Wendal Bailey is a badass jazz musician and the prodigal son of an upstanding African-American family. Things are going great for him until he’s diagnosed with AIDS. Suddenly, the beloved jazzer has to come clean to his conservative black family, and come out, too. Local director Reginald Edmund hopes his production of Before It Hits Home hits home with audiences. “The production is parallel to the reactions of the black community,” he says, “and how it lags behind with regard to awareness, acceptance and defenses against this disease.”
May 26-27, 8 p.m.; Sept. 7-9, 8 p.m.
This article appears in May 25-31, 2006.