THE STORY

Originally produced by the legendary Negro Ensemble Company, Home centers on Cephus Miles, a farm boy in the small community of Crossroads, North Carolina who grows up in a society where opportunities are few and advancing up the economic and social ladder means leaving and (usually) never returning. After various interactions with the female members of his town, Cephus enters a family-sanctioned engagement with Pattie Mae, the prettiest and smartest young lady in Crossroads. When Pattie Mae leaves to go to college, Cephus counts on her promise to return to marry him, but feels humiliated when he learns that she has married a soon-to-be wealthy professional.   In spite of his apparently loose morality, Cephus feels strongly about avoiding the Vietnamese War at all costs. Five years in prison as a draft resister leave him despondent, and when he gets out, he finds his farm has been sold for taxes. With all doors shut in Crossroads, he sets out for the big city to make his fortune. Lacking a high school diploma, the best job he can get is loading and unloading trucks. The high life seems within reach until his prison record gets him fired. Sliding from welfare to the streets he hits rock bottom--but not for long. A mysterious benefactor has purchased his old farm and invites him to return to Crossroads. After 13 years away from the South, Cephus returns to discover numerous surprising changes, including the absence of segregated bathrooms. Nevertheless, he remains an outsider for the other townsfolk, who invent stories about how mean and disagreeable he is, until Pattie Mae, now divorced, returns to inform him that it was she who bought back his farm and helped him rehabilitate his life. Eventually, both Cephus and Pattie Mae realize that, although they left to seek happiness elsewhere, they have finally returned to one another older, wiser, and aware of the true meaning of home.