speak and debate about the U.S. Constitution. Playwright Heidi Schreck uses the production to explore how her views and relationship to the document evolve as she ages.
The play is both an entertaining watch and a thoughtful civics lesson, but Suze Falk thought it could also be a community conversation starter. Falk, who uses they/them pronouns, is the engagement coordinator for the Milwaukee Rep. It’s their job to get people thinking about plays and their meanings beyond being an audience member. What if, Falk thought, they asked the entire city of Milwaukee the question the characters grapple with in the play?
“I mean, we’re in Wisconsin; we’re in a swing state. A lot of people, depending on their backgrounds and their life experiences, have many different opinions,” Falk said. “We want to have a lot of different voices. And we also want to celebrate the community of Milwaukee and we want them to feel like their voices are being heard in our space.”
So, they decided to make a video series in which community members answered the play’s titular question.
There was just one problem.
“Asking people was easy; getting people actually to come in and answer the question was hard,” Falk laughed. But they eventually managed to pull together some volunteers – faith leaders, people in city government, business owners, and others.
But then Falk ran into another problem.
“We were seeing the people that were showing up and it was a lot of older people and white people,” they said. “I was like, how are we going to get more diverse opinions from diverse people and a (greater) age range?”
Then they remembered: “There’s a college right here in town!”
Falk reached out to Benesh, hoping to talk with students who might be familiar with the Constitution. Several UWM students agreed to appear on video, including Reid Lancaster, Mya Smith, Kain Pearson, Sophie Shaw, and Jacob Miller. Falk and a videographer visited campus, asked pointed questions, and filmed the student’s responses.
They varied, as expected. Kain Pearson, for instance, pointed out how many Americans are unfamiliar with the document upon which their country is founded. “A lot of people, including myself, are not really informed on what exactly the Constitution entails,” he said in his video. “I think that we’re failing ourselves in upholding the Constitution.”
One student pointed out how she felt left out of the national conversation: “As a Black woman, for a long time, the Constitution has never really represented my identity,” Mya Smith said in one of the videos.
Reid Lancaster admired its framework as a founding document, while Sophie Shaw speculated that if given the chance, she would make it easier to add amendments so that the Constitution could address the needs of a modern society.
While talking with the students, Falk noticed a recurring theme: Gen Z thought the Constitution isn’t “promoting the general welfare” of all of its citizens, falling short of the lofty goal in its Preamble. But though they were cynical about its execution, most of them were hopeful for its future.
“The Constitution, to me, is a promise that has not been kept. Historically, I think people look at America as this process of realizing the words in the Preamble. Sadly, the Preamble has no legal force,” Jacob Miller said in his video. “(But) I would say that there might be a point in time where we could, in the future, say that now these promises are being kept.”
Falk said the student’ answers made them feel optimistic.
“I loved the entire process of interviewing the students. They are so smart. They are so eloquent,” Falk added. “I think that we as a society don’t give college students a lot of credit, but I think we also forget that college students have been at the center of so many social movements, and they’ve been the blood and the life of all of them. Seeing them, I was thinking, that’s our future. We’re going to be okay.”
The Milwaukee Rep’s video series will be archived online.
But now that you’ve read about their answers, Falk, Pearson, and the other UWM students pose the question: What does the Constitution mean to you?
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science