The Department of Visual and Theatre Arts presented the first performances of “Voices of the South” on April 21 and 22 in the Laboratory Theatre. “Voices of the South” is a theatre company that performs theatrical works that center around the Southern way of life. Alice Berry and Jenny Odle Madden, two actors from the company, traveled from Memphis to perform “Listening” from One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty and “Humming Song” by Eleanor Glaze. “Listening” is about a fiction writer from Jackson, Miss., who remembers how her experiences during her childhood made her into a better author. Clocks hanging all over her house, including a huge cuckoo clock in the kitchen, was the first memory she told. Knowing what time it was at any given moment helped the child realize how time and chronology was good for a fiction writer to understand. The second flashback was when the author learned to read and how she discovered the magic of letters and words. The child read everything she could get her hands on. She talked about how when she read, it was like there was an inner voice reading the story and all she had to do was listen. She said that it helped her “to read as a listener and write as a listener.” One of the funniest memories that the fiction writer remembered was when she would sit around and listen to adults talk. The first memory was when she would sit between her mother and her mother’s friend while they drove around town on Sundays and gossiped. The child thought that the gossip was like scenes in a story. The second memory was when an old black seamstress would come make her a few dresses and how the seamstress would gossip about all the other families. The author said that gossip and conversation to adults were stories for a child. Looking back, the author realized that a child’s imagination was the best thing an author could have. Another great thing was to be able to observe people and their stories and how you learn the best stories when you just sit back and listen. A line at the end of the play summed up the entire feeling of the play: “As we discover, we remember. As we remember, we discover.” The audience loved the first story. Most people remember a time in their childhood when they sat around and listened to adults talk. The actors did a wonderful job acting like an inquisitive child and an adult looking back. “Humming Song” by Eleanor Glaze was presented after a short intermission. Memphis was a huge focal point in “Humming Song,” but the actors could have been talking about any place in the South. “Humming Song” was a production about life in the South and how the South had a different feeling than anywhere else in the world. Food was the first thing that was mentioned when they were defining the South. Food is an important part of Southern culture. Nowhere else in the world can you get fried okra, hushpuppies, and other southern food. Weather was the second characteristic that made the South what it was. This part was one that everyone in the audience related to. The actors talked about how hot and humid it was in the summertime and how people would run from air conditioner to air conditioner when they had to be outside. A line in the play said that the South had “humidity, intensity, and no prejudice against adjectives.” Trees were an important part of the South. The women talked about how people would do anything to save the trees, including stopping construction on buildings and roads. Trees offered shade and relief during the summer time, and Southerners wanted to protect their trees. Other things that were mentioned were desegregation, the social lives of Southern women, gorgeous cowboys and how life was when you grew old in the South. The feeling that the audience gets is that the women think that the old South and that way of life is being lost because of modern things. The women referred to the South as “Old Dixie,” and they said that a person really couldn’t appreciate the South until you leave and come back. The play was meant to instill a sense of pride in being Southern, and a lot of members in the audience recognized and remembered things that the ladies were mentioning. These two plays had very minimal background and stage props. “Listening” only had a old green trunk, and “Humming Song” had a chair and a white cloth that signified the Mississippi River. Anyone in the audience could see that there were two huge differences between “Voices of the South” and any other production at UTM. First, this performance didn’t have anyone from the Vanguard Theatre. No students acted in the two short stories. Second, the two plays were held in the laboratory theatre in the Fine Arts Building. The laboratory theatre has about 70 chairs and the audience is literally inches from the actors, which gives a very personal feeling to the entire production. These two plays were wonderful and people could relate to many things that were said in the performance. Everyone needs to see at least one production while at UTM, and Voices of the South is one that I would definitely see again. If you missed “Voices of the South” this weekend, don’t worry. “Voices of the South” will be back next weekend, April 28 and 29, in the laboratory theatre in the Fine Arts Building. “Voices of the South” starts at 8 p.m., but you can buy tickets at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students and children and $10 for general admission.