When Jay Ward was a student at Vicksburg High School, he was inspired by drama teacher Bobbie Heads to try out for a part in a play. Heads also attended the same church as Ward and his family, Faith Christian Center, and the plays she staged there got Ward’s attention.

If you go

“Gee’s Bend,” featuring Vicksburg native Jay Ward, will open Tuesday at New Stage Theater in Jackson, 1100 Carlisle St., and run through Feb. 8. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets are $22 with discounts available for students, senior citizens and groups, and are available at the box office, can be charged by phone at 601-948-3531 or ordered by clicking here. A special $8 rush ticket will be sold, with valid student ID, one hour prior to any performance.

Now Ward, 22, has a role in Jackson’s New Stage Theater’s production of “Gee’s Bend,” playing the role of Macon.

“I feel very confident about the play, very excited about it,” Ward said in a phone interview Wednesday. “It gives another perspective on the Civil Rights movement, showing what happened at home. It didn’t just happen out in the streets, but continued when you got home and had to face a mother and father or a husband or wife.”

“Gee’s Bend, ” written by Alabama playwright Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, is set to open Tuesday and will run through Feb. 8. The play combines gospel music, quilting and civil rights, focusing on one Gee’s Bend, Ala., family to depict the larger story of racism and hardship through the events in a small isolated black community.

“‘Gee’s Bend’ highlights the strength of women and uses the back-story of quilting. It also threads together little pieces of lives and little pieces of history in a beautiful manner,” said Francine Thomas Reynolds, artistic director at New Stage Theater, in a statement. “We have assembled a terrific cast of actors who sing and I feel blessed to be directing them.”

Ward is a senior at Jackson State University majoring in speech and dramatic arts. He will receive his bachelor’s degree in May and plans to attend either the University of Southern California or Purdue University to earn a Master of Fine Arts in acting.

His family includes his parents, Margaret and Arthur Smith of Vicksburg, a sister, Antoinette Williams, 29, and a brother, Grayland Ward, 25, both of whom live in Arlington, Texas.

“My parents are fully behind me in all the decisions I make, but my mom always reminds me that I need something to fall back on,” he said. “That’s the purpose of going to grad school.”

While at VHS, Ward played Mr. Salt in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Other stage credits include “Fences” at JSU and “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men” at the Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas.

His theater bio includes his philosophy: “You can never be perfect at anything, but you should strive to be your best at everything.”

Quilters from Gee’s Bend have become known throughout the world in recent decades, with exhibitions of their quilts staged in such venues as Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City and the Houston Art Museum.

“They would use what they had since they couldn’t afford to buy more,” Ward said. “In the end, the quilts made them rich.”

Other cast members are Tarra McGowan-Riggs of Jackson as Sadie, Sharon Miles of Hattiesburg as Nella and Gloria Winters-Anderson of Jackson as Alice/Asia.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com.