Promising 2019 season for theater

are likely wondering when we’ll next get to hear their infectious melodies and emotionally raw sound, and one answer will come from SF Shakes’ Free Shakespeare in the Park. They won’t be performing, alas, but they’re composing for a musical adaptation of “As You Like It.”

Brecht at companies large and small: For contemporary audiences, Brechtian theater might no longer shock. We’re used to seeing actors distance themselves from their characters, to theater that provokes thought instead of emotional identification. But if any companies can make Brecht feel new again, it’s the consistently daring, inventive artistic minds at Ubuntu Theater Project, which produces “Mother Courage and Her Children” Feb. 8-March 3 under the direction of Emilie Whelan, and California Shakespeare Theater, which mounts “The Good Person of Szechwan” July 3-21. New artistic directors: As the tectonic shift in Bay Area theater leadership continues, we have two specific announcements to look forward to in 2019. Expect to hear from Aurora Theatre in late winter or early spring about who will take the reins from Tom Ross, and TheatreWorks will announce a successor to founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley in late 2019 or early 2020.

Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicle’s theater critic. Email: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LilyJaniak