Culture Wars within a School Board in 'Eureka Day'

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Culture Wars within a School Board in 'Eureka Day'"

Introduction

In this episode of All Of It, hosted by Alison Stewart on WNYC, the spotlight is on the Broadway play "Eureka Day." Stewart engages in a comprehensive discussion with the play’s stars—Bill Irwin, Jessica Hecht, and Thomas Middleditch—to explore the intricate themes, character dynamics, and the creative processes that bring this culturally resonant story to the stage.

Overview of "Eureka Day"

"Eureka Day" is set in the library of a private elementary school in Berkeley, California, during a tumultuous school board meeting. The plot centers around a mumps outbreak in a partially vaccinated student body, igniting a heated debate among the board members. Alison Stewart introduces the setting and context:

“The majority of the Broadway play Eureka Day takes place in the library of a private school in Berkeley, California... the school's shelves are divided into three sections: fiction, nonfiction, and social justice” (00:17).

The play masterfully weaves humor with serious social issues, offering a mirror to contemporary cultural conflicts.

Characters and Their Portrayals

• Don (Bill Irwin):

  Don is the head of the school, characterized as a calming presence dedicated to his role. Stewart inquires about his motivations:

  “Don runs the school... what does he get out of being principal?” (02:08).

  Irwin explains:

  “Don makes every effort... Whether he's always successful is another question” (02:40).

  Despite having no children, Don is portrayed as deeply committed to his work, embodying the complexities of dedication without personal attachment.

• Eli (Thomas Middleditch):

  Eli is an undercover Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned stay-at-home dad. His character is multifaceted, balancing humor with underlying tension. Middleditch describes Eli as:

  “Eli considers himself as kind of like a problem solver... he's always trying to figure out... what’s the end result” (05:13).

  Eli's past with Ayn Rand ideology adds depth, reflecting the internal conflict between personal beliefs and societal expectations.

• Suzanne (Jessica Hecht):

  Suzanne is a long-term board member with anti-vaccine views, portrayed with nuance rather than as a villain. She has a significant emotional connection with Don:

  “She adores Don... She's an incredible listener” (04:18).

  Hecht emphasizes Suzanne’s genuine belief in parental choice:

  “She really does not see anyone with a different standpoint as being evil” (09:05).

Themes and Cultural Context

"Eureka Day" delves into the culture wars surrounding vaccination, a topic that has only grown in relevance. The play’s timing, premiering in 2018 before the COVID-19 pandemic, showcases its prescient nature. Irwin remarks on this foresight:

“Jonathan's a prescient writer... how to tell this story of a group of people in 2018-2019” (07:15).

Key themes include:

• Parental Choice vs. Public Health: Suzanne’s stance highlights the tension between individual rights and collective safety.

• Technology and Wealth: Eli’s background as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur underscores the intersection of technology, wealth, and personal responsibility.

• Institutional Dedication: Don’s unwavering commitment to the school represents the complexities of institutional loyalty without personal ties.

The play fosters "imaginative empathy," urging audiences to understand diverse perspectives:

“She hopes that... [audience] engage in... imaginative empathy” (07:59).

Rehearsal and Production Insights

Creating the balance between humor and serious themes was a significant challenge. Irwin shares the difficulty of maintaining the play’s tone:

“We had to keep reminding ourselves... the social justice moment hasn't happened yet” (07:17).

Hecht elaborates on the complexity of the script, likening it to a "complex choral piece of music":

“We had to do a rearrangement of a piece of music that we knew worked... it was very psychologically disturbing at times” (14:27).

Middleditch adds that avoiding two-dimensional portrayals was crucial for authenticity:

“The play wasn't making an argument, it was presenting the difficulty of having conversations with opposing views” (10:28).

Notable Scenes and Moments

• Eli’s Vulnerable Moment (11:33):

  A pivotal scene where Eli’s child falls ill brings genuine emotional weight to the play. Middleditch explains the balancing act:

  “Even in Eli's most vulnerable moment, he is still making an attempt to make light of the situation” (11:33).

