“The Founding” celebrates civic virtue and the triumph of compromise over partisanship that unified 13 states, in the aftermath of their War for Independence, into a single nation. Climaxing at the Constitutional Convention, with Benjamin Franklin as its central character, the play recounts the framers’ struggle to create a bold new form of democratic government that put the common good of the People above self-interest and personal power. This cornerstone of American history teaches that freedom is not free. It calls on us to consider what democracy asks of its citizens and what sacrifices we would be willing to make to preserve the blessings of liberty.