By Kilian Melloy

Boston stage veteran Ken Cheeseman has seen the malaise of our moment up close. “I was in Nairobi, Kenya, working with women healthcare workers the day that USAID got cut,” Cheeseman, who works with the Obama Foundation and the Gates Foundation, tells QulturVultur. “I had to listen to women on the phone between our workshops talking to their administrators. When they came back, I said, ‘How bad is this?’ And they said, ‘In nine days, people will start dying.’ It’s no joke. I was back in Kigali Rwanda about two or three months later, and the impact has been devastating. All of the stuff that we imagine is really bad is really, really, really bad. Really bad.”

That doesn’t mean he can’t find the funny amidst the fury and the humanity amongst the horror. “My next thing is another trip to Africa for Gates Foundation, doing improvisation work and theater work with women who do healthcare work in East Africa,” Cheeseman adds.But not quite yet: First Cheeseman takes to the Huntington Theatre stage from May 28 – June 28, at the center of Jonathan Spector’s 2016 play Eureka Day, which is very much a comedy of the times. (For more on the Huntington production, follow this link.)

Forged a decade ago as the cracks in our society jolted into canyons, the play relates how a mumps epidemic threatens to annihilate the social fabric and progressive comity of a private school where policy has long been decided by consensus. But the very ideas to which the school’s board aspire warp unto wedges as clashing worldviews… and plenty of online misinformation… flood the room and the imperfect personal lives of the board members become distractions from the crucial work of charting a course through the crisis.

The play premiered in Berkeley, California in 2017, then off-Broadway the following year. Following the pandemic, it played London in 2022, then arrived on Broadway in 2024. Considered the play’s second engagement, it won the Best Revival category at the 2025 Tony Awards. Plans to move the production to the Kennedy Center were canceled due to “financial circumstances” according to the Center, but it was thought political factors played into that decision. The Huntington production marks the play’s Boston premiere.

Cheeseman plays the school’s principal,Don, who reaches far and hard in his efforts to accommodate all points of view with respect and attention. But as the vitriol climbs and the situation spins out of control, Don finds himself slipping from a place of diplomacy and into the mindset of someone trapped in an increasingly unruly elementary school classroom. “I’ve taught third and fourth graders,” the actor imparts. “I think I start feeling like, ‘Okay, I’m dealing with the adult world now,’ but then they begin to act just like the kids, and it’s like, ‘Oh my God. Now I’ve got to become the teacher.’”

Director Margot Bordelon works with Cheeseman and the rest of the cast to thread a needle between the satirical and the serious, and between the play’s comedy and its determination to treat each of its well-written characters as people rather than caricatures. Ken Cheeseman told us all about it on a recent Zoom call.

QulturVultur: Eureka Day makes me feel like I’m having a flashback to the COVID pandemic. Has that been a sense you’ve had in the room as you rehearse?

Ken Cheeseman: It brings back some bittersweet memories. I was still an artist in residence at Emerson College as COVID hit, and, “How are we going to do a classroom on Zoom,” and all those challenges of not being in the room at the same time… the franticness of the early days of that — God, just a nightmare. The odd thing is, some good stuff came out of it; you and I are having this conversation. I run Zoom classes and do consulting on Zoom all the time now.

QulturVultur: The play is a comedy, but the intention is not to make fun of these characters; but to regard them as smart, well-intentioned people. How difficult a balance is that to maintain? 

Ken Cheeseman: I think the reason I end up doing a lot of comedy is the more serious I try to be in my life, the more ridiculous I sometimes appear. I think that this character of Don is similar to that. I think that his intentions are absolutely as close to the heart as they can be. I like this guy. He makes a lot of mistakes, as everyone does, but they’re not based on mal intent; they’re not based on him trying to give people grief. It’s just based on how he is functioning in life, just doing his best. I think that’s what makes it funny; you got five people trying to do their best for the school and for their kids.

