Ensemble Studio Theatre will kick off its 2018–2019 season with the world premiere of Travisville, a new play by actor and playwright William Jackson Harper (The Good Place, After the Blast), followed by the world premiere of Catya McMullen's Georgia Mertching Is Dead. A third, yet-to-be-announced new play, as well as the 37th edition of the Marathon of One-Act Plays, will complete the 50th anniversary lineup.

Read: HOW ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE FOSTERS THE NEXT GENERATION OF AWARD-WINNING WRITERS

Set in the shadows of the Civil Rights movement, in Travisville, the lives of an ailing minister, a protege, a mayor, a journeyman preacher, a domestic, and her husband, are irrevocably changed when their community is upended by the arrival of a stranger.

Steve H. Broadnax III (The Hip-Hop Project) will direct a cast made up of Stori Ayers (Pipeline), Denny Dale Bess (Year of the Rooster), Brian D. Coats (Jitney), Bjorn Dupaty (Office Hours), Lynnette R. Freeman (Luz), Joe Holt (Scandal), Ivan Moore (Luke Cage), and Shawn Randall (Fish Men). Performances will run October 3–28.

In winter-spring 2019, EST will present McMullen's new play Georgia Mertching Is Dead, with a cast and director to be announced at a later date. In the new play, three 30-year-old women, friends since they were teenagers, set off on a road trip to celebrate and mourn a figure from their past. The play examines what it's like to face adulthood and death in the wake of a broken childhood.

Also included in the season in 2019 will be a new play from EST and its ongoing partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, as well as the return of the Marathon of One-Act Plays co-presented with Radio Drama Network.

All performances will take place in EST's Curt Dempster Theater. Tickets can be purchased at EnsembleStudioTheatre.org.