‘Eureka Day' playwright Jonathan Spector talks vaccine debates, vicious comment sections, and ‘the failure of a utopia'
Speaking to Gold Derby, Spector describes the creation of that infamous Zoom live-stream scene, and why he believes that the play is actually about "the failure of a utopia."
More from GoldDerby
'The worst has already happened, so now I have everything to gain': Meagan Good on love, loss, and empowering women in 'Forever'
Breakout star Owen Cooper admits 'Adolescence' was 'very out of my comfort zone'
Keanu Reeves gets his wings in 'Good Fortune' teaser, Taron Egerton sees 'Smoke,' and today's other top stories
Gold Derby: was first produced in 2018. So much has happened in the world since then, especially as it relates to the core topic of this play, including a worldwide pandemic. How do you think the play lands now versus that 2018 production?
Jonathan Spector: We were in rehearsal during the election and I guess I, probably naively, thought it was going to go the other way. So I had one idea about what I thought the play was going to mean in that context of opening with incoming President Kamala Harris. And then I have a different idea about how it landed now. It almost feels more like a document of how we got here, of the way in which caretaking and thoughtfulness and all of these tools of liberalism are just not quite up to meeting certain kinds of challenges, as evidenced by our failure to prevent [Donald] Trump from being reelected. Now [vaccines] are an issue that people have a much stronger personal connection to. Before the pandemic, people could engage with the metaphor of the play more easily as a sort of metaphor for democracy, or how you create a society with people when you can't agree on what's true. And then, coming out of the pandemic, it was hard for anybody to see anything but COVID in the play. And I think now it's a little more of a balance. The live-stream scene, although it's changed very little from what it was before, is very different for the audience because now everybody in the audience has lived through that experience many times. There's a much more visceral response to it.
Did you ever want to alter the script in any way considering those changes in the world?
There were a couple of very minor changes I made of just taking out a line here or there. Before COVID, I had to explain things a little more but now everybody knows what herd immunity is, so we don't need a character to explain that. Obviously the last line of the play is new, of looking forward to the 2019-2020 school year. Beyond that, all the changes I made were less about the pandemic and more about continuing to work on the play and just make it the best version of itself.
That live-stream moment you mentioned gets the entire audience laughing with such recognition as we see these vicious comments projected on screen. What was the impetus behind that scene?
When I was researching the play, I spent a lot of time on internet message boards where people would fight about vaccines and they would get so vicious with each other. So much of how we live now, how we engage with an issue, is online. So there was something that would be missing if I wrote a play about [vaccines], but left out that big part of how we engage with this. I also didn't want to make my characters be as nasty as people get online. The other part was just a desire to bring more of the school community into the play and not have it just be these five people who are representing everybody. The first production in Berkeley, that theater has a very old subscriber base. I think when they had done plays in the past with text projection, they found that people didn't really pay a lot of attention to it. So our expectation was that maybe most people wouldn't pay attention to it. But the first time we had an audience, you couldn't hear a word on stage because people were laughing so much. So I used to have continuous comments all the way through the scene. Then after realizing how people react, I then went through and I had to sculpt it much more to make sure that the things that are important to hear come in the clear, so the focus can shift back to the actors and then go back to the comments.
The five main characters all have these very different views, and yet they are all firmly committed to creating this ideal world for the kids and families. Why was that sense of empathy important to include within the main characters?
I think it's much more interesting if you're going to have any play with any kind of political valence or issue, that it's hard for people to be dismissive of each other. Prior to COVID, vaccines and vaccine skepticism was not particularly politicized. Knowing someone didn't vaccinate their kids didn't actually tell you if they were Democrat or Republican in the way that it now is very correlated, but back then it was maybe the only contentious issue that was not correlated with your politics. People on the right and left were both skeptical of vaccines for different reasons. So that then allowed it to be about people who all basically had the same worldview and the same values and wanted the same things, and it was just this one thing that they lived in different realities about. To me, the play is really about the failure of a utopia. They had this thing that worked really well for a really long time, until it finally came up against something that it couldn't overcome.