QulturVultur: Another thing that I wonder about in the rehearsal room is whether your conversations tend to circle around to, “Okay, this is definitely something that was probably inspired by the COVID pandemic, but now here we are with outbreaks of measles, and we’re even having fears that polio could come back, so how does that relate to this moment?” 

Ken Cheeseman: Well, you know, the play was originally written in 2016.

QulturVultur: Oh my God, prescient.

Ken Cheeseman: If you recall, there was a measles outbreak at Disneyland in 2014 in California, and it prompted California to rewrite their immunization policy for their schools because they discovered that large swaths of the population of all political spectrums had not been vaccinating their kids, so they’d fallen below the threshold. That’s the origin of the [play]. Then, ironically, COVID hit, so Jonathan made some adaptations. I think the writing is just terrific. I think he’s done a really great job, because it’s not just about the vaccines, it’s not just about the pandemic, it’s about the five people in the room.

QulturVultur: The play has such rich characterization. There are things happening that could be a whole subplot and take pages and pages in another play that feel like they’re very much a part of the fabric of what’s happening.

Ken Cheeseman: That is exactly it. When your friend suddenly starts doing micro aggressions to a Black woman in the room and you’re like, “What the frick? Where’s that coming from?” — this is where Don becomes incapable. Like, how to deal with that?

QulturVultur: And yet, at least some of the school’s board members are truly dedicated to hearing all points of view and welcoming different perspectives. That’s completely different to somebody who says, “You’re out of bounds. Bring this back right now.” It’s a very difficult place for your character to be.

Ken Cheeseman: Yeah, it’s weird, because the only dogma that they follow is an open perspective and agreeing to consensus. We have these core values, we’re going to build a thriving community, and even that ends up being part of what screws us up. It really is revealing. I think it was yesterday I started to get the sense of how tribal human beings really are. Then, within the tribe, how do we exclude the member who’s misbehaving? How do human beings deal with that stuff? I feel like Jonathan Spector got to some major-league, core stuff.

QulturVultur: What is your technique for when your scene partner is a projection of a mob’s worth of online comments?

Ken Cheeseman: Right now, what’s happening is I’m picking and choosing which ones I’m [reacting to]. There’s a whole bunch I don’t see. I’m hearing the guys talking behind me, and I’m trying to facilitate a panel discussion with them, but then at certain points, “Oh no, look what somebody just said.” And then it’s, “Oh my god, you people are saying horrible things to each other!” There are certain points where I take it in, and then other points where it’s a juggling act. I’m working on that right now.

Ken Cheeseman: I’m amazed at the quality of the writing and the specificity. It’s just classic. So fabulous.

QulturVultur: It seems like it’s possible that some characters might sow discord to get their way. Is that a dynamic that’s emerging in your cast?

Ken Cheeseman: I can only speak from the Don perspective, and I do feel like there are strategies that start to take place that I do think are well intentioned [and are] for the survival of the group. I guess those could be seen as manipulations. I think that Don hopes they’re more organic [than strategic].

QulturVultur: How is the director, Margot Bordelon, helping you how not to make fun of these people while finding the comedy, but also not shying away from the horror of the situation?

Ken Cheeseman: Man, Margot is great. This stuff really begins with putting the right people in the room, and I think all of us as actors are of the same mind that nobody wants to send any of these people up. Margo is wonderful at keeping us on point of playing the language that Jonathan put out there, to adhere to the characters as written and as created, and to absolutely trust the play and to trust one another. Having somebody in the room who’s doing that is it’s just such a relief. You’ve got somebody there holding the fort, and we’re all depending on her for exactly what you’re asking. 

QulturVultur: Are you all having a lot of fun as you figure this out? Are you getting into arguments like your characters would be?

Ken Cheeseman: No arguments. It’s unbelievably fun, because the play is so fun. Also, it’s a beast; we’ve got to be so sharp on the language. We’re still in that stage where we’re going, “Oh geez, what am I saying here? And did I say it before?” I wouldn’t want to be doing it with any other group of people. The cast is just spectacular. 

“Eureka Day” plays May 28 – June 28 at The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston.For tickets and more information, follow this link.