Are you curious about Seattle Rep's production of Eureka Day? Learn more with our list of fun facts about the show!

^{Director Matthew Leavitt and actors Sara Hennessy and Quinn Mattfeld in rehearsals for Eureka Day (2026) at Seattle Rep. Photo by Sayed Alamy.}

Five Things to Know About Eureka Day:

1. It's a satire about a community in disagreement over vaccines but written before COVID?! That's right!

Eureka Day premiered in 2018 at Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, California. Which means Jonathan Spector wrote Eureka Day around 2015-2017. In a 2025 interview with American Theatre, Spector spoke about the subject matter: 

"When I began working on it, I was really just trying to write a very Berkeley play about a very specific place and a very specific group of people. The reason vaccine skepticism seemed like an interesting thing to explore was because, at that time, it was the one issue where you could have people who basically all agree about everything except for this one thing. In doing research, I had spent a lot of time in the dark recesses of weird message boards and grappling the strange beliefs people had. This was also in the lead up to the 2016 election, so it was also a scary moment of realizing how the whole country was living in these two very separate realities."

^{Assistant Director Amelia Rose Estrada and Director Matthew Leavitt in rehearsals for Eureka Day (2026) at Seattle Rep. Photo by Sayed Alamy.}

2. Eureka Day premiered in 2018, but won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play in 2025

When we think of play "revivals," we usually think of a play that had a Broadway run, and is returning (like Cabaret or Chicago), but Eureka Day's story is a bit different. According to the Tony Award Administration Committee, the play's premiere Off-Broadway in 2019 and a London debut in 2022 made it eligible for an award under the "revival" category in 2025.

^{Quinn Mattfeld, Sara Hennessy, and Jonathan Slavin in rehearsals for Eureka Day (2026) at Seattle Rep. Photo by Sayed Alamy.}

3. Eureka Day has made American Theatre's Top Produced Plays List two years in a row!

American Theatre's list includes the hottest plays on stage in the United States. In addition to Eureka Day, our current season includes two more shows on this list that you can still see: John Proctor is the Villain and Peter Pan Goes Wrong. (Our 2025/26 Season included two shows on last year's list—Come From Away and The Heart Sellers.)

^{Nemuna Ceesay (foreground), Quinn Mattfeld, Sara Hennessy, and Jonathan Slavin (background) in rehearsals for Eureka Day (2026) at Seattle Rep. Photo by Sayed Alamy.}

4. It really is a comedy!

It might be hard to picture a play about vaccine disagreements between parents as a comedic gem, but this play definitely hits its mark. Here are just a few words from critics about Eureka Day:

“A hilarious poison-pen satire… [it’s] a yellow thumbs-up emoji.”
— The New York Times

“A needle-sharp vaccine comedy.”
— New York Theatre Guide

“Hilarious! Laughter is making a big comeback.”
— The New York Times

^{Sara Hennessy, Director Matthew Leavitt, Jonathan Slavin (foreground), and Marena Kleinpeter (background) in rehearsals for Eureka Day (2026). Photo by Sayed Alamy.}

5. You just might see some familiar faces! 

Some of the cast and creative teams have worked with Seattle Rep before:

• Sara Hennessy (Suzanne)  - The Skin of Our Teeth
• Ashley Song (Meiko) - The Play That Goes Wrong
• Robert J. Aguilar (Lighting Designer) - multiple shows here at Seattle Rep including Come From Away (2025), Laughs in Spanish, The Skin of Our Teeth, Fat Ham, Lydia and the Troll, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Indecent, In the Heights, MAC BETH, I Am My Own Wife, Lizard Boy (and just won a Sound On Stage Award for Appropriate!)
• Sara C Walsh (Scenic Designer) - several Seattle Rep shows including The Rent Party, Laughs in Spanish, Sanctuary City
• LB Morse (Projections Designer and former Seattle Rep lighting, scenery, and multimedia designer) - Indecent (2019, scenic), Public Works’ As You Like It (2019, scenic/projections) and The Odyssey (2017, scenic/projections), Constellations (2016, scenic/lighting), Lizard Boy (2015, scenic/projections), and The Hound of the Baskervilles (2013, scenic/lighting/projections)
• Jeffrey K. Hanson (Stage Manager) - Mary Jane, Laughs in Spanish, Metamorphoses (2024 and 2000), Selling Kabul, True West (1997), and more

^{Ashley Song knitting in-between scenes during rehearsals for Eureka Day (2026). Photo by Sayed Alamy.}

Now that you know the fun facts, it's time to grab your tickets to Eureka Day! Playing September 24–November 15 at Seattle Rep.

Tickets »