Penumbra Theatre’s 2019-20 season will feature three new main stage productions and the return of its popular holiday show, “Black Nativity,” in November.

The St. Paul theater is calling its 43rd season “State of Emergence,” and “reminds us that justice is worthy of our attention, worthy of our labor, and worthy of risking ourselves,” according to a Penumbra news release.

The season opens in August with new work created by the students of Penumbra’s Summer Institute, a leadership development program for teens. In October, Penumbra will present the regional premiere of “Pipeline” by playwright Dominique Morisseau, winner of a 2018 MacArthur “genius grant.” The theater staged Morisseau’s “Detroit ’67” in 2015 and “Sunset Baby” in 2016. In “Pipeline,” a black mother tries to “protect her teenage son from a world that can’t see the little boy she loves.”

In February, Penumbra will produce poet and MacArthur Fellow Claudia Rankine’s “The White Card.” According to Penumbra, it looks at racial divisions “as experienced in the space of a living room, an art gallery, a theater and imagination itself.”

The season concludes with “How Black Mothers Say I Love You,” about a mother facing a decision to leave her daughters in Jamaica to earn a living for the family.

The season includes Penumbra’s “Let’s Talk Series,” with conversations about the “State of Emergence” and free film screenings with post-film discussions.

Season tickets go on sale June 1. For information, go to penumbratheatre.org or call the box office at 651-224-3180.