The Obie-winning Theater for a New Audience has announced its 2017–2018 lineup, which will begin with a double bill of a pair of one-act comedies. A world premiere by Adrienne Kennedy—her first play in nine years—and two Shakespeare presentations will follow at the company's Off-Broadway venue, the Polonsky Shakespeare Center.

The season kicks off with Marcel and The Art of Laughter, featuring theatrical clowns Jos Houben and Marcello Magni. The former features the two as an aging physical comedian and a clipboard-wielding nemesis. The second is a metatheatrical master class on comedy that explores what audiences find funny. Performances will run October 27 through November 19.

The world premiere of Kennedy’s He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box will run January 17 through February 11, 2018. Evan Yionoulis will direct the drama, which weaves harrowing tales from Georgia and New York in 1941. Kennedy’s previous work includes 1964, Funnyhouse of a Negro, 1996’s June and Jean in Concert, and Sleep Deprivation Chamber (co-authored with her son Adam Kennedy), each of which received Obie Award honors.

Arin Arbus will direct TFANA’s first production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, the 31st of the Bard’s 37 plays the company has presented. Performances run March 11 through April 15, 2018.

The season concludes May 10–27, 2018, with Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, directed by Maria Aitken. The staging is a co-production from the Acting Company and Delaware’s Ensemble Players.

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