The skepticism side of the argument is highlighted quite beautifully in Jessica Hecht's monologue. Her character Suzanne reveals a heartbreaking loss of a child, which led her down the path of vaccine denialism. What went into creating that moment?
When I was writing that, my daughter was less than 1. That first year, you're so paranoid, you're always going in and checking if they're breathing constantly. So, when I listen to that monologue now, I think that's a very visceral fear. It's so distant from my life now, but at the time you could really touch it. And then I feel like it's always the most interesting, sometimes the most fun, to be writing from the point of view of the character who you disagree with, and trying to find the most truthful and empathetic way that they got there. The other thing that informed that monologue is I watched this documentary created by Andrew Wakefield, who's the discredited doctor who put forward the link between autism and vaccines and lost his medical license in the U.K. He is kind of a charlatan, but he put out this documentary about vaccines, and they have these parents whose kids have really severe developmental disabilities that they believe are caused by vaccines. And the thing is, even though that guy is clearly just a fraud, when you see these parents, even if I think they're wrong about the reason their kids are like this, the pain they're feeling about their kids is very real. I wanted to somehow hold onto it as well. Just because you might not be right about what's happening doesn't mean that there's not real suffering there.
After the show ended, I heard a lot of audience members remarking that they unexpectedly felt for Suzanne. Have you heard positive reactions from audience members on both sides of this issue?
I wanted to be really careful about feeling like you're being fair and truthful about where people are coming from, but not just ethically. If I felt like if somebody walks out of the play and feels like, oh no, maybe I shouldn't vaccinate my kids now, that would be like I was doing some real harm. I don't think that's where the play comes down. And all the research is that it's actually extremely difficult to change someone's mind about vaccines, and so it's not going to happen with a play. I mostly found that people have responded pretty positively. I guess a handful of pretty committed people that I've talked to who have seen the play, felt like their point of view was represented fairly. Somebody said they feel like everybody's ganging up on them all the time, and that's what was shown in the play. And so I was like, okay, well, I'm glad that they felt that. But, it's a tricky line to walk. That's what's so great about having these wonderful actors like Jess and Amber [Gray], who can hold such nuance in their performances.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions
Best of GoldDerby
Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT?
Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow'
'It should be illegal how much fun I'm having': Lea Salonga on playing Mrs. Lovett and more in 'Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends'
Click here to read the full article.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
16 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Mom Captures Happy Family Moment—Not Knowing Hours Later Life Would Change
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. After being couped up in the house with COVID, a mom captured a video of her husband running outside with their four children. It was a picturesque family day out, but she never could have imagined that just hours later their world would be forever changed. In March 2022, Tracey Gairns Brioux and her family were struck down by COVID. It started with her son, then it spread to her, her husband John, and their other three children. She told Newsweek that she was "incredibly sick for 10 days," and the family couldn't leave their home for around 10 days. When they were finally feeling well enough to go outside, John suggested going out for a 6-mile run. He and Tracey, both 45, were training for half-Ironman triathlons at the time, so peak fitness was imperative. "Everyone was so glad to be out of the house and was feeling pretty happy," Tracey, from Canada, said. Tracey (left) and John (right) pose outdoors with their four children prior to his stroke. Tracey (left) and John (right) pose outdoors with their four children prior to his stroke. @traceygairnsbrioux / TikTok Tracey captured a video of John running with his children, a clip she shared on TikTok (@traceygairnsbrioux) as it seemed like a celebratory moment. However, later that evening, John's health took a turn for the worse. He was reading a bedtime story to their 5-year-old son, but, when he stood up afterward, he collapsed. "He stayed conscious but said it was the most-intense pain in his head he had ever experienced. He managed to crawl into our bedroom and get into bed, then called for my oldest son to come get me. I found him lying in our bed holding his head," Tracey said. The pain was so severe that John even broke one of his teeth from clenching his jaw so hard. Tracey initially thought it was a migraine, so she asked her mom to come round and assess him, as she used to be a nurse. It