Passion reignited: Timely satire ‘Eureka Day’ lures TimeLine co-founder and artistic director back to acting
Over 29 years, TimeLine Theatre co-founder and longtime artistic director PJ Powers has overseen more than 90 productions — 16 world premieres and 40 local premieres among them — which earned the Chicago company 63 Joseph Jefferson Awards.
The actor-turned-administrator spent much of his tenure out of the spotlight. In the last 15 years, Powers appeared in only two TimeLine productions: 2015’s “The Apple Family Plays: That Hopey Changey Thing” and 2011’s revival of “The Front Page.”
Next week (11 years to the day after his last outing), the Evanston resident returns to the stage in Timeline and Broadway in Chicago’s regional premiere of “Eureka Day,” Jonathan Spector’s Tony Award-winning satire on progressivism and “wokeness.”
“This show has reignited my passion for acting,” said Powers, a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University, who stepped away from acting to focus on TimeLine’s new home, a project that has occupied most of the last decade and which opens this spring in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.
“It felt like the right time and, more importantly, the right role,” says Powers of “Eureka Day,” in which he plays the head of a progressive California school in the middle of a mumps outbreak who attempts to facilitate conversation and achieve consensus among contentious parents.
Powers praises Spector’s masterful writing.
“Sometimes you dig deeper into a play and the further you dig you start to see its flaws. This is the exact opposite,” he said.
According to Powers, the playwright is adamant that his characters not become caricatures or targets of ridicule. That might score easy laughs early on, but as Powers explains, “the second half won’t work if we’re mocking these people.”
“Eureka Day” marks the fourth Broadway in Chicago/TimeLine collaboration. The first was 2013’s BIC remount of a 2010 TimeLine commission “To Master the Art,” William Brown and Doug Frew’s affectionate bio-drama about chef Julia Child’s decade in Paris. “Oslo,” J.T. Rogers’ Tony Award-winning political drama about clandestine Middle East peacemaking efforts during the early 1990s, followed in 2019. The most recent was 2023’s “The Lehman Trilogy,” Ben Power’s adaptation of Stefano Massini’s expansive drama chronicling the rise and collapse of the powerhouse Lehman Brothers investment bank.
Compatible missions — TimeLine’s commitment to presenting “stories inspired by history that connect with today’s social and political issues” and BIC’s commitment to bringing Broadway’s best to Chicago-area audiences — make the collaboration possible.
A win-win for both organizations, Powers says the co-production introduces BIC fans to a local mainstay and Chicago artists while TimeLine subscribers experience the show in the larger, more suitable Broadway Playhouse.
Founded in 1997 by Powers and fellow DePaul University theater grads Nick Bowling, Brock Goldberg, Kevin Hagan, Juliet Hart and Pat Tiedemann (each of whom contributed $50 to fund the company), TimeLine has long been animated by chutzpah and ambition.
That was evident in 2000, when TimeLine received the rights to the Midwest premiere of “Not About Nightingales,” an early Tennessee Williams’ play “rediscovered” in 1998.
“That was the play that put us on the map,” Powers recalled. “People thought: ‘How did this company get the rights to this?’”
“From that point on, we thought, why not us?” he continued. “We might get beat out by a larger institution … but let’s go after, as aggressively as we can, the shows we know we can deliver.”
Another landmark production occurred in 2009 with TimeLine’s Chicago premiere of “The History Boys,” Alan Bennett’s Tony and Olivier Award-winning coming-of-age tale about boys at a middling British prep school preparing for college exams. Directed by Bowling, the stellar production enjoyed a 6-month, sell-out run and earned the company five Jeff Awards.
In May, TimeLine commences its second act with the opening of its new Uptown theater, which Powers estimates is about 90% complete.
The new theater celebrates not only TimeLine, but the entire Chicago arts community as it continues to grapple with the pandemic’s residual effects, said Powers, who describes this next phase as “truly transformational.”
“It’s a huge year for TimeLine,” he said. “To be welcomed back by Broadway in Chicago, to do this hilarious and very timely play, it’s such a great blessing.”
Capping it off will be ensemble members cutting the ribbon to their new home, Powers said, adding, “the next six months are going to be incredible.”
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“Eureka Day”
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13 through Feb. 22
Where: Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St., Chicago, timelinetheatre.com or BroadwayInChicago.com
Tickets: $30-$90