The Great Leap by Lauren Yee

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The Great Leap tells the story of Manford Lum, a local star of the sidewalk basketball courts of San Francisco’s Chinatown who strongarms his way onto an American college team travelling to Beijing for a “friendship” game. Set amidst the friction of post cultural revolution China, this Chicago premiere explores the cultural collide of identity and politics through the game of basketball. Witty and weighty, Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap keeps tensions high right up to the final buzzer.

FROM PLAYWRIGHT LAUREN YEE

“Growing up, my father dominated the basketball courts of San Francisco’s Chinatown, and in the 1980s, his legendary game won him a spot on a friendship team headed to a newly open China to play a series of exhibition games against the best teams in the People’s Republic. That nugget of his history formed the inspiration for my play The Great Leap nearly 40 years later."