Reconstituting

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Heather Renken

Broom Street Theater's "Reconstituting" is written by and stars Doug Reed (pictured with a puppet created by Steve Troop).

Broom Street Theater's "Reconstituting" is written by and stars Doug Reed (pictured with a puppet created by Steve Troop).

It’s come to our attention that Madison is attracting new residents every day, and they want to know what there is to do here. Put this on your bucket list — you can’t really say you’ve lived in Madison until you’ve seen a production at the Broom Street Theater, a long-running grassroots black box enterprise that fosters local playwrights, innovative staging and experimental everything. Reconstituting is a new play by Doug Reed that revolves around a fantastical scenario involving the United States Constitution. Now that we can keenly perceive that document’s flaws, how would you fix it if you had the chance? Reed, who’s previously penned Nottingham! and The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker, will also star. Heather Renken directs. Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Tickets are available in advance at bstonline.org, or at the door the evening of the performance. The other thing the uninitiated need to know is that, despite its name, the theater is located at 1119 Williamson St.

media release: Broom Street Theater is proud to announce the opening of Reconstituting, a new play by Doug Reed, directed by Heather Renken. 

A tourist finds himself locked in a vault with the original copy of the Constitution and James Madison's quill pen. With help from the reanimated corpse of Benjamin Franklin, and a wisecracking chorus, he's got one hour to make all the changes he can before security drags him away. 

In addition to being the playwright, Doug Reed will play the role of the tourist. "As I was writing," said Reed, "the more I realized how personal this play is. It's about my disappointment with the broken promise of America. It's also about my hope that this country could be a wonderful and humane place to live. Rather than invent a fictional character for the tourist - I chose to make it autobiographical. It's just me, and this play is a plea from my own heart." 

Reconstituting will run approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. It's a fast-moving comedy, and a kaleidoscopic review of Constitutional history.

This play is a reunion for playwright Reed and director Heather Renken, both former Artistic Directors of Broom Street Theater. Renken directed Reed's interactive Nottingham! in 2014. 

Doug Reed's earlier work for Broom Street also includes The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker, which was a runaway hit in the summer after the Act 10 protests. 

Benjamin Franklin is a custom puppet, built by noted puppet maker Steve Troop and costumed by Laurie Everitt, and performed by Misha Latyshev. 

The chorus are Hawa Bah, Sean Cairns, Amy Rowland, and Alyssa Stowe.

Props design by Stephanie Albrecht. lighting design by Christa Dahman; set painting and construction by Meaghan Heires; sound design by Brent Holmes, stage managed by Hobbes LeGault; poster design by Rob Matsushita; original music by Autumn Maria Reed; costume design by Susan Shoemaker.

Reconstituting opens July 11 and runs Thurs - Sun until July 26. Thursday and Friday performances are at 8pm. Saturday and Sunday performances are 2pm matinees. 

As part of Broom Street Theater's commitment to make theater accessible to everyone, the majority of seats are Pay-What-You-Can and are available at the box office the day of the show. A small number of seats are available for pre-order on the theater's website. 

The July 18 performance will be livestreamed on the internet. Details are available on Broom Street Theater's website. 

Tickets: Available in advance at bstonline.org, or at the door the evening of the performance. Tickets at the door are pay-what-you-can.

About Broom Street Theater: Broom Street Theater (BST) is a non-profit, member-controlled theater located in Madison, Wisconsin. BST has been performing non-traditional, experimental and original artistic forms continuously since 1969. BST respects and facilitates community access by maintaining reasonable ticket prices and by welcoming community members to become active in the theater.