David Garrigus Productions is the acclaimed producer of documentary and educational programs including Kitty Hawk: The Wright Brother's Journey of Invention. This definitive two-hour documentary premiered on PBS and internationally during the 100th anniversary of flight—featuring Neil Armstrong and John Glenn as the voices of Orville and Wilbur. Kitty Hawk has reached nearly 10 million viewers with partners including Microsoft, Delta Airlines, Parker, NASA, and the US Congress Centennial of Flight Commission. It won Best Documentary at the International Family Film Festival. Creating exceptional programs for over 15 years, David Garrigus Productions has won Telly Awards, Cindy Awards, and New York Festival’s Gold Medal. more information
Noted authors, scholars, and eminent historians who provide their expert analysis and insights in 1787 The American Constitution.
Gordon Wood Awarded the 2010 National Humanities Medal. His 1992 book, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, won the Pulitzer Prize and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize. He is the author of The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, which won the Bancroft Prize and the John H. Dunning Prize. The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin won the Julia Ward Howe Prize from the Boston Authors Club in 2005. He is the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University, Professor Wood’s scholarship has profoundly influenced colleagues in his field and attracted a wide readership. His Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize. His recent book is Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States. Through his work, Wood provides readers with a sweeping panorama of early America. His uncanny ability to capture the sense of turbulence and vast transformation have made him one of the most influential historians of his generation.
Pauline Maier (1938-2013) The 2011 winner of the George Washington Book Prize for Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. Maier was the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American History at MIT. Her books include From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams, The American People: A History, a textbook for junior high school students, and American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist.
Akhil Reed Amar is an expert on constitutional law and criminal procedure. The Supreme Court has cited his work in over 45 cases. A Legal Affairs poll placed Amar among the top 20 contemporary US legal thinkers. He is the Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School and is the author of numerous publications and books, including the acclaimed America’s Constitution: A Biography. He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and major works including The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, The Constitution and Criminal Procedure: First Principles, America’s Unwritten Constitution, The Constitution Today, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction, and The Law of the Land: A Grand Tour of our Constitutional Republic. He also hosts a weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution. The podcast and wide assortment of his articles and op-eds and video links to many of his public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com.
Mary S. Bilder is an American legal and constitutional history professor and Founders Professor of Law at Boston College Law School. Her work has focused on the history of the Constitution, James Madison and the Founders, the history of judicial review, and colonial and founding era constitutionalism. Her book, Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention, was awarded the 2016 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy, the James C. Bradford Prize for Biography from the Society for Historians of the Early Republic, and was named a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize. She is the author of The Transatlantic Constitution: Colonial Legal Culture and the Empire (Harvard University Press, 2004), awarded the Littleton-Griswold Award from the American Historical Association. She recently wrote Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution (University of Virginia Press, 2022.)
Michael J. Klarman is the Charles Warren Professor of Legal History at Harvard Law School. His definitive and authoritative book, The Framers' Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution is the first comprehensive account of the entire struggle for the United States Constitution. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship, which are primarily in the areas of Constitutional Law and Constitutional History. Klarman’s other works include, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality, which received the 2005 Bancroft Prize in History; Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement; Unfinished Business: Racial Equality in American History; and From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage. (Oxford University Press)
Franita Tolson is Co-Dean and George T. and Harriet E. Pfleger Chair in Law at University of Southern California Gould School of Law. Her forthcoming book is In Congress We Trust?: Enforcing Voting Rights from the Founding to the Jim Crow Era, (Cambridge University Press, 2023.) As a nationally recognized expert in election law, she has written for or appeared as a commentator for various mass media outlets including CNN, The New York Times, Reuters and Bloomberg Law.
Sanford Levinson Expert on constitutional law and holds the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at The University of Texas Law School. Author of over 350 articles and numerous books: Constitutional Faith (1988, winner of the Scribes Award); Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies (1998); Wrestling With Diversity (2003); Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It); (2006); and, most recently, Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance (2012); and, most recently with wife Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today (2019).
