Margaret Windley

Special to the Suffolk-News Herald

Sheri Bailey’s series of six one-act plays, &uot;Summers in Suffolk,&uot; returns to the West Coast this summer. The playwright’s work will be presented at the Towne Theatre in Los Angeles, California from May 23 to June 22.

Californians who saw the 1997 premiere of the plays in Los Angeles will be re-introduced not only to several generations of Bailey’s fictitious Clark family in the dramas, but also to the Dismal Swamp, which almost takes on a supernatural presence in the play.

&uot;By placing it on the edge of the Dismal Swamp, the swamp almost becomes a supernatural character,&uot; said Bailey. &uot;People run away to it, meditate there. It’s a recurring theme throughout the play.&uot;

She added that she had poured into &uot;Summers in Suffolk&uot; all of the myths and stories that she had heard about the swamp.

But she has also has made her goal as a dramatist to break new ground in terms of dealing with the culture of African Americans.

Bailey’s own childhood summers were spent in the Driver/Shoulders Hill region of Suffolk with her father, Russell Hurdle.

&uot;The characters are fictitious,&uot; said Bailey, whose home church is Union Baptist. &uot;But the backdrop is local history.&uot;

She is making plans to film &uot;Summers in Suffolk&uot; when she returns to the area this summer.

Bailey, who is a resident of Portsmouth, has written several other plays and is the founder of the Juneteenth festival.