PITTSFIELD — When Noh Bailey signed on to perform in a new theater production about families of those who have been incarcerated, she planned to share stories about her mother’s struggles with the criminal justice system and addiction.

But her role has now taken on an added significance; her mother died in April, just as the collaborative theater project was beginning. Bailey found herself grieving while preparing to create and perform the play “Reclaim,” which debuts Monday.

“It’s been both difficult but also really beautiful,” she said of the experience of performing on stage while processing her loss. “This process has really been a really beautiful way to work through that grief with other people’s stories that are so similar.”

Bailey is one of two actors in the production who is telling parts of her own story and acting it out live, a unique position she said has made the creative process both cathartic and challenging.

The show, created in collaboration with 2nd Street Second Chances and The Foundry, features five characters navigating the daily reality of having family members and friends involved in the justice system. The script and production is based on the real-life stories of community members, and is performed by a cast of professional actors.

It continues a thematic trilogy of sorts. The piece follows Release, which focused on women’s experiences after incarceration and was staged in 2023, and Repair, the 2024 performance that highlighted the journeys of formerly incarcerated men.

“As much as they’re different, they all touch on themes of addiction and loss and unexplainable emotions,” Bailey said of the subjects’ experiences. “So it’s nice to be in the room with folks working through that right now.”

The production is an attempt to bridge understanding between audiences and communities often marginalized or misunderstood, said Sara Katzoff, who co-created and directed the show with Amy Brentano of The Foundry.

Katzoff believes the stories told are far more universal than many realize, touching lives throughout the community in ways that often go unrecognized.

Yet each family member interviewed for the performance had highly unique experiences, said Katzoff. What united them, she discovered, was something subtle; the importance of daily ritual and routine. She and the participants came to call it the “aria of the mundane,” an ode to the significance of waking up each morning and ticking off tasks, of having something concrete to hold on to.

Many of the participants expressed that growing up, they didn’t feel like there were many people having similar experiences to them. That changed during the production process, and Katzoff hopes the same type of community building will happen when audiences watch the show.

“We really are hoping that with this work, we’re closing the distance between us and the people whose lives, whose stories we are seeing told,” she said.

For Bailey, the experience has been illuminating. Growing up in Pittsfield, she said she kept stories about her family’s struggles “very close to my chest, because I didn’t know very many people in my life that shared those experiences.”

“But the more that I’ve grown and met more people, the more I realize how common it is for each of us to have either our own struggles or someone in our family who’s struggling with addiction or incarceration,” she said.

“What we’re doing is work in progress,” she added. “Our goal is not to provide solutions. It’s just to ask questions and to shine a spotlight on those voices which have been unheard for a long time.”