Founders
Alice Rainey Berry
Creator - Performer - Educator
Prof. Alice Rainey Berry co-founder and Artistic Advisor of Voices of the South, is a graduate from the University of Memphis, Department of Theatre & Dance with a BFA in Theatre Performance and an MFA in Directing.
She is excited by new work and loves being part of the Writer’s Cabaret and the journey this wonderful group of artists has taken her on. Among the many original roles she has created: Lily in Jerre Dye’s Cicada, Dewey Dell in As I Lay Dying, Diane Tempest in Terry Tempest Williams’ Refuge: An Un-natural History of Family and Place, Mardy Murie in both Place of Enchantment and Wild Legacy as well as the many pieces co-created with VOTS co-founder Jenny Madden.
Some of her favorite directing projects include It’s All Greek to Me, Old Forest Fairy Tales, The Arabian Nights, Fences, HEREHEIS, and River City.
Alice is also excited about joining Rust College as Assistant Professor of Speech/Theatre.
Jenny Odle Madden
Creator - Performer - Educator
Jenny Madden, co-founder and Executive Advisor of Voices of the South, is a graduate from the University of Memphis Department of Theatre & Dance with a BFA in Theatre Performance. She also serves as the Director of Drama for St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Memphis, TN.
As a professional actress, Madden has appeared on stages across the United States. Her favorite roles are Janet in The Rocky Horror Show, Emilia in Othello, William Faulkner in Twenty Will Not Come Again and Mo in Parallel Lives. Other Voices of the South tours include The Ugly Duckling at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, California, and Place of Enchantment at the Murie Center in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, she performed with Voices of the South in Voices of the South, Beginnings, and Sister Myotis: Southern Fried & Sanctified. New York credits include a month-long engagement of Sister Myotis’s Bible Camp at the Abingdon Theatre and a two week engagement at Theatre Row with Mississippi Stories.
Writers' Workshop Members
Sharon Spence Bailey
Sharon Spence Bailey joined Writers Cabaret in 2017, reigniting a lifelong passion for writing and embarking on a journey of creative exploration across new genres and ideas. Her stories delve into ancestral narratives and the intersecting inner and outer landscapes of ordinary people. Whether meandering through cities, backpacking in the wilderness, or spending time with loved ones, Sharon views the world through the hidden layers of time. Driven by curiosity, a keen eye for detail, and a love of storytelling, her work weaves the personal and universal in a poignant fusion of past and present.
Photo credit: Claire Bailey
Jolinne Balentine-Downey
Jolinne Balentine-Downey has served as an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church for almost 25 years, and she currently leads two congregations in McNairy County, Tennessee. Jolinne is a native Memphian who studied journalism and sociology at Memphis State University and earned a master’s in theology at Memphis Theological Seminary. After college, she worked at a number of publications and received two Tennessee Press awards. Since then, she has authored a Lenten devotional, one novel, a country song, and a handful of poetry. She has been a member of the VOTS Writers Cabaret since 2020.
Sheri Bancroft
Sheri Bancroft is a writer and performer from Memphis. She received Literary Fellowships at Lillian E. Smith Center; Hambidge; Stonehouse; and Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow. Recently, she attended Tinker Mountain Writers Workshop, and next year, will be writer-in-residence at South Porch in South Carolina. Recent works appeared in Isolation Journals, e-Merge Literary Magazine, and Glimmertrain. As a member of VOTS's Writers Cabaret, her one-act play, Brace Yourself, was included in its recent 10-Minute Play Festival and her new children's stories featured at the next monthly reading. She loves slinging books at Novel, a Memphis, independent bookstore, and adores her musician husband and tubby ticked tabby.
David Couter
David Couter is a theatre artist specializing in acting and playwriting. He is originally from Chattanooga, TN but now works out of New York City. He received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Memphis. David’s work has been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Sharjah Fringe Festival, the New York Fringe, the Creo Theatre's Short Play Festival, in Seattle, Washington and Seoul, South Korea. Lemonade and Arsenic, his book of poetry, is available on Amazon.
