In “Eureka Day,” the vaccine scene unfolds in a humorous way

The third scene of the up-to-date Broadway production “Eureka Day” it could be called The Way We Discourse Now. As playwright Jonathan Spector wrote, this scene makes the audience laugh so loudly that it drowns out the actors.

The situation goes like this: It’s 2018. The principal of the progressive private school Eureka Day in Berkeley, California, and four members of its executive committee must inform the other parents that a student has mumps, and therefore, by law, all unvaccinated students must stay home. to avoid exposure. (Vaccine skepticism was not uncommon in this environment, especially before the pandemic.)

School leaders, an hopeful group committed to diversity and inclusion, are holding a town hall-style meeting “to see,” says Principal Don, “how we can come together as a community and exchange ideas on a hard issue.”

During the meeting, which is being held remotely, Don speaks from a laptop in the school library, addressing parents using a Zoom-like video application. Members of the executive committee are behind him. The school’s other parents participate in a chat-like function. Their messages – 144 of them – are projected above the actors for viewers to read.

Online conversations quickly turn into violent attacks. “Typical behavior of the Executive Committee of FASCISM.” “I’m sorry, chiropractors are not doctors.” “This is child abuse!!!”

“The scroll of comments they display (“Were you dropped on your head as a child?”) is a prominent identifier for a community that claims to be great at considering dissent, but is in fact a breeding ground for intolerance.” – Jesse Green, chief theater critic for The Novel York Times,” he wrote in his review of the play.

Each comment is assigned to one of dozens of parents – each with their own name and avatar – and linked to specific moments in the scenario. The displayed comments invariably attract viewers’ attention. The result is something completely extraordinary – and wildly humorous.

In interviews with several artists involved in the Manhattan Theater Club’s current production of the play at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater and its first staging in Aurora Theater Company explained how this scene is staged, how it works, and why a panicked Don (reading the comments) remarks, “I feel like this format doesn’t make it easier for all of us to put our best foot forward in this conversation.” These are edited excerpts from our conversations.

“Eureka Day” debuted in 2018 in Berkeley, California, commissioned by Aurora Theater Company.

JOSH COSTELLO (Artistic Director, Aurora Theater Company) This was before Covid. Measles outbreaks occurred because parents did not vaccinate their children.

BILL IRWIN (Don, director) The play takes place in, and in some ways is about, Berkeley, California. I once performed a pantomime at Sproul Plaza. I know Berkeley and I love Berkeley, with its weaknesses and yet its deep honesty. And there is a kind of – I’m afraid I’m being patronizing here, but with a chilly eye – ethos that art is a portrait of.

JONATHAN SPECTOR (playwright) When I was researching this art, I spent a lot of time on online forums where people were arguing about vaccines. And they are just so nasty. Since so much of our lives – certainly related to these types of issues – take place online, I felt that not bringing this element into the game would be missing a really essential part of our interactions.

IRWIN These characters simply love the concept of community and consensus. One of my favorite things about the show lately is the anticipation in Scene 2 of how great Scene 3 is going to be. This is pride coming before a fall.

The production’s stage manager clicks on each chat message and posts it at the exact times the script indicates lines on stage. Messages appear above the actors, for viewers and on the laptop screen, which only the actor playing Don can read.

SPECTOR It can’t be done if this actor [playing Don] There isn’t [the messages] in front of him, because at times he is a substitute for the audience – his reaction to what is happening is a substantial part of this scene.

NICKI HUNTER (Assistant Artistic Director of Manhattan Theater Club) For the first few shows, we had to make sure we amplified Bill Irwin’s voice properly – the laughter backstage was so deafening they couldn’t hear the cues.

CHARLES M. TURNER III (production stage manager) I call the off-stage display proper. I have a speaker that transmits the signal through stage microphones. But the laughter outweighs it. So sometimes I follow the script and go, “Yes, Bill said that word,” or I wait for him to make a gesture. It’s never the same twice – in a stunning way. I know it’s probably scary for a director.

ANNA D. SHAPIRO (director) You’re trying to make sure that the audience can relax into what they can’t hear, understand that they shouldn’t hear certain things, make them believe that they themselves are catching certain other things… “Oh, did you hear that?” The goal is for it to be elated, accessible and real at the same time.

TURNER Usually Bill comes off that stage and gives a salute or a thumbs up, or we look at each other strangely, or we say, “Wow, that audience.” There is always a diminutive severance package. We check this scene almost every day.

When up-to-date actors and crew members show up for the show, they are surprised by the audience’s reaction to the stage.

SPECTOR During that first performance, comments were made practically non-stop on stage, with no breaks, and not a word could be heard on stage because there was just so much laughter.

KOSZTELLO He had to go back and rewrite and work on the timing of each thing so that you could still hear some really essential lines of dialogue. He introduced pauses. Made it less fun. This improved the flow and allowed a few key lines of dialogue to land so you could follow what was happening.

JESSICA HECHT (Suzanne, parent on the executive committee) When we were at rehearsal, no one laughed. I said, “The audience will feel like I have such a delicate argument.” Jonathan said, “No, I don’t think so. I think they will laugh while watching the Zoom broadcast.” And I kept thinking, “God, he’s so cocky!” Cut to the first preview, they are screaming with laughter.

Four actors playing the parents act out the entire scene with dialogue, knowing that the audience largely doesn’t hear them or pay much attention to them.

“EUREKA DAY” SCENARIO. This is key that actors hate laughing at live commentary. The scene is constructed to allow for the loss of many lines.

HECHT I have to stay in my lane. I am not an agent of this scene. Bill and Chuck [the production stage manager] work on your dancing and very, very little is left to chance. I would compare it to some TV shows where the level of comedy is so high and you wonder if there is some brilliant improvisational spirit among the actors, and the answer is no, the film is written, directed and acted to within an inch. his life.

IRWIN Sometimes you have to think of yourself as the foreground – an essential part of the story, but an almost pantomime scene where people are talking and thinking that what they’re talking about is the most essential thing.

There are plenty of theories among the creators of this scene as to what exactly causes it.

SPECTOR At the beginning of Covid, I was constantly receiving screenshots of their children’s school via text from friends on Zoom, like, “Oh my God, I’m in on your party.”

IRWIN This is clever writing by Jonathan. He’s kind of like Berkeley Chekhov. Our illusions about where we sit and how essential we are in the world.

SPECTOR If we are actually in a room with another human being, there is a limit to how nasty we will be. But when you’re online, it just disappears.

SHAPIRO This scene makes people feel seen, validating on every level our experiences of the last few years. It was just horror with no decency. And whether or not this applies on a larger scale – and it does – it also has an impact on a national scale, which is what happens when an essentially homogeneous group of people realizes that they do not share all beliefs and thoughts.

SPECTOR [The audience’s following the chat] probably says an unfortunate lot about how our attention interacts with technology. But that’s also the thematic idea behind this scene: any attempt at thoughtful discussion and collaboration that might prove productive in real life becomes simply impossible once it’s posted online.

KOSZTELLO In some ways, art seems more relevant than before the pandemic. When the right decided that denying vaccine science had political potential, it changed this lively. The show is still about people on the left, but ultimately it is not about vaccinations. The show is about: “How do you get along with people when you can’t agree on the facts?”

IRWIN I’m very careful – I would almost employ that word loathe talk about this scene because of its tender mystery.