• The Zoom Scene (16:54):

  This scene depicts a meeting conducted over a screen before the pandemic, highlighting the disconnect and comedic undertones:

  “It's like reading this conversation... you need to have that in sort of a background of earnest deliberation” (17:00).

• Rehearsal Laughter (13:03):

  A moving moment where the cast experiences unexpected laughter during a serious rehearsal, showcasing their ability to navigate complex emotions:

  “It was a scene about... your kid is in the hospital... It was very moving” (13:03).

Conclusion

"Eureka Day" is celebrated as a thought-provoking and humor-infused exploration of contemporary cultural conflicts within a microcosmic school board. The guests commend Jonathan Spector’s writing for its depth and nuance, allowing characters to embody broader societal issues without resorting to caricature. The play invites audiences to reflect on their own beliefs and engage in empathetic dialogue, making it a significant cultural piece in modern theater.

The episode concludes with an invitation to see "Eureka Day" at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater through February 2nd, highlighting the play’s relevance and emotional impact.

Notable Quotes

• Cristina De Rossi:

  “Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear... and a million other things.” (Podcast Description)

• Alison Stewart:

  “Eureka Day is... an insightful and damn funny little gem” (00:17)

• Bill Irwin on Don:

  “Don makes every effort... Whether he's always successful is another question.” (02:40)

• Jessica Hecht on Suzanne’s Perspective:

  “She really does not see anyone with a different standpoint as being evil.” (09:05)

• Thomas Middleditch on Eli:

  “Eli considers himself as kind of like a problem solver... what’s the end result?” (05:13)

• Bill Irwin on Prescience:

  “Jonathan's a prescient writer.” (07:15)

• Jessica Hecht on Rehearsal Challenges:

  “We had to do a rearrangement of a piece of music that we knew worked... it was very psychologically disturbing at times.” (14:27)

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This detailed summary captures the essence of the podcast episode, providing a comprehensive overview for those who haven't listened while highlighting key discussions and insights shared by the guests.

Transcript

[Bill Irwin]

Listener Support WNYC Studios.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. The majority of the Broadway play Eureka Day takes place in the library of a private school in Berkeley, California, has written in the stage directions. The shelves of books are, quote, divided into three sections, fiction, nonfiction and social justice. The show's characters make up the school board and they sit in a semicircle in kid sized plastic chairs. And it's likely they're reusable plastic made from bottles, you know what I mean? But the issue they have to discuss is much bigger. A mumps outbreak in their only partially vaccinated student body. Our guest, Bill Irwin plays the head of school who finds fulfillment in his work most of the time and recites poetry to kick off each calendar year. Another parent, played by Thomas Middleditch, who is right there. He plays Eli, undercover Silicon Valley guy whose startup earned him millions and now he's a stay home dad. And our other guest, Jessica Hecht, plays Suzanne, a longtime and very dedicated board member, a bohemian who, as we come to learn, has anti vax views. The show deals with heavy themes but manages to find a lot of humor in them. Deadline said of the play. Playwright Jonathan Spector has done us all a favor and molded one of the most divisive, inane, grotesque and newly resurgent issues of the and polished it into a shiny, insightful and damn funny little gem so that all of us can ogle and ponder and reconsider. Just how in the name of Jonas Salk did we get here? Eureka Day runs on Broadway through February 2nd. I'm so happy you're all here.

[Thomas Middleditch]

So good to be here. Yes.

[Alison Stewart]

So in the script there are descriptions that we, the audience, don't get to see, but you get to see. And they write about your character, Don. He's described as a calming presence. Has he has worked hard to become the man he is. So, Bill, who is Don? Who is he?

[Bill Irwin]

Don runs the school. He's the only of the five characters in the play who is six characters, excuse me, who is an employee of this school and has a tendency to think about the fiscal side of things, perhaps because of that. And I think it's so interesting that our Jonathan Spector calls him a calming presence because Don makes every effort. Whether he's always successful is another question. But that's Don sitting at the meetings.

[Alison Stewart]

He has no children.

[Bill Irwin]

Exactly right.

[Alison Stewart]

So what does he get out of being principal?

