Book Club 10:30AM

The Great Leap
written by Lauren Yee & performed by Asolo Repertory Theatre

Born in the United States but inextricably tied to far off and forbidden China, Manford Lum finds his home on the basketball courts of San Francisco's Chinatown. As fast-talking as he is athletically skilled, Lum wisecracks and dazzles his way onto a college team headed for a "friendly" exhibition game in Beijing. As the story bounces between 1989 and 1971. The drama  on the court  goes deeper than the strain between their countries. For two men with a past and one teen with a future, it's a chance to stake their moment in history and claim personal victories off the scoreboard. American coach Saul grapples with his relevance to the sport, Chinese coach Wen Chang must decide his role in his rapidly-changing country and Chinese American player Manford seeks a lost connection. Tensions rise right up to the final buzzer as history collides with the action in the stadium. Inspired by events in the life of the playwright Lauren Yee's own father. Smart, feisty, and hilarious!

The Great Leap brings together basketball, politics, and history to explore personal identity, cultural ties, and relations between the U.S. and China. The play incorporates a monumental historic event, the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989, for a moving story that keeps the tension rising right up until the final buzzer. It is a play that over the last few years is being performed at top theaters all over the country. It is a play for today.

If you prefer to see the play it will be on stage at Asolo Repertory Theatre beginning February 11. The play is available from Amazon (NOT on Kindle), or Asolo Repertory Theatre has kindly allowed us to review the script.

If you would like a digital copy of the script, please reply to this email or send an email to [email protected]. 

Please note: We remind you that we are reading this play due to the courtesy of Asolo Repertory Theatre's community engagement. This script cannot be distributed beyond our Book Club group.

Click here to view details regarding Asolo Repertory Theatre's performance of the play and to purchase tickets.

This meeting will be conducted virtually via Zoom.

Click here on February 16 at 10:30am to join the Zoom meeting.

Meeting Pass Code: 186562