An international circus act from Australia, the return of the East Van Panto, and a searing new play about the deadly sexual assault of a woman on an Indian bus are a few of the highlights of the just-announced 2015-16 season at the Cultch.

The lineup of 19 shows spans the company's now three venues, including the Historic Theatre, the Vancity Culture Lab (in the same building), and the York Theatre on Commercial Drive.

There's a strong contingent of new local works on the roster as well. Amid them, the Cultch will present three plays from Neworld Theatre to mark the theatre company’s 20^th anniversary season and the long-standing partnership between Neworld and The Cultch. “East Van and The Cultch are our neighborhood, they are where we grew up and raised our children, and it is where the majority of our audience lives and calls home,”  Neworld artistic director Marcus Youssef said in a press statement. 

Neworld’s shows include CBC Debaters star Charlie Demers’ new one-person standup-theatre hybrid, Leftovers; the return of the international touring hit Winners and Losers (a co-production with Theatre Replacement); and the world premiere of a music-theatre spectacle, Doost, by Neworld Theatre’s founding artistic director Camyar Chai.

The season kicks off September 29 to October 10 with Are We Cool Now? by Kamloops's Western Canada Theatre, an "indie-rock road trip" inspired by the songs of local music star Dan Mangan, written by Amiel Gladstone (at the Historic theatre).

It's followed October 6 to 17 by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre's Empire of the Son at the Culture Lab.

Australia's circus-based Gravity & Other Myths hits the York from October 13 to 24 with A Simple Space, a critically lauded acrobatic game-changer.

The Damage Is Done, featuring author and speaker Dr. Gabor Maté performing on-stage for the first time, takes to the Historic stage from October 20 to 24.

Nirbhaya, an Indian-U.K.-Canadian collaboration in partnership with Diwali Fest, finds celebrated Mies Julie playwright Yael Farber tackling the horrific attack on a woman on a bus in India. The show, which has won dozens of awards including the coveted Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, is at the York Theatre from November 3 to 14.

Sinha Dance joins forces with Montreal's Constantinople in Sunya's blend of the Indo-Armenian and the Persian, at the Historic Theatre from November 10 to 14.

Ruby Slippers Theatre presents the family memoir You Will Remember Me from November 17 to 28 at the Historic Theatre.

Ronnie Burkett returns with the sellout hit The Daisy Theatre from December 2 to 20 at the same venue.

And Theatre Replacement's beloved East Van Panto takes to the York for its third annual show, this time with a warped Hansel and Gretel, December 2 to January 3, 2016.

Highlights in the new year include Neworld's Leftovers in January, Belgian-U.K. Edinburgh Fringe hit BigMouth in February, the return of Winners and Losers the same month, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre's The Gay Heritage Project in March, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar's The Invisible Hand in April. See a full roster with descriptions here.

Subscriptions for the 2015-16 season go on sale April 10 and single tickets go on sale August 4, at the Cultch’s Box Office at 604-251-1363 or tickets.thecultch.com