[Bill Irwin]

You know, that's a mystery you'd have to pierce over a long time. Being a teacher is One of those. I've spent some time in classrooms, my own sons and others, as an actor, as a visiting artist. It is saintly work, and I think Don is absolutely smitten with it and dedicated to it. But as you say, he has no children. And that's one of the, again, the mysteries that Jonathan Spector weaves into this quintet of characters.

[Alison Stewart]

Jessica, the script tells us that Suzanne, quote, has a home worth $4 million, though she'll tell you it was much, much, much cheaper when they bought, but thinks of herself as comfortable rather than wealthy. What else do we need to know about Suzanne?

[Jessica Hecht]

Oh, gosh, I don't think what you. It just described it from the descriptive passage as something we ever discussed or that we ever even thought about, but maybe that's more telling than anything. But she loves children. She just loves children so much. And I really think that her whole agenda in life was to be part of a world where children were really valued and made to feel special, like that's her whole raison d'etre.

[Alison Stewart]

So Don is an employee of the school. He runs the school. Some might say Suzanne thinks she might run the school a little bit. How would you describe the relationship between the two?

[Jessica Hecht]

Oh, she adores Don. She is intellectually and emotionally in that sort of romance with Don. Not a true romance, but she just adores Don. He's an incredible listener, and that's why she thinks that she has so much status there, because she feels very validated by him. They've had this mission together. Like anybody you work with for a long time, you have this kind of understanding that your agenda is the same. And I think she really believes that, truly, truly believes that.

[Alison Stewart]

All right, let's hear about Eli. Eli, an expert pickler, competitive rock climber, manager of family wealth, went through an intense Ayn Rand phase in college, which now fills him with shame, but which he has also never fully shaken fair. So how does he fit into this group of parents?

[Thomas Middleditch]

I think Eli considers himself as kind of like a problem solver. Basically, if they're deliberating over a particular topic of the day, a school issue or a grander issue, he's silently churning away, or perhaps not so silently, perhaps over talking in a way that a young man does, but he's working on the solution. That's kind of his background is like a tech guy. He's always trying to figure out, okay, like, what's bottom line, what's the end result? And he exemplifies that and executes that frequently in the play.

[Alison Stewart]

How does he feel about his wealth. You find out he's a wealthy guy.

[Thomas Middleditch]

Yeah, we find out. But we find out kind of later. I feel he's not someone. He's not someone that flots it. He certainly doesn't dress it. He certainly doesn't like, bring it up in conversation. Although when the story is coming to a head, there is an impetus or an ask that he. Daddy Warbucks it. Warbucks it.

[Alison Stewart]

Sure.

[Thomas Middleditch]

I think a lot of those. Having now, through another piece of work I've done, I've known a lot of these venture capitalists who have God tier levels of wealth. It's not something that comes up. You're often splitting the Uber ride with them. It's bizarre, but that's what happens. So. Yeah.

[Bill Irwin]

Oh, my God.

[Alison Stewart]

Bill. This takes place in the 2018. 2019 school year before the COVID pandemic. And it was. It actually premiered in 2018.

[Bill Irwin]

Yes, initial versions did. Yeah. Yeah. Productions. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

What do you think is prescient about the script?

[Bill Irwin]

Oh, Jonathan's a prescient writer.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Bill Irwin]

But I'll tell you that your question reminds me in the rehearsal room, which was a tough. It was a tough, challenging workplace because it's a tricky play.

[Alison Stewart]

Yes.

[Bill Irwin]

We had to keep reminding ourselves, okay, this is pretty. This.

[Alison Stewart]

It's pre.

[Bill Irwin]

That this social justice moment hasn't happened yet. This zoom technology isn't daily part of our lives yet. And that was really important in how to then tell this story of a group of people in 2018-2019, I should say.

[Alison Stewart]

How would you, Jessica, how would you describe your character's views on vaccines?

[Jessica Hecht]

She believes that every parent should choose what their child should have. I think it's very straightforward. She in no way believes she should be telling other people what to do. She believes that parents should research it. And she's extremely thoughtful and almost scholarly, I would say. Not almost. She's scholarly in her attempt to understand what is best for her family and her children. And that's what she sticks to, parental choice. Yeah. And she hopes that, you know, I think the play in general begs of you that you engage in. There's that term imaginative empathy, which is like a Krista Tippett term that she would probably. Who I love, but I am sorry.

