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Friday, August 29, 2025
Vaccine Satire ‘Eureka Day’ Comes Home to the Bay Area
KQED: Over the past seven years, Bay Area actor Lisa Anne Porter has gained a deep appreciation for her character Suzanne, the founder of a fictional private school in Berkeley and a mother of six who refuses to vaccinate her kids.
2 comments:
DogBlog
said...
This show really could not be more relevant to what is happening in America today. With Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known anti-vaxxer, sitting as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services and the growing “Make America Healthy Movement” it is even more vital we talk about the dangers of the anti-vaccine, anti-science and anti-education sentiments in America. More and more people are becoming skeptical of science. We are currently facing a literacy crisis in America. As our understanding of the world (especially science) becomes more complex, the need for higher levels of reading comprehension becomes more and more necessary. With over half of Americans reading at or below a sixth grade level, the gutting of the US Department of Education though major budget cuts, and the continued inaccessibility of higher education, no wonder there is a growing anti-vax movement. What breaks my heart are the children who have been and will be impacted. As of this year, two children have died in Texas due to a measles outbreak. Their deaths were preventable and ignorance as much to blame as the disease itself.
I saw Eureka Day during its Broadway run in New York City (using the MCC 30 under 30 program to get awesome-ly priced tickets!) and I really enjoyed it. I not only live in a very rich white town, but in high school I transferred to a private school for the first time during covid so this production really hit home on all of the nuances that come from parents, schools, vaccines, respecting personal beliefs vs. trying to do what is best for the community. It was not only hilarious but extremely poignant, and I could not help drawing parallels to COVID (which then at the end of the play is revealed is about to come up). I think this show is so perfect for audiences right now and love the different iterations it could take. I am not sure, but I also think the show is set in California so I’d be interested to see how much more pointed it becomes in the Bay Area.
2 comments:
This show really could not be more relevant to what is happening in America today. With Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known anti-vaxxer, sitting as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services and the growing “Make America Healthy Movement” it is even more vital we talk about the dangers of the anti-vaccine, anti-science and anti-education sentiments in America. More and more people are becoming skeptical of science. We are currently facing a literacy crisis in America. As our understanding of the world (especially science) becomes more complex, the need for higher levels of reading comprehension becomes more and more necessary. With over half of Americans reading at or below a sixth grade level, the gutting of the US Department of Education though major budget cuts, and the continued inaccessibility of higher education, no wonder there is a growing anti-vax movement. What breaks my heart are the children who have been and will be impacted. As of this year, two children have died in Texas due to a measles outbreak. Their deaths were preventable and ignorance as much to blame as the disease itself.
I saw Eureka Day during its Broadway run in New York City (using the MCC 30 under 30 program to get awesome-ly priced tickets!) and I really enjoyed it. I not only live in a very rich white town, but in high school I transferred to a private school for the first time during covid so this production really hit home on all of the nuances that come from parents, schools, vaccines, respecting personal beliefs vs. trying to do what is best for the community. It was not only hilarious but extremely poignant, and I could not help drawing parallels to COVID (which then at the end of the play is revealed is about to come up). I think this show is so perfect for audiences right now and love the different iterations it could take. I am not sure, but I also think the show is set in California so I’d be interested to see how much more pointed it becomes in the Bay Area.
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