Originally Published by: The Washington Informer on 07/07/2021
Written by: D. Kevin McNeir

Artistic Director Ryan Rilette and Managing Director Ed Zakreski say they’re thrilled to announce the full six-show lineup for Bethesda-based Round House Theatre’s 44th season.

Following a historic season of digital performances – including the Drama League-nominated festival “The Work of Adrienne Kennedy: Inspiration & Influence” and the world premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s “The Catastrophist” – Round House will welcome audiences back into its Bethesda theatre for live, in-person productions with a slate of shows designed to transport them around the world.

“For the last year and a half, we’ve all been stuck at home, unable to travel anywhere,” Rilette said. “But at the same time, we are connected to the entire world through the shared experience of the pandemic. That is the logic of this season: we are welcoming audiences back to live performance with a theatrical journey around the world, offering stories that combine the universal with the specific, which is one of the strengths of the theatrical form. And each of these stories does so in incredibly theatrical ways.”

The season begins with the regional premiere of Quixote Nuevo (Sept. 8 – Oct. 3) by celebrated playwright Octavio Solis. The contemporary adaption of Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote transports the classic character to the modern-day border between the U.S. and Mexico. Filled with lively Tejano music, bilingual wordplay and puppetry, the season opener exemplifies Round House’s commitment to producing works that tell vital stories.

Next, audiences travel from San Francisco to Beijing for the regional premiere of “The Great Leap,” (Nov. 10 – Dec. 5) by Lauren Yee. Inspired by events from her father’s life, Yee collides the historical with the personal to follow an American college basketball team that goes to post-Cultural Revolution China for a “friendship” game. The play employs the energy and rhythms of a basketball game to explore the different approaches to sports, life, and politics in China and the U.S.

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