R. REX STEPHENSON

Professor of Drama

Playwright/director Rex Stephenson (left) performing with Jack Tale Players
for the Children's Literature Association International
Hotel Roanoke, June 2000
Photo by Lana Whited

R. Rex Stephenson Honored at Start of 25th BRDT Season. Press release with photos

Old Michie Theatre to Present Stephenson’s Treasure Island. Jan. 2005 press release

Too Free for Me Concludes BRDT Anniversary Season. Review by Lana A. Whited

BRDT Revives First Play for 25th Season. Press Release on Too Free for Me

Theatre Department puts on Grandmother Tales. Short review in The Tartan, Radford U, 12/09/03

Review/Interview by Anna Wentworth, on Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre Season, 2001

Press Release on Mark Twain Show (Feb. 2001)

Production of Stephenson Adaptation of The Jungle Book at Radford University

Author Information at Eldridge Plays Web Site

Review of Glorious Son of York by Anna Wentworth, 1998

Ferrum College Press Release Index
Includes photos of The Odd Couple, Waiting in the Wings, etc.

RESUME

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

1973 to present: Ferrum College Drama Department
Rank: Professor since 1989

1966-69: Teaching high school and junior high English, government, speech, and drama

EDUCATION

Ph. D., New York University, Education/Theatre, 1984
M. A., Indiana State University, Speech/Theatre, 1973
B. S., Ball State University, Social Science and Speech/Drama, 1964

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Plays:

Wicca. In online journal Nantahala: A Review of Writing and Photography in Appalachia. Issue 1:01. Nov. 2001.  

Kipling's Just So Stories and Just So Stories—the Musical, with music Emily Rose Tucker. Venice, FL: Eldridge, 2006.
Grandmother Tales: Mutsmag and Ashpet, Traditional Tales from the Blue Ridge Mountains. New Plays for Children, 2004.
Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain. Salt Lake City, UT: Encore Performance Publishing, 2004.
The Prince and the Pauper: Based on the Mark Twain Classic. Orem, UT:  Encore, 2002.
My Travels with Cecil. Encore, 2002. About British ballad collector Cecil Sharp's visit to Franklin County, VA in 1918.
The Three Old Women's Bet. I. E. Clark, 2002.

The Adventures of Huck Finn, with music by Jon Cohn and C. Michael Perry. Adapted from Mark Twain. Encore, 2002.
A Christmas Carol.  Adapted from Charles Dickens. I. E. Clark, 2001.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Eldridge, 2000.
And the Rains Came. . . And Came. New Plays for Children, 2000.
Glorious Son of York: A Play for Two or More People about King Richard III. Orem, UT:  Encore Publishing, 2000.

Jack’s Adventures with the King’s Girl. Encore Performance Publishing, 1999.
Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. New Plays for Children, 1998.
Too Free for Me. Encore Publishing, 1998. (award-winning play based on local history)
The Vision: A Play about John Wesley and the Founding of Kingswood School, with co-author Mike Trochim,1998.
Alice in Wonderland, with music by Jon Cohn. Encore Performance Publishing, 1997.

Galileo: Man of Science, with co-author Mike Trochim. New Plays for Children, 1996.
Treasure Island. I. E. Clark, 1995.
The Jack Tales. I. E. Clark, 1991.
"The Jack Tales," in Eight Plays for Youth, ed. by Christian Moe, Lang, 1991.
The Liberated Cinderella. I. E. Clark, 1973.

Other Publications:

Mutsmag, in AppLit, 2002. An online picture book adaptation, illustrated by children in grades K-3, Franklin County, VA. Script in Crosscurrents of Children's Literature: An Anthology of Texts and Criticism, Oxford UP, 2006.

"Jack and the King's Girl," in ALCA-Lines:  Journal of the Assembly on the Literature and Culture of Appalachia , vol. IX (2001): 14-15. Also published with guidelines for dramatizing with children, in Nellie McCaslin’s Creative Drama in the Classroom, 5th ed. (New York:  Longman, 1990). Full text reprinted at this link in AppLit.

"Teacher Resource Guide" for Galileo: Man of Science (with Jon Cohn, Kara-Beth Oliver, Madison Williams, Donna Speidel, and Mike Trochim). In Nellie McCaslin’s Creative Drama in the Classroom, 7th ed. (NY: Longman, 2000).

"Jack and the Hainted House," in Nellie McCaslin’s Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, editions 4-8. In story form with guidelines for dramatization.)

"Jack and his Lump of Silver," in ALCA-Lines: Journal of the Assembly on the Literature and Culture of Appalachia, vol. VI (Fall 1999): 6-7. Full text reprinted at this link in AppLit.

"Feedback and Follow Up" (with John Hodgson). Virginia English Bulletin, Spring 1995.

"The Script as Story Theatre."1994. Reprinted in AppLit.

"A Way to Begin: The Narrative Story Expansion." Virginia English Bulletin, Spring 1992.

"Why Do I Do It." Geriatric Nursing, Winter 1987.

"The Jack Tales of the Southern Appalachian Area." Ferrum Review, Spring 1976.

ADDITIONAL THEATRICAL AND SCHOLARLY EXPERIENCE

Producer/Director, Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre (summer, since 1978)

Producer/writer/director of Ferrum College Jack Tale Players since 1975

Director of over 150 plays

Writer/producer of over 25 plays

Actor in over 100 plays

Producer/writer/director of 8 stateside USO tours for Veterans Administration Medical Centers

Produced 48-minute video, The Jack Tales Performing Live, Media Link Productions

Conducted many workshops for teachers and students on drama, storytelling, and uses of folktales

Presentations at Virginia Humanities Conferences, 1996 and 1998; Biennial Conferences on Modern Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature, 1997 and 2001; and Appalachian Teachers' Network Conference, 2001, on dramatic adaptations of folklore and literature

Performances and presentations at theatre conferences since 1982

Recipient of IUPUI National Youth Theatre Playwrighting Competition award for "Excellence in Playwrighting" for Jack's Adventures with the King's Girl in 1996

Recipient of 2007 Sara Spencer Child Drama Award, Southeastern Theatre Conference