[Alison Stewart]

Shout out to npr.

[Jessica Hecht]

I am as Suzanne is, and as we all would be huge NPR fans. But it is engaged in the idea that we should understand each other's needs for our own kids. And that's her view on vaccines.

[Alison Stewart]

She could easily be a villain in this play. And she's not at all. Was that important to you?

[Jessica Hecht]

Super important. Yeah. She really believes in that value system and she really is a woman for this moment in time. I think if we were to have a kind of moral agenda about what we should enter this year feeling. She definitely tries not to see anybody with a different standpoint as being evil or that's a. That's really where she's at. So I really appreciate that you don't find her a villain because I prepared all these things to say to people. Oh, really? Yeah. You know when you think this might come up, not to you at all, but just in general to audience members and they haven't needed to use any of them.

[Thomas Middleditch]

Yeah. Well, it's part of the. The humanization of her character that you do so well and that Jonathan has written for you. It's really hard to make an argument or not an argument. I don't think the play makes an argument. I think the play presents the difficulty of having the conversation with people who have opposing views on a topic like vaccination, which, as we've seen in the greater scheme of society has proven to be divisive. Af. And if you are going to present the argument in reduced terms of caricatures and two dimensional people who just go, that's bad, that's good, that's whatever, congrats. We've gone nowhere. We've accomplished nothing.

[Alison Stewart]

That's a little bit of Bill's problem.

[Thomas Middleditch]

Yes.

[Bill Irwin]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Your character's problem a little bit. Yeah. He kind of walks both sides of the world at the same time.

[Bill Irwin]

Yes. Anna Shapiro, our director, said something really helpful. Just one of those nuggets that gets dropped between stand there and I wouldn't sit down there. She said, I don't think Don wants a mandate in the school. I don't think that's his. But Don wants the school to continue and the institution to prevail and thrive. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

I'm speaking with Bill Irwin, Jessica Hecht and Thomas Middleditch, who all star in the new Broadway play Eureka Day, about a private elementary school deciding on its vaccination policy. It's running at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater through February 2nd. Eli. He becomes a focal point in the play in a sort of not funny role. When his kid gets sick, we'll just leave it there. How did you decide to. Or how did you and the director decide to balance the funny side of Eli, which is there's comedy, but then a really serious side. His kid's sick.

[Thomas Middleditch]

Yeah. And it comes at a moment in the play where it Comes on the heels of, like, the most jubilant scene. I would say maybe it's when, like, the crescendo of, you know what, this vaccination debate is kind of fun. You. I like seeing people argue. You know, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it's. I suppose the omniscient pulling of the strings and manipulating the dials of what needs to happen is there. I just. To me, it's just. And I'm sure Anna would say the thing. Same thing, is that it feels authentic and then it feels earned, and then it doesn't feel too hard. We haven't yanked the wheel of the tone of the play too hard in another direction. So even in Eli's most, I suppose, vulnerable moment, he is still making an attempt to make light of the situation. There's, like, some light attempts at humor. And then the following scene and the following moments of the play. Even though the situation has now become quite dire, everyone's still. There's still commentary to be made, and they're still levity to happen. But, yeah, it is a sad moment, and it's needed for Eli and it needed for the story to take it out of this intellectual debate, to take it out of a debate with no consequences. You have to see that things actually can go wrong quite bad, quite severely.

[Bill Irwin]

Can I tell you a moment that was very moving in our rehearsal? I'm not nostalgic for the rehearsal room.

[Jessica Hecht]

Not all this was a tough, tough.

[Bill Irwin]

Challenging piece of work and a glorious one to be part of, but challenging. But to watch Eli, played by Thomas Middleditch and Mako, played by our wonderful colleague Chelsea Kurtz, undertake this scene tucked in the middle of the play, which is out of fabric with the rest of the play. In a shrewd way. Both of those actors were the two amongst us who don't have kids.

[Jessica Hecht]

Yeah.

[Bill Irwin]

And it was a scene about, oh, that's interesting. Your kid is in the hospital.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Bill Irwin]

And I think Anna was very shrewd in sort of mining that with the two of them, but it was the other three of us who have kids sat there watching the rehearsal.

