The Great Leap

SOCIO-POLITICAL FABLE
The Great Leap

By Lauren Yee Directed by Jennifer Chang
NOV 10 – DEC 5, 2021 | Regional Premiere
It’s 1989, the San Francisco University basketball team is headed to China for a “friendship” game, and plucky high school star Manfred pesters aging coach Saul enough to talk his way onto the team. Landing in Beijing just before the Tiananmen Square uprising, Manfred, Saul, and their Chinese translator/coach Wen Chang are forced to explore their different approaches to basketball and life and to reconcile their own converging histories. Inspired by her father’s short-lived basketball career, playwright Lauren Yee applies her signature technique of colliding the personal with the historical, creating a “stunning” (LA Times), unforgettable fable and reminding us that the best stories—even if they aren’t real—can still be true.