was clearly more than a migraine, however, so Tracey called an ambulance. She recalled the events of that night were like "an out-of-body experience." She watched it all unfold but was completely powerless. A CT scan was done at the local hospital, and doctors suspected an aneurysm, requiring surgery. John had to be transferred to a hospital two hours away in New Brunswick. Tracey said: "My father drove me to the hospital as there was no room in the ambulance. When we got there, I ran in anxiously to see how he was doing, but I was met by security who told me I couldn't go in. I was shocked and told them I needed to make sure my husband was still alive, and I needed to speak to someone." Due to the COVID restrictions in place at the time, visitors were allowed in hospital rooms only if the patient was likely to die. Nurses told Tracey that her husband would remain in hospital for two weeks and that no one would be allowed in his room. When Tracey learned that she couldn't even be by her husband's side, she dropped to her knees. A devastating situation became even more difficult. She said: "When we finally got to talk to someone, the doctor said it was a brain bleed, a form of stroke, so he wouldn't need brain surgery, which was a huge relief. "We were able to eventually get his phone to him so we could FaceTime, and I stayed in a nearby hotel while he was recovering in ICU," Tracey said. John experienced a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is bleeding between the brain and the membrane covering it. Various studies have drawn links between COVID and brain bleeds. A study published by the American Academy of Neurology in 2022 suggested that people with COVID who have an ischemic stroke may be more likely to suffer bleeding in their brain and worse outcomes during treatment. The study showed that COVID patients had an 80 percent higher risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage compared to those without it. A review published in 2021 also highlighted that COVID increases the risk of an intercranial hemorrhage compared to other respiratory viruses and is more common among patients who are older or critically ill. Brain bleeds in COVID patients may also lead to longer ICU stays, greater need for ventilation, and higher mortality rates. Tracey and John pose after he was discharged from ICU, left; and the husband sits at the stroke rehab facility, right. Tracey and John pose after he was discharged from ICU, left; and the husband sits at the stroke rehab facility, right. @traceygairnsbrioux / TikTok John's recovery hasn't been easy. Upon leaving the hospital, he had to rent a hotel room for two weeks just so he could have a space with complete darkness and no noise. Tracey said that any stimulation or loud noise was hard for her husband to process, and the best thing he could do was rest. The brain bleed significantly reduced his endurance and energy levels. He was a father of four training for an Ironman race, and suddenly having one conversation with someone was enough to leave him exhausted for a whole day. Any noise, lights or screens would cause John to experience headaches, dizziness, irritability, and overwhelm. "He was used to being busy in a classroom of students, coaching hockey to three of our kids, and being active. In those early days, when his energy reserves ran out, it was like his brain just stopped working," Tracey said. For months, John was confined to his bed and was off work for six months, before making a gradual return to teaching in September 2022. Thankfully, three years on, he is doing so much better. He can do almost everything he used to do, but he is more mindful of his body's limits. At the time, John asked his doctors why the brain bleed happened to him, and why then. They couldn't say, but that told him the reason he survived is because he was healthy, young, and active. From left: John and Tracey pose with their four children; and John stands with his eldest son after a hockey provincial. From left: John and Tracey pose with their four children; and John stands with his eldest son after a hockey provincial. @traceygairnsbrioux / TikTok Tracey has continued to struggle with the effects of long COVID, a chronic condition triggered by the infection. There is no universal definition, but the Mayo Clinic suggests that common symptoms of long COVID include extreme tiredness, brain fog, dizziness, shortness of breath, headaches, and digestion problems. Tracey often feels like she is running on empty or like her "body is faulty." After years of confusion, she said she finally recognizes why she constantly feels so unwell. Now, she hopes to raise awareness for anyone else who may be struggling. "A mantra I hold on to is that healing is never linear," Tracey said. "When we are well, our health is so easy to take for granted. Don't wait until you are forced or until the rug is pulled out from beneath you—do everything you can to protect it. "This virus can do lasting damage to your body and nervous system, but there are ways to try and undo it if you know what the culprit is." Is there a health issue that's worrying you? Let us know via health@ We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Trump's policies have already hurt New York City. Now he's threatening a federal takeover of the city
