‘Eureka Day’ puts community and consensus to the test
“Eureka Day” by Jonathan Spector is a Tony Award-winning play that will be brought to life by the School of Performing Arts at Squires Studio Theatre, Sept. 28-Oct. 1 and Oct. 3.
Set in Berkeley, California, the play focuses on the private, progressive Eureka Day School, whose board votes to uphold its values of unity. When a mumps outbreak infiltrates their carefully crafted community, how does the board do what is best for the whole school? How do these five individuals reach a consensus when each person has their own truth?
“To me, this play is a brilliant comedic X-ray mirror — revealing and exposing us to ourselves: our unexamined contradictions and limited vision, our subterranean biases and divisions, and, often, our plain absurdity and illogic,” said Susanna Rinehart, associate dean for academic and faculty affairs for the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design and director. “Contradictions and good intentions are everywhere in this play. The comedy is in the juxtaposition between our aspirational version of ourselves and our actual behaviors, the community we long for versus the one we often cocreate and replicate; it satirizes human beings’ simultaneous competing instincts toward building community and toward rage, silencing, division, and destruction. It reminds us of the fragility of community.”
The design elements help create the world that is “Eureka Day.” Set in a library at Eureka Day School, the set design creates a juxtaposition between the playful, educational, and welcoming environment and the serious conversations that take place at the school's board meetings.
“I wanted Eureka Day to feel like a school that has thought very carefully about absolutely everything. The furniture, the artwork, the books, the toys — everything says, ‘We have made thoughtful choices here,’ probably after several meetings and a consensus. And that's part of the fun, because we put these characters into this incredibly warm, thoughtful, well-intentioned school library…and then watch that sense of control slowly disappear. At a certain point, the outside world comes crashing in and people stop behaving in a ‘Eureka Day way,'” said David Utley, visiting assistant professor of scenic and properties design.
“Eureka Day” won the 2025 Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Drama League Award for Best/Outstanding Revival of a Play, and it continues to raise important questions about how quickly a carefully crafted community can fall.
Rinehart would like for audiences to walk away with “a love of, and compassion for, our wildly flawed but mostly well-intentioned humanity.”
“Eureka Day” will be presented at Squires Studio Theatre on Sept. 28 - Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 3 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $15 for the general public and $12 for seniors and students and may be purchased through the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech ticket office in person, online, or by calling 540-231-5300. All seating is general admission. Tickets will be available at the door in the Squires Student Center beginning one hour prior to the performance. For online purchases, please visit the School of Performing Arts website.
All university community members and visitors will need to display a parking permit, use the ParkMobile app, pay a fee, or pay using an hourly meter to park on the Blacksburg campus unless otherwise noted by signage. Find additional parking information on the Parking Services website.
If you are an individual with a disability and/or desire an accommodation, please contact Emily Baker at least 10 days prior to the event.
Next on the Squires Studio Theatre Stage is “Dance Nation” by Clare Barron, directed by Julia Devine, running Nov. 10-13, and 15.
Written by Maggie Scarbrough, a graduate student in stage management.