David O. Stewart The author of Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships that Built America and The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution., and his most recent work on the Founding Era, George Washington: The Political Rise of America's Founding Father. Stewart practiced law for more than twenty-five years and has challenged government actions as unconstitutional in the US Supreme Court. The Summer of 1787 was on the Washington Post bestseller list for several weeks, won the Washington Writing Award for Best Book of 2007, and made several "best books" lists for 2007. Stewart also wrote the Davis-Kidd Bestseller Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy and American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America.
Carol Berkin Expert on women's history in colonial America, She has written widely on the subject including Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence, First Generations—Women in Colonial America, Women's Voices/Women's Lives: Documents in Early American History, and Women, War and Revolution. Through her research, Professor Berkin has brought vivid portraits of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century women as active participants in the creation of their societies. She won the Colonial Dames of America Book Prize in 2004 for A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution. Dr. Berkin also wrote Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Loyalist and Civil War Wives: The Life and Times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis, and Julia Dent Grant. She is Presidential Professor of History, Emerita, of Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. She serves on the Advisory Board of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Board of the National Council for History Education.
Stuart Leibiger Expert on George Washington and James Madison. He is the author of Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic, which chronicles the little-known personal and professional relationship Washington and Madison shared. Dr. Leibiger is also an expert on the framing and ratification of the U.S. Constitution. He authored an invaluable guidebook to the convention, ratification, and adoption of the Bill of Rights called The Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Reference Guide. He is Professor and Chair of History at LaSalle University.
Christopher "Kit" Collier (1930-2020) Has written extensively about the Founding Era including books for adults such as Roger Sherman's Connecticut: Yankee Politics and the American Revolution, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, Decision in Philadelphia (with James Lincoln Collier), and All Politics Is Local about Connecticut's role in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Dr. Collier has also authored bestselling books for children such as My Brother Sam Is Dead, which was awarded a Newbery Honor, Jump Ship to Freedom and six other historical novels written with his brother James. He was the official Connecticut State Historian (1984–2004) and is now Professor of History Emeritus of the University of Connecticut.
Ralph Ketcham (1927-2017) His National Book Award–nominated James Madison: A Biography is the definitive single-volume bio on Madison. Ketcham wrote and edited numerous other books on American history and democracy including The Anti-Federalist Papers and The Constitutional Convention Debates, Presidents above Party: The First American Presidency, 1789-1829, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and The Idea of Democracy in the Modern Era. His last work was The Madisons at Montpelier: Reflections on the Founding Couple. Dr. Ketcham was Professor of History at Syracuse University and editor of The Papers of James Madison.
Michael Meyerson DLA Piper Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, specializing in constitutional law and American legal history. Professor Meyerson wrote Liberty’s Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote The Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World. His 2012 book is Endowed by Our Creator: The Birth of Religious Freedom in America. He is also the author of Political Numeracy: Mathematical Perspectives on Our Chaotic Constitution.
Jeff Broadwater Professor Emeritus of History at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. He is the author of Jefferson, Madison, and the Making of the Constitution (2019), James Madison: A Son of Virginia and a Founder of the Nation (2012). His book George Mason: Forgotten Founder (2006) won the Richard Slatten Award for Excellence in Virginia Biography from the Virginia Historical Society and was rated by the Washington Post as one of the best biographies of 2006. Dr. Broadwater has also written numerous articles, essays, and reviews in the field of American history. Before teaching at Barton, he practiced corporate and public utility law and argued, and won Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation vs. the Arkansas Public Service Commission (1983) before the United States Supreme Court.