Tory Dillard
Tory Shane Dillard has been with Voices of the South for over a year now. While being an Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, he is also an actor, poet, and writer. Tory finds great joy in writing about his own personal and mystical experiences. He loves fantasy and sci-fi. He enjoys cooking, hiking, working out, and traveling whenever possible. Tory feels blessed to be in the same space with such talented writers and actors.
Born and raised in Kentucky, Rebecca Downey is a lifelong writer, first published in her elementary school’s "Doodle" magazine. Her topics of interest range from fan fiction to the Graves Registration Corps of World War II to asexuality erasure in media. Currently she is working on her first full length work: a cold case detective allowed to reopen the decade old file of two high school classmates' deaths as her class reunion approaches.
Tracey Zerwig
Ford
Rebecca Downey
Ron Gephart is a retired educator and semi-retired actor/director. Since retiring after thirty years as Director of Theatre at Southwest Tennessee Community College, he has been pursuing his lifelong interest in writing more earnestly. Ron is a recipient of the Eugart Yearian Award for Lifetime Service to Memphis Theatre, as well as several Ostrander Awards for acting and directing. His play Someday for a Crown received a nomination in the new play category in the Memphis Theatre Awards. Ron's short story “Cosmo Yarrow Blows His Brains Out” received an honorable mention in Glimmer Train’s Family Matters competition.
Sarah Ellin Siegel
Sarah invested 30 years in her IBM career, managing ibm.com Creative Services; co-founding the company’s LGBTQ business development mission in 2001; and managing IBM Learning Design. After retiring four years ago, Sarah, her wife Pat, and their two cats, moved from Montclair, New Jersey to Memphis. Since then, Sarah written plays, poems, and personal essays. This year, Voices of the South will produce the Raising Ilana’s Mother world premiere. The company has also hosted readings of her 10-minute plays, Going Off Scripture and Scoop, and next year, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band Saved This Jewish Lesbian.
Ron Gephart
B.A. in Theatre, Lindenwood University
M.F.A. in Performance, Western Illinois University
Following her Playhouse on the Square acting internship, Tracey’s roles included Freak Engine Improv Show founding company member, Playhouse on the Square's Theatre For Youth and Theatre Memphis’ ShoWagon company member, Memphis Children’s Theatre Artistic Director, and Memphis Arts Council/ArtsMemphis’ Center for Arts Education Artistic Director and teaching artist, including at Lincoln Center Institute and Wolf Trap. Tracey has acted and directed in Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, and New York, including performing in Keegon Schuett’s Goddess of Tears world premiere. She serves as Voices of the South's Executive Producer.
Keegon Schuett
Keegon Schuett is a gender non-conforming playwright, filmmaker, poet, and performance artist from Memphis, Tennessee. Their plays, including Slow, Kitty Steals a Dog, Brace Yourself, Count Spatula, and Goddess of Tears, are published by YouthPLAYS and have been performed internationally. They are an alum of the Curious New Voices program of Curious Theatre in Denver where their plays Oedipus Vexed and Anniversary both premiered. Their play this dry spell won the 2024 Yale Drama Series Prize.
Elizabeth Treadway
Elizabeth Treadway was born in Florida, and lived in six states before graduating from high school. She earned her BA in English in 1991, and her JD in 1994, both from Ole Miss. She and her husband established Treadway Law Firm PLLC in Olive Branch, MS in 1994, and they have practiced together since. She has two sons: Jack is a lawyer and Jamie is an engineer. She enjoys reading, music, photography, martial arts and outdoor sports in addition to writing. Her prose has been published online and three of her plays have been produced. She is a member of First Global Methodist Church in Olive Branch.
Matthew Ward
Matt has worked as a professional actor for nearly two decades, primarily in and around Washington DC where he also received an MFA in Classical Acting from GWU. He is also an educator in multiple disciplines in the language and performing arts. He currently resides in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where he works as an educator and lecturer primarily at the University of Management and Technology. Matt is a proud member and supporter of Voices of the South. He champions and cherishes the talented group of artists, and its impact on his personal artistic growth is immense.