Playwright Lauren Yee, whose play Cambodian Rock Band was performed at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, has The Great Leap now being performed at A.C.T.’s (American Conservatory Theatre) Geary Theatre in San Francisco. The show, directed by Lisa Peterson, runs through March 31st.
The setting is China in 1989. An exhibition basketball game is being held between a team from a Beijing university and a squad from the University of San Francisco. The game also serves as a showdown between the American coach, Saul (Arye Gross) and his protégé, Wen Chang (B.D. Wong). But the addition of Manford (Tim Liu), a high school star from Chinatown, whose actions cause quite a stir, mean that the tensions for all involved escalate beyond that of just a basketball game.
The Great Leap has previously been staged at Denver Center, Seattle Repertory, Atlantic Theatre in New York, and the Guthrie in Minneapolis. For the production in New York, Wong played Chang.
With this production, yet becomes the first Asian-American woman to have a play produced at the Geary in San Francisco. Given her status as one of our most exciting new playwrights, A.C.T.’s production of The Great Leap is a chance to see another chapter in her creative life.
The play runs one hour and forty-five minutes.
Photo by Kevin Berne/Courtesy of A.C.T.
