THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607260051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 87 lines
LOS ANGELES theatergoers have been getting a glimpse of Suffolk and the Great Dismal Swamp this month.
The 60-seat Towne Street Theatre is presenting ``Summers in Suffolk,'' a play depicting what life might have been like for six generations of four black families 120 years.
The five-act play, by Portsmouth native Sheri Bailey, offers people nearly 3,000 miles away an insight into black family life in a rural area known for its peanut crop.
The production, a blend of music, humor and drama, begins with ``One Summer Evening.'' Set in 1870, it is the story of Amos Clark, once a slave, and his mother, Cleo, who are waiting for their hated former owner - his father - to die.
A line attributed to Cleo explains: ``In 1832, he took me from my mama and put a baby inside of me.''
The play then moves to 1930, for ``A Summer Romance.'' The story of a love triangle, it offers insights about friendship, love and passion, Bailey said.
In 1950, there is ``Summer Dreams,'' a ghost story about lost loves - ``a time remembered as innocent, but it actually never was,'' according to the playwright.
``A Summer Memory,'' set in 1970, follows a successful writer as she remembers her 14th summer and the young man who helped shape her creative voice.
``One Summer Day,'' set in 1992, is the story of a writer returning home to write about ``the history and magic of Suffolk.''
The first act, ``One Summer Evening,'' will be performed in local middle and high schools during the 1996-97 school year. The 15 free performances will be sponsored by the Suffolk Art League.
That portion of the play, which won several awards, ``had a good run at the Beverly Hills Playhouse,'' Bailey said.
Towne Street Theater has had ``very good crowds,'' said Nancy Cheryl Davis, co-founder. ``It's the kind of play people talk about for a long time,'' she said.
It got into that L.A. playhouse with the help of a $5,650 grant from the city.
Bailey wants ``Summers in Suffolk'' to open here next summer. Norfolk's Generic Theater has agreed to produce it in Suffolk. In a proposal to the Suffolk Art League, she said she is looking for $2,500 from city and private sources. She is looking for prospective sites, with the help of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Facility Management.
Later, she hopes to set up a theater on two railroad cars in the Dismal Swamp, which she called ``one of the most amazing ecological sites in the world.''
Although Bailey often went to the fringes of the swamp while visiting relatives as a child, the production, ``except for bits and pieces,'' she said, is not autobiographical.
``Its fictional characters,'' the playwright said, ``illuminate the history of Suffolk.''
A family tree/program guides viewers of the play, which was described by The L.A. Reader as ``a rough-cut gem . . . written in a beautifully lilting prose.''
Bailey, 39, graduated from I.C. Norcom High School. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a master's in play-writing from the University of California, she was a producer's assistant on ``Cagney and Lacey'' and ``L.A. Law'' and worked for producer Aaron Spelling.
``While I was doing all that,'' she said, ``I was writing plays.''
She has penned more than 25 national and local productions and has won numerous awards and competitions.
In 1992 and 1995, she received national NAACP Image Award nominations for best playwright. Also in '92, she was one of five screenplay writers winning the national Disney Writers Competition.
That was for ``Dannie 'n' Laurence,'' which is under option by Halle Berry. Another famed actress, Jasmine Guy, took an option on ``All Kinds of Blue.''
A former adjunct professor in the University of Southern California's theater department, Bailey is seeking a similar position in Hampton Roads.
She envisions the Suffolk production as an annual event along the lines of ``The Lost Colony'' in Manteo, N.C.
A three-day event each June would include the play, an essay competition, games and activities related to the eras involved in the production.
Also included would be a celebration of ``Juneteenth,'' the annual African-American holiday commemorating the day when the slaves of Texas discovered they were free. The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect Jan. 1, 1865, but the news did not reach that state until June 19. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
MICHAEL KESTNER
The Virginian-Pilot
Sheri Bailey in the Great Dismal Swamp, which is featured in her
play "Summers in Suffolk." by CNB