The New Jewish Theatre will continue its 20th season with the award-winning Lynn Nottage play “Intimate Apparel” from Jan. 26 to Feb. 12 in the Jewish Community Center’s Wool Studio Theatre, 2 Millstone Campus Drive. The play is set in 1905 New York, where a 35-year-old African-American seamstress yearns for a relationship of physical and emotional intimacy.  

The seamstress finds a mutual attraction with an Orthodox Jewish shopkeeper but both realize the impossibility of marrying the other. The play provides commentary on an era when one’s cultural heritage, and the cut and color of one’s dress and skin, determined whom one could marry, befriend or talk to in public.

Talkbacks with the director and cast are scheduled after the performances of Feb. 2 and 9. In addition, a docent-led tour of “Textiles and the Gilded Age” at the St. Louis Art Museum will take place at 2  p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5. The tour is free but reservations are required to 314-442-3283.

Gary Wayne Barker directs the NJT production, which features Jacqueline Thompson, Jim Butz, Linda Kennedy, Julie Layton, Andrea Purnell and Chauncy Thomas. 

 Tickets are $39.50 to $43.50 and are available at newjewishtheatre.org or 314-442-3283.