The author who wrote and won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Sympathizer” is coming to Reston.
Reston Community Center (RCC) will host Viet Thanh Nguyen at its recently renamed Leila Gordon Theatre on Sept. 27 to kick off its 2025-2026 Professional Touring Artists Series, which will bring established and emerging artists to the Hunters Woods facility (2310 Colts Neck Road).
Unveiled last week, the upcoming season will feature 18 different performances through May 30, 2026. The offerings range from author talks by Nguyen and Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote speaker Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr. to music, dance, theater and stand-up comedy.
A native of Vietnam whose family fled to the U.S. as refugees in 1975, after the fall of Saigon, Nguyen has written both fiction and nonfiction books, often grappling with his Vietnamese American identity and the intertwined politics and history of the two countries. He’s also a professor at the University of Southern California.
His most widely known work is the darkly comic thriller “The Sympathizer,” which follows a Communist spy who infiltrates the South Vietnamese Army and continues to report on their activities after they get displaced to the U.S. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2016 and was adapted into a limited series for HBO last year.
Scheduled to start at 3 p.m., Nguyen’s talk at the Leila Gordon Theatre will be followed by book signings and a reception with “light food” to celebrate the beginning of the 2025-2026 performance season, according to Fairfax County.
In a recent podcast episode for the county, RCC Box Office Manager Kaitlyne Jones said the center made an “intentional effort” to find a diverse range of performers and perspectives when programming the touring artist series.
“We’re always trying to give the amplification of the voices who need to be heard,” she said. “It’s something that’s important to always diversify what we’re bringing. So, everyone gets a point on their soapbox, and we listen.”
Other highlights of the upcoming season will include comedian and actor Aparna Nancherla (Nov. 8); a screening of “An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th,” a documentary that examines the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, with producer Mahrya MacIntire (Oct. 13); and the annual MLK Day Celebration on Jan. 19, 2026, led by Glaude.
Glaude is a professor in Princeton University’s Department of African American Studies and has written multiple books about Black communities and how race has shaped American politics and history, including the New York Times bestseller “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own.”
Like in previous years, the community center’s MLK Day celebration will have a luncheon following the keynote address.
The full 2025-2026 Professional Touring Artists Series schedule can be found on RCC’s website. Tickets went on sale last Friday (Aug. 1) for Reston residents and will become available to everyone starting at 9 a.m. on Aug. 8.
In a press release, the county notes that the theater only has 260 seats, meaning space is limited and early purchases are recommended.
In addition to renaming CenterStage after Leila Gordon, who retired as its executive director last year, RCC recently dedicated the theater’s tech booth to longtime technical director Linda Ifert, who oversaw its lighting, sound and staging for more than 30 years.