[Thomas Middleditch]

Yeah. I had to be told. I had to be told what that felt like. It took me a while because I didn't. Near the end is when I feel like I was like, oh, that's the impact of it. But before I was like, oh, yeah, it's kind of sad. I'm trying to think of my dog, you know, like, oh, geez, if my dog was.

[Jessica Hecht]

Oh, I love My dog, like.

[Thomas Middleditch]

Yes, I know. But I was trying to put myself as someone who doesn't typically go into a lot of vulnerable scenes.

[Jessica Hecht]

I say that. I said that. I was so sorry. I love you more.

[Thomas Middleditch]

Sure.

[Alison Stewart]

Can I ask, Jessica what was tough about the rehearsal process?

[Jessica Hecht]

Oh, you know, it's very difficult because. And now as we're performing it, Jonathan is even more prescient and investigative in terms of what he's looking at in human behavior. It's written like a very complex choral piece of music where each voice also. It's written horizontally for many scenes on the page so that you hear the choir speaking and how the voices And I always love that. I think all of us have that kind of temperament where we love when language is on a page as though it's art, you know, as though it's material and color. And he did that. But it was written originally for a group of other voices. And so we were trying desperately to feel that rhythm and then hold onto the integrity of what we thought would be the rhythm of that. So it's almost like we had to do a rearrangement of a piece of music that we knew worked, but we were like, we're still gonna play it as a folk song, but we gotta slightly zhuzh it. And it was very difficult and it was actually very psychologically disturbing at times. It felt awkward and we didn't want it just to be satire. It is so funny. But even if we were as skilled as the best snl, you couldn't mind the other moments. And you know, you are as skilled, Thomas, as the best SNL player. But anyway, you didn't want to satire. We didn't. We actually just almost passionately all said to each other, it can't just live in that place because we can't find the other scenes. If we and Anna surely felt the same way, as did John, you know, is hard. Yeah.

[Thomas Middleditch]

It's naturally satirical. I don't think you have to lean. It's making a commentary on everything. But so if you only do that or if it is reduced to solely that, it feels like it's not big enough for the run that MTC has given us. It feels like that's. If you're going to sort of two dimensionalize it, that might be better for, I don't know, a smaller space. Maybe not to say that that's the incorrect way of doing it, but I don't know when we are attempting to put it up in this capacity with everyone involved, with the director, with the cast, with everything, it's like, okay, we have to make sure that we have more there.

[Jessica Hecht]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Have to ask about the zoom scene. Okay. There's a scene in it which you're trying to have a meeting with the, you know, all the parents who are involved. It's zoom to your point. It's before 2020, before we know what to do with zoom. Exactly. And it' the screen is behind you, and it just devolves. The whole meeting. Devolves. But you all are having discussions among yourselves.

[Bill Irwin]

So earnest.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, it's interesting because I went with somebody who had seen the show twice, and so I was listening to you guys and looking at the screen, and he was listening to you because he knew what was gonna happen on the screen, and he realized, like, there's really interesting conversations going on.

[Thomas Middleditch]

I'm glad that's his take. Not total regret this time.

[Jessica Hecht]

I'm gonna thank your friend.

[Thomas Middleditch]

It's actually following a minor character at Sleep no More or something. Y. A couple regrets. I should have stuck with the main guys.

[Jessica Hecht]

Oh, my God, that's so genius that you said, I'm following a minor character in Sleep no More.

[Bill Irwin]

That's what you feel like through much of that scene.

[Jessica Hecht]

I just adore you for saying it that way.

[Bill Irwin]

Well, naively, Allison, we. We rehearsed that, like diligent.

[Alison Stewart]

I was going to ask. Tell me more. Tell me more about the rehearsal process.

[Jessica Hecht]

And no one laughed.

[Alison Stewart]

No, not at all.

[Bill Irwin]

No one knew to give us the help to say, you know, if there had been a voice to say, oh, by the way, while you're having this exchange between Don and Suzanne, there's gonna be one of the hugest laughs you've ever heard in the theater, and it has nothing to do with what you're doing. It's interesting. We call it the zoom scene, too. But again, the story takes place before zoom. This is an online sort of connection via Facebook, I think, originally.

