INTERVIEW: Vaccine debate takes centerstage in ‘Eureka Day’ at MTC
Photo: From left, Amber Gray and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz star in Eureka Day. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Daniel / Provided by The Press Room NYC with permission.
Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Eureka Day, a comedy written by Jonathan Spector, takes the vaccine debate that has been at the forefront of American society these past few years and places it in the setting of an elite private school in the Bay Area of California. Audience members enter the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway and find themselves transported to a school library that emphasizes social justice; it’s within these book-lined walls that a debate will stir about how the school should educate its young students, how to write memos to parents and, perhaps most importantly, what should happen with the school’s vaccine policy.
At first, the members of the Board of Directors seem aligned on their progressive agenda when it comes to educating the students. These parents and the school administrator see eye to eye on ensuring everyone feels welcomed and that diversity is promoted, but then discomfort enters the proceedings when the ever-present vaccine debate impacts the assembled group. The parents start divulging how they feel about the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR), and this Board of Directors is pushed in ways they perhaps didn’t foresee.
Oh, and it’s a comedy, with great emphasis on the laughs that can materialize when grown adults realize they’re not in full agreement with their neighbors.
The cast consists of Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. They are directed by Anna D. Shapiro. For Yakura-Kurtz, this is not only her Broadway debut, but her New York theater debut, and she’s having a thrilling experience in Midtown Manhattan.
“The whole thing is just elating on every level,” Yakura-Kurtz said in a recent phone interview. “Just because it’s the first, and I didn’t know what to expect, I had a lot of nerves around opening and reviews. So, it’s been both a relief in that sense and also a total delight. It makes me really happy that a play that I love so deeply and am so proud of is resonating with audiences. That makes me very, very happy.”
When Yakura-Kurtz first read the play, she was immediately hooked. She thought the comedy was smart and cleverly crafted, and she appreciated that the dialogue didn’t trade in stereotypes or didacticism.
“Even though it’s about a very relevant and very hot issue right now, it really shows you human beings who are on many different sides, I would say, of this ideological debate and really lets the audience, I hope, sympathize with every single one of them at different points throughout the play,” she said. “And I remember thinking, this is such a relevant play not just because of the topic of vaccines specifically, but also because I think we’re in a political moment right now where it’s very, very hard to find empathy for people who are sort of on the other side of the aisle from you. I feel like this play gives an example of how to listen.”
Listening is key in Eureka Day, but it doesn’t come easy. Feelings are hurt, secrets are betrayed and assumptions are made based on one’s beliefs, but eventually these parents come around to a place of understanding, if not acceptance. Yakura-Kurtz’s character is Meiko, a pivotal role in the narrative.
“I love Meiko,” said Yakura-Kurtz, who has appeared in a number of Los Angeles theater shows. “I would say there are ways in which we are very, very similar and ways in which we are very, very different. Just in terms of where she lands on the idea of vaccines, I land in a completely different place than she does, at least where she is at the beginning of the play. … So, who she is as a human really resonates with me, [even though] … where she falls on that particular question feels very different from me. And I feel very grateful that she resonated with me as much as she did because I was able to get under the skin of that question by just loving her as a human.”
Working in this cast has been a dream come true for Yakura-Kurtz. She called her fellow colleagues wonderful human beings who are luminaries of the New York stage. “They are kind and generous, and they care about the craft of acting,” she said. “No one is phoning it in. There’s never been any ego or tension this entire process, but also because all of them are luminaries. They’re just brilliant, brilliant performers. I’m just enjoying myself all the time, but I also feel like I’m learning all the time from all four of the rest of them.”
The other cast member is the audience, which is crucial for a comedy. Yakura-Kurtz knew the play would resonate, and she knew it was funny, but it took having the crowd at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre to see the full potential of the piece.
“The way we attack the play has changed in a big way,” she said. “The way the audience responds to it really, really informs the way it’s delivered. Yeah, it has come miles and miles, I would say, from what we were assembling in the first rehearsal.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Eureka Day, featuring Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz, continues its extended run through Sunday, Feb. 2, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
