Leslee Richards calls the Vortex Theater her “artistic home.” She has been on the board of directors since 2008 and has held several positions at the local theater: chair of the artistic committee, fundraiser and most recently, treasurer. She is one of the founding members behind the New Mexico Shakespeare Festival. Her directorial chops include Sense and Sensibility and Sex With Strangers.Her current directorial endeavor is Heidi Schreck’s 2017 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-nominated play What the Constitution Means To Me — a play she says remains quite relevant, especially during this election season.
The play tells the autobiographical story of 15-year-old Heidi, who debated about the Constitution at American Legion halls across the country, and was very good at it. With the scholarship money she won, she was able to go to college. As an adult, she reflects on the evolving — often violent — world around her, wondering what captured her imagination 30 years prior. As Heidi switches between her teenage and adult personas, she addresses themes like immigration, sexual assault and domestic abuse.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Paper.: Why did you choose to run What the Constitution Means to Me?
Richards: It clearly recognizes that things in the world are perhaps not as we would all like them to be. It talks about the lack of protection of women in the Constitution and the kinds of things that leads to or allows. The word “woman” is not in the Constitution. More than 4,500 words and nothing is said about women particularly. Now we all assume that means that we’re all equally protected, but that has not proven to be the case over the last 250 years.
[The play] has a sensibility if you will, but not a position. I don’t want people to think that if they’ve decided who to vote for already that they won’t enjoy the play. The play is clever and smart and humorous and, at the same time, it’s very, very, real. It’s based on real human experiences and some of them are not very comfortable.
Why do you think it’s important for people to watch plays at the Vortex or places like the Vortex?
It gives us an opportunity to talk about hard things as we gather around a campfire of common experience, and I think all community theater does that. People who have lots of history and lots of education about theater can come there, but also people who have never seen a play of any kind can find something to engage them. We’re breathing the same air as people giving their hearts and souls to make characters alive on stage. People who have worked hours and hours to make that happen. I think that live theater is the best of all possible arts. I feel like there is the greatest connection between the audience and what’s on stage.
In your experience, in 2024 is live theater thriving?
Theater is really struggling. I think all of the arts are struggling since COVID. I think people lost the habit of going out to see live entertainment. It’s very difficult right now to be a performing arts organization of any kind.
Word of mouth is so, so important. We utilize over 500 volunteers a year and their time is so important to us. There are so many ways to support all of the performing arts organizations: being an usher, writing newsletters, writing social media posts, printing the program. It’s a difficult time, but there’s lots and lots of opportunities.
What are some of the advantages and limitations of working with a small cast like you are for this production?
The big thing is managing people’s energy when there’s a small cast because one particular actor has 90% of the lines and it’s a huge lift to learn them all. They need time to learn their lines and they need time to rest. They need the rehearsal time so that they have that discovery process. It’s a management issue for the director, more than anything, to help them understand what’s possible and when to say, “Okay enough for tonight, let’s all go home.” You can only tax your brain so much before it kind of starts to explode or implode, take your pick.
What keeps you going?
I love it more than almost anything and I’m lucky enough to be retired now so that I can really give all the time that I want to it, but there’s so many people who do this in addition to full time work and somehow manage raising a family and coming to rehearsal and donating their time and energy. It’s a lot. It really is.