Donald Trump ImmigrationFacebookTweetLink Follow President Donald Trump is threatening to seize control of New York City. But the city may face even bigger problems from Trump's policy agenda than the military potentially marching through Central Park or Times Square. 'I'm going to look at New York in a little while,' Trump said Monday while he took federal control of Washington, DC's police force and mobilized National Guard troops. This follows Trump's deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles in June. But it's the Trump administration's economic and immigration policies that are already damaging America's largest city and may hurt its future. These policies – along with GOP cuts to the social safety net — could also stymie Zohran Mamdani's affordability agenda. Mamdani, the democratic socialist favored to become New York City's next mayor, won the Democratic primary in an upset victory on promises to make the nation's most expensive city more affordable. 'Broadly, the city's economy and public safety are in a strong place. The risks to them at this moment are largely coming from Trump and the erratic nature of tariffs,' said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a previous mayoral candidate who has endorsed Mamdani. Trump's tariff policies 'pose very real risks to the global economy and cities that are closely tied into it — New York City, first and foremost.' New York City is on track this year to record the lowest number of shootings and murders in its recorded history. And its economy has bounced back from the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The city lost 23% of its jobs during March and April 2020 but now has roughly 200,000 more jobs than it did pre-pandemic, according to the Labor Department. But Trump's trade war is weakening those hard-fought gains. New York City's thousands of businesses added just a net 956 private-sector jobs in the first half of the year. While that counted as growth, it was the slowest outside a recession in decades. 'Trump's policies create conditions that will likely be inconducive to job growth in the near future,' the left-leaning New School's Center for New York City Affairs said in a July report. Trump's policies are also keeping foreign tourists away from one of the most desirable cities in the world to visit. International tourism is expected to fall by 17% this year, or 2 million fewer travelers, led by Canadian visitors staying home after Trump threatened to annex the country. Meanwhile, Trump's deportation push is reverberating through New York City's economy, labor market and immigrant communities. New York State has roughly 670,000 undocumented immigrants, and 80% are in the workforce, mainly in food service, construction and home health care. The labor force participation rate in New York City among Hispanic men, one target of Trump's deportation efforts, has dropped 3.6 percentage points since the third quarter of 2024, according to the New School. It was the largest decline of any group. Trump's anti-immigration agenda also damages the 'competitive advantage' and 'mystique' New York City has long enjoyed as a destination for creative talent from around the globe, said Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist and political strategist. Many in New York City's business community have been supportive of Trump's policies on taxes, deregulation and attempting to bring jobs back to America. Bill Ackman, John Paulson, John Catsimatidis and other city business leaders have also praised Trump. In a statement to CNN, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the Trump administration has implemented a 'multi-faceted, pro-growth agenda of deregulation, the tax cuts of The One Big Beautiful Bill, fair trade deals, and tariffs.' Leading businesses have responded by pledging trillions in new manufacturing investments into the United States, he said. 'If New York Democrats stopped abetting violent crime and got out of the way of productive enterprise instead of putting forward radical communists like Zohran Mamdani, New York could be booming under President Trump, too,' Desai said. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted last month jeopardizes the financial stability of the city in the coming years, state officials and budget experts say. 'Prospectively, federal budget cuts are the most serious threat to the city,' said Kathryn Wylde, the longtime leader of the Partnership for New York City, an influential business group. 'The New York economy is doing very well. Our tax base is stronger than ever. The question is how long will that last if we have mass deportations, high tariffs and a loss of federal funds?' The bill will result in 1.5 million New Yorkers losing health insurance coverage; 300,000 households losing some or all of their SNAP benefits; $13 billion in cuts to New York's health care system with 200,000 job losses; higher long-term energy costs by eliminating clean energy projects, according to state estimates. New York State also faces a $34 billion budget deficit in the wake of federal spending cuts and a softening economy, the biggest gap since the 2008 financial crisis, the state's comptroller announced in a report last week. 