Summers in Suffolk is a unique, multi-layered, positive portrayal of African-American life spun with richly poetic language and lyrical images.  The six-act play cycle had its genesis in 1988 with the one-act play A Summer Memory written by Sheri Bailey and directed by Robert Alford.  This initial production of A Summer Memory, starring Anne-Marie Johnson, competed in the first annual new play festival at Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center.  A Summer Memory, which is set in 1970,was also performed at UCLA and the Beverly Hills Playhouse.  The next play written by Ms. Bailey, A Summer Romance, set in 1930, was first performed along with A Summer Memory in a fully staged reading with sets, lights and costumes at the Mark Taper Forums New Works Festival in 1990.  Eventually, Ms. Bailey added three more plays to the cycle.  A five-act version of the cycle in a fully staged reading with sets, lights and costumes was performed at the Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble in 1994.  The world premiere of the complete Summers in Suffolk cycle was presented by the Towne Street Theatre in May 1996.  A four-act version of the cycle, directed by Mr. Alford and Towne Street Theatre Artistic Director Nancy Cheryll Davis, was produced in Norfolk, Virginia in June 1997.  The six-act version was produced and directed by Mr. Alford at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1997 and at Lousiana State University Shreveport in 2002.

Summers in Suffolk captures the history of several close-knit African-American families in a country town in Virginia.  The play spans from 1870 to the present.  Each of the acts of the play cycle may also stand alone as a one-act play.  The first act is Summer Storms.  In this act, set in 1870, Amos Clark, a conservative ex-slave is inspired to claim his birthright by his mother, a proud woman with a passionate love for freedom.  The second act, Summer Shadows revolves around the now elderly patriarch Amos Clark and his relationship with his protge and new bride in 1897.  In the third act, A Summer Romance, a remarkable friendship between two young women in 1930 is tested by a complex love triangle.  Summer Dreams, the fourth act, set in 1957, revolves around a young woman fighting to hold on to her hard won sense of peace when the one true love of her life returns after a long absence.  In the fifth act, A Summer Memory, a middle-aged writer remembers the summer in 1970 when she discovered her artistic voice at the age of 14 through her friendship with a young man almost ten years older.  The last act, Summer Solstice, brings the same writer back home in 1997 to reclaim the many rich stories of her town and its history.