Project Members
David Garrigus
President
Dennis Ewald
Fundraising
Fundraising
Justina Crowell
Outreach Manager
Outreach Manager
Taylor Bailey
Digital Manager
Digital Manager
David Dean Menzies
Associate Producer
Associate Producer
Jonathan Landau
Associate Producer
Johnny DoughertyAssociate Producer
Production
Nathan Asken
Production
Production
Joe James
Animation and Special Effects
Barry BernsteinAnimation and Special Effects
Financial
Thomas G. Varnum
Legal
Legal
Written by
David Garrigus and James Madison
Featuring
Michael Lake as James Madison
David Whalen as George Washington
James France as Benjamin Franklin
Christopher Hayhurst as Alexander Hamilton
David Beck as Edmund Randolph
Brent Schraff as John Rutledge
George Schewnzer as Nathaniel Gorham
Troy Rudeseal as Oliver Ellsworth
Sean Guerrero as Abraham Baldwin
Robin Robertson as Roger Sherman
Eric Johann as William Few
Brendan Carter as Rufus King
Atwood Boyd as John Lansing
Richard Bunting as Robert Yates
Rick Meadows as James McHenry
Stuart Pike as George Read
Reese Crawley as Charles Pinckney
Barry Buzogany as William Samuel Johnson
Ray Collins as John Dickinson
Chase Harrison as Luther Martin
Bernie Button as William Houstoun
John D'Amato as Daniel of Saint Thomas
William Wesley McHugh as Richard Spaight
George Domby as William Pierce
Hannibal Hills as James Wilson
Mike Maykish as Gunning Bedford
Zeb Mims as Major William Jackson
Jeff Phillips as Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Christopher Rickert as Gouverneur Morris
Woody Stefl as Robert Morris
Bradley Coxe as Elbridge Gerry
Steve Rassin as David Brearley
Josiah Bennetone as Billy Lee
Tony Rivenbark as William Livingston
Ian Sause as John Blair
Derek West as James McClurg
Brett J. Young as William Paterson
Richard Garrigus as Hugh Williamson
B. Robert Grimes as George Wythe
Joel Zuiker as Thomas Fitzsimons
Denis Byrd as Jacob Broom
Jim Williams as Pierce Butler
Jason Aycock as John F. Mercer
Narrated by Elizabeth Michaels
Distinguished Advisers and Contributors
Mary Bilder
Michael Klarman
Sanford Levinson
David O. Stewart
Stuart Leibiger
Pauline Maier (1938-2013)
Gordon Wood
Akhil Reed Amar
Carol Berkin
Christopher Collier (1930-2020)
Michael Meyerson
Ralph Ketcham (1927-2017)
Jeff Broadwater
Laurence Tribe
Steve Meeker
Tobin Geatz
Justin Smith
Jonathan Landau
Gene Kemp
Alan C. Stout
Chuck Whitlock
Gordon Lloyd
Charles N. Quigley
Mary MacPherson
Joan Keston
Chris Mather
Barry Buzogany
John Hale
Mark Gage
Maria Gallo
Elizabeth Wilson Marion
Susan Bales
Lisa Brandkamp
Diane Durance
Bill Knowles
Robert Lorenz
Brian Grimm
Luke Novelli
Ann Revell-Pechar
Laura R. Brogdon
Ruth Ravitz Smith
Peter Jurasik
Alice Sherwood
Cynthia Levinson
Costumes
Wendy Smith
Juli Harvey
Ana Vuljaj
Selina Harvey
Special Thanks to
National Park Service
The Library of Congress
The National Archives
Moores Creek National Battlefield
Matthew Woods
University of North Carolina Wilmington
UNCW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Margo Collett
Yale Law School
Mike Thompson
Actor's Arsenal, Wilmington, NC
Ron Fallica
Sullivan Press, PA
Miriam Kleiman
Robert Pringle
Independence National Historical Park, PA
Burgwin-Wright Museum House and Gardens, Wilmington, NC
Christine E. Lamberton
Nancy Rubin Stuart
Opera House Theatre Company, Wilmington, NC
Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier, VA
Sean T. O'Brien
Gadsby's Tavern Museum, Alexandria, VA
Historic Latta Plantation, Huntersville, NC
Old Salem Museums & Gardens, Winston-Salem, NC
Tyler Cox
Historic Halifax State Historic Site, NC
North Carolina Department of Natural & Cultural Resources
Carl Burke
House in the Horseshoe, Sanford, NC
Wideband Detection Technology Inc., CA
Elizabeth Dougherty
Christopher Williams, Paw Paw, MI
Maxwell Paige
Addison Garrigus
Austin Garrigus
Janelle Garrigus
Richard Garrigus
Robin Gugan
Tim Gugan
Jen Ingulli