'Like other states, New York now faces a new crisis it has to overcome,' state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement. State governments will be 'facing drastic reductions in federal aid that could force difficult decisions about state revenue and spending priorities.' Trump's public threats against New York City have ramped up in recent months. After Mamdani won New York City's Democratic mayoral primary in June, Trump warned he may use federal power to seize control if Mamdani becomes mayor. (Mamdani's campaign did not respond to request for comment.) The Trump administration also sued to block New York City's congestion pricing program, which would choke off a key revenue source to upgrade public transit, and warned it would withhold federal funding for transit projects if New York did not comply. Many of New York City's power brokers are concerned about Trump's public attacks against the city but also about the prospects of Mamdani's victory. He has vowed to freeze rents on rent-stabilized units, make public buses free, implement universal child care and build affordable housing units. He said he would push state leaders to raise taxes on higher-income earners and corporations to pay for his plans. Many business leaders have lined up against him. 'I wish I were hearing more from some of the business leaders expressing concerns about Zohran about these very real and present dangers that are not theoretical and are happening right now under Trump,' Lander said. He also acknowledged that the more precarious fiscal landscape Trump's policies have created may make it tougher for Mamdani to push the state to adopt his programs. 'Money that is needed to address cuts to Medicaid or SNAP or housing assistance is money that you can't use to expand childcare or free buses or affordable housing,' Lander said.
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
California valley fever cases hit record highs again in 2025, state reports
The latest California numbers suggest 2025 will be another record-smashing year for valley fever, the illness linked to drought and precipitation and spread by fungal spores. There were 6,761 cases reported through the end of July, according to state health officials — a significant increase over the 10-year average of 3,833 for that same time period and a slight jump from last year's total of 6,364. The 10-year low was in 2016, when there was less than a quarter of what there is now. Last year's total of nearly 12,500 cases is the most on record for California and far more than the 7,000 to 9,000 cases per year the state averaged between 2016 and 2024. 'California had a record year for Valley fever in 2024 and, so far, case counts are high in 2025. Valley fever is a serious illness that's here to stay in California,' said Erica Pan, director of the state public health department. Officials say the current count is likely to be revised upward as there are often delays in reporting. Valley fever is most prevalent in the San Joaquin Valley and southern part of the state where the fungus, Coccidioides, thrives in dry, arid soil. Case numbers are also climbing in the northern Central Valley, though, and along the state's Central Coast. Researchers speculate the rise is tied to patterns of drought and precipitation. Periods of severe drought followed by wet winter and dry summer seem to coincide with more people getting sick. They also suspect climate change has expanded the fungi's range into areas where it was previously rare. For instance, since 2023, Monterey County's case numbers have exploded. There were 47 cases in 2023 and 348 this year as of July 31. Cases also doubled since 2023 in Contra Costa, Fresno, San Luis Obispo and Merced counties. People contract Valley fever by inhaling the Coccidioides spores, released when wind, wildfire, tractors, bulldozers, digging or even dancing disturbs the soil. Last year, at least 19 people who attended Lightning in a Bottle, a five-day music and art festival held at Buena Vista lake in Kern County, got sick — including several with pneumonia-like symptoms, rashes, headaches and exhaustion. But most people infected won't get symptoms and will fight off the infection naturally. Those who do feel sick may be hard-pressed to know what they have, since the symptoms are similar to COVID or the flu, further complicating efforts to address the disease. 'We want to remind Californians, travelers to California and their healthcare providers to watch for signs and symptoms of Valley fever to help detect it early,' Pan said. In rare cases, the fungus can spread to other parts of the body and cause severe disease or death. Valley fever is not contagious. Pan urged people to seek help from a medical provider if they've had a cough, fever, trouble breathing and tiredness for more than 7 to 10 days — especially if they've been outdoors in dusty air in the Central Valley or Central Coast regions. Pets are also susceptible. Health officials said people can reduce their risk while traveling in the San Joaquin Valley and much of the southwestern United States by staying indoors and keeping doors and windows closed when it's windy; keeping car windows closed and using recirculated air instead of fresh; wetting soil before digging or disrupting; and wearing a properly fitted N95 mask if the outdoors can't be avoided.