[Alison Stewart]

Google me or something. Yeah, exactly.

[Bill Irwin]

That Eli has patched together in his savvy. So it is before zoom consciousness for the characters, but not for the audience. And if you love deep, big laughter in the theater, this is a great thing to be part of. My dear friend and Mad as a Hatter colleague David Scheiner, who lives now in Germany, but whom I've been on stage with, and he just loves laughter in the theater. And I'm telling him, if you can make it over here, you're going to hear. You're going to hear people laughing. Yeah. In a deep way, which, as Thomas says, is sometimes nothing to do with us. And it's our craft to kind of hold place for the audience so they can get the whole story.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah. What do you see as your job in that scene?

[Jessica Hecht]

Well, Jonathan, I asked for some media writing with the complete lack of awareness that no one really could care less. So he gave me all this dialogue about Merc and the painkiller Vioxx. Were you able to catch any of that?

[Alison Stewart]

I was the one. I was going back and forth between what you were saying and what was on the screen. I'll ask my friend.

[Jessica Hecht]

But I just find it thrilling that the integrity of our characters is held up and people can. Yeah, yeah. I feel like I'm in the.

[Alison Stewart]

Is part of your job physical at that point? I'm wondering.

[Thomas Middleditch]

Yeah, it's a little bit. Anna said it. I thought she said it pretty well at some point. She was like, the text on the screen isn't funny without the visual. Even if it's only visual. But even if you're only catching glimpses of a sort of a passionate discussion, it's not funny without that. It's like it was just reading this conversation. It's like, okay, yeah, yeah, you need to have that in the background of earnest deliberation between people who are kind of like making points and counterpoints. And I mean, to everyone that's, you know, the. The thing that we're all darting around or not, that we're all touching on, I suppose, is like, for me, I'm a total laugh goblin. I need it. If I don't get it, I'm like, everything is a failure. And we're in rehearsal process, and I'm walking away from this scene being like, well, the play's a disaster. I mean, it's like, because we don't have the. We don't have the text, we don't have that. We don't have the two pieces. The very crucial piece of that scene in play. We don't have it. And it was only till the first night of previews where I walked off being like, oh, okay. Oh, that scene works. I owe Jonathan an apology.

[Jessica Hecht]

We all do. Jonathan said quite boldly, people are going to be uproariously laughing. And we all walked away like, that is absolutely nothing we can count on. How dare he? He has no idea. New York is like, the bar is so hot. Cut to.

[Thomas Middleditch]

Ha ha, ha ha.

[Alison Stewart]

The other laugh comes from you, sir, when you say, I wonder if mime school is still open. It's a very sweet moment for you.

[Bill Irwin]

It is such a sweet moment. And people often Say, oh, that scene that you and Jessica do. He must have written that with you two in mind. He didn't. He wrote it with an imagined Don in mind who's dedicated his whole life to teaching and school administration, but who still secretly thinks maybe I could have a mime career. And that's Berkeley, California in a little nutshell. And that's, you know, just one example of Jonathan's shrewdness in writing.

[Alison Stewart]

What would you like people to talk about after seeing this play, Thomas?

[Thomas Middleditch]

You know what, actually it was. It came after one of the nights I came came out to sign the playbills of thousands of people awaiting me. A woman came up to me. She said, how do I say this without giving away the end? Basically, she was like this. That's how it ends. That's what happens. Because without giving it away, it's a bit of a struggle, right? And I was like, yeah, that's the point. What you're wrestling with right now. Well, that sort of potential. You don't feel like you've just got tucked into bed. I mean, depending on your political lenience potentially, but you feel like maybe you got to put to bed, but the not all the lights are off and you're having trouble sleeping. That's the whole point.

[Alison Stewart]

Eureka Day is performing at the Samuel J. Friedman through February 2nd. My guests have been Bill Irwin, Jessica Hex. Excuse me. And Thomas Middleditch. Thanks for coming in the studio, by the way.

[Bill Irwin]

Thank you, Alison.

[Jessica Hecht]

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