PITTSFIELD — Five men moved about the black stage, then laid down limbs entwined, embodying the image of bodies discarded.

They were the actors developing the script for a new theater piece, REPAIR, which will be performed for audiences three times next week at Berkshire Community College’s Boland Theater. Through movement and dialogue, they were symbolizing the struggles of addiction and incarceration, said actor Ahmed Moustafa Reda.

He and his colleagues developed the piece, which tells the stories of eight Berkshire County men who had served time behind bars, and now find themselves in the sometimes precarious position of reestablishing their life on the outside.

During a recent rehearsal, Reda rose from the floor and delivered his lines. He spoke of a time his character stumbled downstairs from his ninth-floor apartment and found a dead body in the stairwell.

Fellow actor Marcus Neverson then rose from the floor. His character told of how his best friend was shot in the head, and killed, while standing right beside him.

Another actor, Tom Truss, followed suit. His character’s son died of leukemia while in jail in New York. Himself serving time in a Harford, Conn., prison, his character was prevented from donating potentially life-saving bone marrow.

“You really want to do it justice; for these people, who have experienced all these things,” said the show’s fourth actor, Max Conaway, who rounds out the cast alongside John Moreno.

They are the stories of complex men whose misdeeds, often born of nurture and necessity, led them into the carceral system. The men found their way to the aftercare group run by 2nd Street Second Chances, the Pittsfield nonprofit that provides reentry services to previously incarcerated residents.

To help produce the theater piece, the men took part in recorded interviews with directors Amy Brentano and Sara Katzoff.

This is the second time Brentano and Katzoff have told the stories of formerly incarcerated residents through the medium of performance. They developed and staged “Release” in September, which was based on the stories of participants in the women’s aftercare group.

Capt. Lindsay Cornwell, the executive director of 2nd Street, described the process of bringing that show to fruition as healing for those women.

“I know first hand how therapeutic art and the process of creating something meaningful can be,” she said. “It allows them to be vulnerable.”

The women’s stories centered around themes of addiction and motherhood, said Brentano and Katzoff in an interview at Brentano’s performing arts space, The Foundry, in West Stockbridge. The men they interviewed experienced a greater amount of physical violence — both in and out of lockup.

Brentano said the men, especially those who were incarcerated in the New York state prison system, described how they were forced to suppress any whiff of vulnerability to get by.

“They spoke about having to shut down their humanity to survive,” she said.

Katzoff said the men had dreams and interests early on in life that those around them failed to foster. Instead, many of them were pushed away from pursuing their passions.

“The piece,” she said, “is starting to speak to what that is — the things we do to men.”

Together, the actors and directors devised a production that incorporates movement and stage design to tell the men’s stories. With input from the actors, Katzoff and Brentano wrote a script that is largely based on direct quotes from their subjects. None of the characters, however, are a direct representation of any one of the subjects.

The production will be staged at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 12, and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13. The shows are open to all and completely free to attend.

Reda, who immigrated from Egypt and is an acting student at MCLA, mined his character’s journey for inspiration, and found commonalities between them. Finding those similarities, like how they are both fathers of daughters, allowed him to relate to his character and find the truth in his portrayal.

He hopes audiences will do the same.

“Don’t judge so quick; give chances to other people and try to understand them,” he said. “Appreciate what you have in your life, and don’t take anything for granted.”