From left to right: Actors Ryan McCall, Shanna Jones, Graham Welles and Noelle McDonald rehearse a scene from Next

Among other things, Kansas Repertory Theatre’s 2017 season explores the idea of family.

In “Next to Normal,” the contemporary rock musical running through July 16 at the University of Kansas, we witness one grief-stricken mother’s struggles with bipolar disorder — and the toll her illness takes on her loved ones. “The Book Club Play,” opening July 20, tells the much more light-hearted story of six book club members who find themselves — and their weekly meetings — the subjects of a documentary film. But it’s also about the relationships formed within the group and how the word “family” can take on multiple meanings, says Peter Zazzali, artistic director of Kansas Repertory Theatre.

“One’s a literal family, and one’s a surrogate family,” Zazzali says of this season’s productions, which open Friday with “Next to Normal” at KU’s Murphy Hall. In selecting plays for the company’s 2017 season, Zazzali says, he and his colleagues sought out thoughtful, nuanced pieces with the ability to appeal to a wide variety of people.

Not an easy task, especially when you consider that “Next to Normal,” playwright Brian Yorkey’s Pulitzer and Tony-winning dramatic musical, is almost entirely song. “Next to Normal” music director Johnna Tavianini knows such musicals can be an acquired taste, but she’s optimistic that audiences will connect to the “universality” of the show — and its largely rollicking, genre-spanning score.

“It’s a beautiful story and a human story about a woman struggling with bipolar disorder and trying to figure out how to navigate through her life as a wife and a mother while grappling with those issues and how it does affect her relationship with her husband and daughter,” says Tavianini, an assistant professor of musical theater at Ball State University.

Those who have struggled with mental illness will likely see themselves reflected in the story of suburban mom Diana, played here by Kansas City-based actress Shanna Jones. (In repertory fashion, Jones and her castmates will perform roles in both “Next to Normal” and “The Book Club Play.”)

Even those who haven’t personally suffered from bipolar disorder and other conditions have likely been touched by mental illness in other ways, Tavianini says — often, she says, families and loved ones end up suffering, too.

In keeping with the theme of the play, Kansas Repertory Theatre is partnering with Headquarters Inc. in a fundraiser for mental health awareness, including a pop-up shop at each performance selling KU Dining baked goods. Other partnerships include the “Parents Night Out” event on July 15, when Lawrence’s Laugh Out Loud is offering free child care for kids ages 3 to 12 with the purchase of an adult ticket.

The show’s music follows Diana through the ups and downs of her bipolar disorder — taking on a fast, rollicking tempo in the first act during Diana’s manic period and shifting accordingly as Diana slips into a depressive state during the second act. Tavianini, who supervised the music alongside director Elizabeth Turcotte in Ball State’s “Next to Normal” production three years ago, will conduct the pit while also playing piano in KRT’s version.

The orchestra in this case is actually a “typical rock band,” Tavianini says, comprising guitar, bass and drums, with strings added.

“It’s a beautiful score, and what I do love about it is there’s a variety of styles even within that very contemporary feel,” she says. “There are even a few songs that have a bit of country western tinge. There are some hard-driving, rock-sounding songs and some beautifully heartbreaking ballads.”

“The great thing about music is it elicits that emotion out of the audience,” Tavianini says. “…That’s what I love about musical theater — it’s just a way of affecting an audience on a very deep level that they might not even be aware of in the moment.”

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Staging Karen Zacarias’ “The Book Club Play” on a university campus is a fitting move for Kansas Repertory Theatre, says “Book Club” director Jane Barnette. As the story onstage unfolds, one of the central questions posed to club members and the audience alike is what, exactly, separates “good” literature from so-called fluff.

“These are questions anybody who goes to college is going to be asking themselves at one point or another,” says Barnette, an assistant professor of theater at KU. “Like, what book are we going to read and why? Are we going to read it because it’s popular or because it’s supposedly the best book ever?”

In “The Book Club Play,” discussion includes everything from classics such as “Moby Dick” and “The Age of Innocence” to mass-market picks like the vampire series “Twilight” and Dan Brown’s megahit “The Da Vinci Code.” Upheaval caused by the arrival of a documentary filmmaker and an omnipresent camera during club meetings is agitated further by the selection of “Twilight,” with book club members wondering if their previous picks have been inclusive enough.

The play itself, similarly, aims for accessibility, Barnette says. Zacarias’ whimsical comedy debuted in 2008, and has since been restaged and rewritten, with KRT staging the 2011 version. “Book Club” is similar in style to a Neil Simon comedy, Barnette says — or, for an even greater slice of the public, American sitcoms, “just in terms of how recognizable the characters are.”

“It’s based, as its title suggests, on a book club. And I think a lot of us either know people who have been in book clubs or have been in book clubs ourselves,” Barnette says.

Audiences will likely recognize at least two archetypes from their own clubs or, in Barnette’s case, their mother’s clubs: the “control freak” who takes pride in orchestrating meetings just so, and the “the person who comes to book club and never reads the flippin’ book.” As expected, the latter drives the former absolutely bonkers.

But, despite their differences, the club members form their own little family through their shared love of books, Barnette says. Book clubs, she adds, are “one of the few remaining things we do that are live and in person.” Even with large group gatherings like movie screenings and church services, there’s a focus on a singular object or person, not on discussion and inter-personal communication.

“You’re watching the screen or you’re looking to the pastor, but you’re not necessarily having communal activities. But book club — that’s old school,” Barnette says of the enduring popularity of literary groups. “There are virtual book clubs now, but it seems like there is a draw to having living, breathing people in a room together talking about what they’ve read, which is pretty old school.”

It’s not unlike live theater, she adds, when audiences can congregate during intermission or after the show to digest and discuss.

In the spirit of book clubs, Kansas Repertory Theatre is teaming up with the Lawrence Public Library to host a special event — complete with a director talk-back, refreshments, a book swap and raffle — after July 23’s matinee at Murphy Hall. Area book clubs have been invited and will also receive discounted ticket prices to any performance of “The Book Club Play.”

Those who don’t already belong to a book club, Barnette says, “can find a home” at July 23’s show and special event. The director isn’t a member yet, but hopes to be soon.

“My goal after this play is done is I want to have my own personal book club,” she says.