Three Alumni Worked on Pulitzer- and Tony-Nominated Broadway Play
'What the Constitution Means to Me' closed its Broadway run last month.By: Meghan Kita Friday, September 20, 2019 00:04 PM
Marci Kaufman Meyers ’00, Rachel Kaufman ’14 and Catherine Markowitz ’11 all worked on the Broadway play 'What the Constitution Means to Me.'At the meet and greet before the start of rehearsals for What the Constitution Means to Me in March, Catherine Markowitz ’11, one of the play’s co-producers, knew she wasn’t the only Mule in the room. Rachel Kaufman ’14— whom Markowitz knew through mutual friends—was part of the show’s general management team.
At the event, Kaufman got chatting with a woman who worked on marketing and advertising for the show. The woman lived in a small New Jersey town right next to the small New Jersey town where Kaufman grew up. They soon realized they had even more in common: Muhlenberg. The woman Kaufman was speaking to was Marci Kaufman Meyers ’00, the group director from marketing firm Serino Coyne.
“The fact that on this little show, the tiniest play on Broadway, three Muhlenberg alumni are involved is really cool and special,” Markowitz says. “It felt like it was meant to be.”
Constitution may be a little show—its cast is just three actors and its runtime just 100 minutes—but it’s been receiving big accolades. It was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a nominee for the Best Play Tony Award. The show’s playwright and star, Heidi Schreck, was nominated for the Tony Award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play. Schreck draws on her experiences as a teenager participating in Constitutional debate competitions and the experiences of women in her family to create a show Markowitz describes as “political, but not partisan.”
“What I really love about it is: You leave feeling so hopeful. I think that’s why it’s resonating so well with people,” Markowitz says. “To feel we are making progress even when it feels like we’re not, that progress takes time but we’re moving in that direction, that’s really important.”
Twenty Muhlenberg alumni, parents and guests joined Markowitz, Kaufman and Meyers for a bagel brunch and discussion, organized by the Office of Alumni Affairs and owner of Murray’s Bagels Adam Pomerantz ’90, before attending the May 11 matinee. The show ran through August 24 at The Helen Hayes Theater in New York City and is currently playing in Washington, D.C.
