Professor Emeritus of Theatre
R. Rex Stephenson earned his Ph.D. in educational theatre at New York University and began teaching drama at Ferrum College in 1973. He has had more than two dozen plays published, and won two major playwriting contests, through the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and the National Archives Play Writing Contest. In 1996 he received the Jean Ritchie Fellowship to research and write plays on John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. He was awarded the 1997 East Central Theatre Conference’s Award for Theatrical Excellence. In 2007 he was awarded the prestigious SETC Sara Spencer Child Drama Award. Rex is considered one of the most published children’s playwrights in Virginia.
Rex is the creator and artistic director of the Jack Tale Players, a touring company that has continued to delight audiences of all ages since 1975. After retiring from full-time work in 2012, he taught courses in improvisation, theatre history, and performance, and directed plays and musicals at the Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre (which he founded in 1979). The Rex Stephenson Theatre was dedicated in lower Schoolfield Hall in 2023 to honor his legacy. Recent directing credits include Nunsense; No, No, A Million Times No; Steel Magnolias; and You Caught Me Dancing. Rex died on August 13, 2025, while he was writing a play to commemorate the centennial of Schoolfield Hall.
