Schreck attended the University of Oregon and upon graduation worked in Siberia, teaching English. She then was a journalist in St. Petersburg, Russia. She next moved to Seattle, Washington where she started working as an actress and writer. She is the writer and star of What the Constitution Means to Me, which opened on Broadway on March 31, 2019. This play is partially autobiographical, relating her real-life experience in participating in debates as a teen. Schreck's other writing credits include the playGrand Concourse, and episodes of the TV seriesI Love Dick, Nurse Jackie, and Billions. Schreck has performed Off-Broadway in, among others, Drum of the Waves of Horikawa and Circle Mirror Transformation and How the World Began at Playwrights Horizons. Schreck is married to director Kip Fagan., they live in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Honors and awards
She won the Obie Award, Performance, for Drum of the Waves of Horikawa for 2008. She won the Obie Award, Performance, for Circle Mirror Transformation for 2010. Schreck and the cast of Circle Mirror Transformation received a 2010 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble Performance. Her play Grand Concourse, performed in 2014–2015 at Playwrights Horizons and Steppenwolf Theatres, received the Lilly Awards, Stacey Mindich "Go Write A Play" Award for best new play in 2015 and was a finalist for the 2014–2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Schreck was a Playwrights Horizons Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence in 2014. Grand Concourse received an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays award. She received a commission from the Atlantic Theatre Company in conjunction with the Kenyon Institute at Kenyon College in June 2016. She appeared at the Kenyon Playwrights Conference and taught a master class. Schreck was a finalist for the 2018–2019 Susan Smith Blackburn prize for her play What the Constitution Means to Me. Schreck is the co-winner, with Amy Herzog, of the 2019 Horton Foote Playwriting Award, which includes a $12,500 monetary award. What the Constitution Means to Me was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play was nominated for the 2019 Tony Award for Best Play and Schreck was nominated for the 2019 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She is the recipient of the 2018 Hull-Warriner Award, presented by the Dramatists Guild of America Council for What the Constitution Means to Me. The award is presented to an American author honoring a work "dealing with social, political or religious mores of the time".