We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

—Preamble to the United States Constitution

What does the Constitution mean to you, to your life choices, to your daily life? How does it protect you and your loved ones? What are the flaws in this document, and how do we address them? This is the theme of Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me, a play that will be presented as a staged reading at Bozeman’s Verge Theater, Friday and Saturday, September 12th and 13th, at 8pm, and Sunday, September 14th at 5pm.

The U.S. Constitution serves as the foundational legal framework for the federal government, offering a system of checks and balances designed to prevent any one branch or individual from accumulating too much power. We are witnessing an unprecedented wave of executive actions that the courts and civil rights groups argue undermine constitutional safeguards and threaten the balance of power between branches of government. When Congress and the Supreme Court consistently capitulate to the Executive branch, power is consolidated, the checks and balances we rely on are gone and we are no longer a democracy; the three branches, or ‘legs’ of government have shrunk to one. And as we know, a one-legged stool cannot stand.

Legal experts warn that the Trump administration’s aggressive expansion of executive power marks a significant threat to constitutional democracy. Many critics and historians view these actions as normalizing authoritarian tools and undermining institutional resistance to unilateral rule.

Examples of the current administration’s attempts to ignore, or flat-out violate, the Constitution include undermining birthright citizenship, in which Trump signed an executive order aiming to strip U.S. citizenship from children born to non-citizen parents, directly challenging the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States... are citizens.” Continuing its attack on immigration, the administration has repeatedly invoked emergency powers—claiming “invasion” at the southern border and invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport individuals without due process. Courts have challenged these actions as unconstitutional, emphasizing that due process protections extend beyond citizens and cannot be bypassed by unilateral executive determinations.

Early in 2025, Trump ordered a sweeping suspension of up to $3 trillion in federal spending via an Office of Management and Budget memo. The administration demanded an abrupt pause of federal grants and a spending freeze, bypassing Congress and violating the Appropriations Clause (Article I). In May, Trump issued an executive order to end federal funding to NPR and PBS, citing alleged bias and, under Trump’s direction, Congress subsequently voted to end funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These actions provoked lawsuits from the organizations, asserting First Amendment violations and breaches of the Public Broadcasting Act. Other organizations facing defunding under these cuts include the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, AmeriCorp, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Environmental and Climate Programs.

In a shocking development this summer, the administration moved to assert federal control over the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C.— invoking a “public safety emergency”—which was met with fierce backlash from D.C. officials. In August, Trump invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy the National Guard —despite falling violent crime rates—sparking concerns over local autonomy and democratic norms. Critics warn this move sets a dangerous precedent for dismantling local governance.

“We’ve slid into some form of authoritarianism,” says Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard, and co-author of How Democracies Die. 

“It is relatively mild compared to some others. It is certainly reversible, but we are no longer living in a liberal democracy.”

Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton sociologist who’s been tracking Hungary, is also deeply concerned: “We are on a very fast slide into what’s called “competitive authoritarianism,” the kind scholars say they see in countries such as Hungary and Turkey. When they use the term “authoritarianism,” they aren’t talking about a system like China’s, a one-party state with no meaningful elections. Instead, they are referring to something called competitive authoritarianism.”

In a “competitive authoritarian” system, a leader comes to power democratically and then erodes the system of checks and balances. Typically, the executive fills the civil service and key appointments with loyalists. Then, the media, universities and nongovernmental organizations are attacked to blunt public criticism and tilt the electoral playing field in the ruling party’s favor.

The question of the importance and resiliency of our founding document is the focus of What the Constitution Means to Me. Nominated for two Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Heidi Schreck’s boundary-breaking play breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how it will shape the next generation of Americans, culminating in a live debate allowing audiences to weigh in on the Constitution’s impact on our daily lives. The Washington Post called it, “Endearingly funny and deeply affecting...It would be hard to identify a work for the theatre with its finger more on the pulse of America right now.” The Theater Times commented, “What the Constitution Means to Me might sound preachy. It’s not. It might sound like over-the-top liberalism. It’s not. It might sound like a play that is only for women. It’s not. What it is, is a timely play that clearly lays out how the Constitution (its pros, its cons, its in-betweens) is a bipartisan issue. We are all implicated. And what a great play to get that conversation started.”

What the Constitution Means to Me will be performed as a staged reading featuring Alex Miller, Cecelia McConnell and Cara Wilder, Friday and Saturday, September 12th and 13th, at 8pm, and Sunday, September 14th at 5pm, at Verge Theater, located in the Emerson Cultural Center, 111 S. Grand Avenue in Bozeman. There will be an optional audience talk-back following each performance. This performance is free, with a suggested $20 donation at the door, or in advance at www.eventbrite.com.  Content is suggested for ages 15+.