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Southwestern Michigan College observed Constitution Day dramatically, combining Heidi Schreck’s play, “What the Constitution Means to Me” with a spirited debate about whether the 239-year-old document should be kept or abolished.

Constitution Day occurs on Sept. 17 because that is the date delegates signed the document at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

It remains the world’s longest-surviving written charter of government in active use.

Benton Harbor’s The GhostLight Theatre, formed in 2018 by former SMC theatre director Paul Mow, in partnership with the University of Notre Dame, staged the production sponsored by the non-partisan League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Counties and presented in the theatre of the Dale A. Lyons Building by Stacy Stoltz, Sofia Pate and Matt Hawkins.

Stoltz portrays Schreck at 15, traveling the country, competing for college money by giving speeches about the Constitution at American Legion halls like in her native Wenatchee, Wash., “the apple capital of the world. In my memories, my audiences of mostly older white men is all smoking cigars.”

Her speech highlighted the Ninth Amendment of 27: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

“Did they get everything right? No, but that’s what the amendments are for,” she argued. “There was no possible way for the framers to put down every single right we have, like the right to brush your teeth.”

Drawing an amendment from a coffee can, Heidi is tasked with explaining the 14^th: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States ... are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

“These amendments made the newly-freed slaves citizens, guaranteed them equal protection under the law and protected their right to vote,” Heidi said. “But only men. Black women were not given these rights. No women were. Women could not vote for another 54 years.

“In 1882, our government decided Chinese immigrants were dangerous and stealing jobs, so they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, making immigration from China illegal until 1943.”

The real Schreck, 54, is a playwright, screenwriter and actress. Her play, “What the Constitution Means to Me,” was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Awards for 2019 Best Play and Best Actress in a Play.

Hawkins, the director and Stoltz’s husband, plays a stern Legionnaire timing the regional oratory finals, then moderates the debate.

Pate, a student from Berrien Springs studying creative advertising and media photography at Michigan State University, enters late in the program to debate Stoltz, a South Bend resident and Chicago actress of 25 years with TV credits on “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.”

Pate: Is our founding document protecting us, or is it a source of problems? Personally, I think the answer is both. The Constitution is not a crucible, it’s like a human being. Are we perfect? No. Are we capable of perfection? No, but we’re always growing and changing. Just like us, this document is flawed, but it’s capable of getting better.

Stoltz: The dead should not govern the living. Thomas Jefferson himself said we should draft a new Constitution for every generation. We should not be living by the laws of corpses! The framers have been in their graves for over 200 years. They lived in a world without plumbing. George Washington died because he had a cold treated with bloodletting. Why are we listening to them? We should be looking at the world with our own eyes, deciding what we believe to be right and wrong. It’s like we’re being ruled by zombies! Voter suppression is rampant. Two of our presidents in the last 25 years did not win the popular vote. The Electoral College is an impediment to democracy. The Constitution perpetuates the status quo.

Pate: I oppose the motion that we should abolish the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson is dead, so why is she listening to him? Would young people be involved in making this new Constitution? Congress still looks pretty much the same as it did 250 years ago. What are the chances they will write a better Constitution? About 10 billion to one. The Constitution is the key to our liberation. We have the oldest active Constitution in the world, which my opponent wants you to think is a bad thing. My opponent wants to endanger people’s lives for some utopian document. My generation will be the guinea pigs for this grand experiment. It is because of the Constitution, not in spite of it, that we can stand up here, have this debate and imagine a better future for our country.