CHICAGO: TimeLine Theatre Company has announced its 2016–17 season, featuring a lineup of new plays.

“We are thrilled to celebrate our 20th anniversary season with these four remarkable stories,” said artistic director PJ Powers in a statement. “For nearly two decades, TimeLine audiences have displayed so much passion for bold, provocative, and daring productions, and we are proud to introduce Chicago to four plays that further that tradition of theatre that sparks dialogue about our place in history.”

The season will start with the Chicago premiere of Stephen Sach’s Bakersfield Mist (August–October), inspired by a true story about an unemployed bartender who finds what may be an undiscovered Jackson Pollock painting at a thrift store. The two-hander will feature Janet Ulrich Brooks and Mike Nussbaum, and Kevin Christopher Fox will direct.

Next up will be the U.S. premiere of Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife (September–December), about Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII. Associate artistic director Nick Bowling will direct.

The season will continue with the Chicago premiere of London-based theatre company Complicité’s A Disappearing Number (January–April 2017). Originally conceived and directed by Simon McBurney, the show is about love, math, and how the past and future connect, as told through present and past mathematicians.

The season will conclude with the Midwest premiere of Paradise Blue (May–July 2017), by Dominique Morisseau, about a gifted trumpeter and the troubled owner of the Paradise jazz nightclub, who is contemplating a buyout offer for the city’s urban renewal plan in Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood in 1949. Ron OJ Parson will direct.

TimeLine Theatre Company, founded in 1997, is committed to presenting stories inspired by history that connect with today’s social and political issues.