HARTFORD, CONN.: Hartford Stage has announced the first four plays for its 2016–17 season, and will announce another two titles in the coming weeks; there will six shows total (plus the theatre’s annual holiday tradition of A Christmas Carol).

“Our 2016–17 season will feature masterworks by William Shakespeare and August Wilson and provocative new plays by T.D. Mitchell and James Lecesne,” said artistic director Darko Tresnjak in a statement.

The season will start with the world premiere of T.D. Mitchell’s Queens for a Year in September, about four generations of female Marines who clash during a post-deployment vacation.

Next will be August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, about a fractured family living in 1930s Pittsburgh who comes together to remember the legacy of their father. Jade King Carroll will direct.

Just in time for the holidays will be the company’s 19th annual production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol—A Ghost Story of Christmas. Artistic associate Rachel Alderman will direct.

The first production of 2017 will be Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Tresnjak will direct.

Following will be The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, by James Lecesne, about the disappearance of a flamboyant 14-year-old boy and the New Jersey town that will never be the same without him. Lecesne will star as 20 characters of the town. Tony Speciale will direct and Duncan Sheik will provide original music.

The run dates for these productions will be announced at a later date.

Hartford Stage, founded in 1963, produces innovative revivals, new plays, musicals, and offers education programs.