R. Rex Stephenson earned his B.A. in middle and secondary education at Ball State University. Upon graduation, Stephenson taught at Bayshore Middle School in Florida and Redkey High School in Indiana. He received his M.A. from Indiana State University in theatre and in 1973 became a drama professor at Ferrum College in Virginia, where he was named professor emeritus in 2013. In 1984, he received his Ph.D. in educational theatre at New York University. He was producer/director of the Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre from 1979 to 2012. Stephenson has had 24 plays for children and adults published, including The Jack Tales, The Liberated Cinderella, Treasure Island, Galileo: Man of Science, The Jungle Book, A Christmas Carol, Connecticut Yankee, and Glorious Son of York. He has been a winner in two major playwriting contests: The American Alliance for Theatre and Education 1995 award for Too Free For Me (published by Encore), and the IUPUI National Youth Theatre Playwriting Competition, “Excellence in Playwriting” award 1996 for Jack’s Adventures with the King’s Girl. In 1996 he was awarded an Appalachian College Association Faculty Research Fellowship, to research and write The World Is My Parish, a drama about the life of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He also received the Sara Spencer Child Drama Award from the Southeastern Theatre Conference in 2007. Stephenson, now retired, lives in Ferrum, Virginia and he has three daughters, Janice, Jessica, and Juliet.
MUSICALS AUTHORED
- Adventures of Huck Finn (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- And the Rains Came…And Came (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- Daniel! (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- The Littlest Shepherd (Leicester Bay Theatricals – coming soon)
- We Band of Brothers (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- Little Women (Leicester Bay Theatricals – coming soon)
- Jeff! (The President Is In Shackles)(Coming Soon to LBT)
- A Southern Soldier Boy (Coming Soon to LBT)
- Just So Stories (Eldridge)
- Heidi
- Jonah and the Big Fish
- Gabriel’s Honky Tonk Angels
- The Night Loretta, Mother Maybelle and Jeannie C. Spent in Jail
- When The Lights Go On Again
- Alas, Alas Where For Art Thou Bisney?
- Mark Twainʼs Tom Sawyer—A Musical
- Bar Room Smasher
- Blue Suede Shoes: A Musical Revue of the 50s
- Blue Suede Shoes: Part Two
PLAYS AUTHORED
- Jungle Book (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- The World of Snow White (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- Glorious Son of York (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- The World Is My Parish (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- A Christmas Carol (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- The Cricket on the Hearth(Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- The Liberated Cinderella (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- My Travels With Cecil (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- Belle Boyd: Confederate Spy (Leicester Bay Theatricals)
- An Evening with Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson (Coming Soon to LBT)
- Galileo: Man of Science (Dramatic Publishing)
- The Jack Tales (Dramatic Publishing)
- Treasure Island (Dramatic Publishing)
- Grandmother Tales: Mutsmag and Ashpet, Traditional Tales from the Blue Ridge (Dramatic Publishing)
- The Three Old Women’s Bet (Dramatic Publishing)
- Jack In The Blue Ridge Mountains [Jack Tales Too] (Eldridge)
- Kipling’s Just So Stories (Eldridge)
- Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court (Eldridge)
- Too Free For Me (Eldridge)
- Jack’s Adventures with the King’s Girl (Eldridge)
- Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland (Eldridge)
- Life On The Mississippi (Eldridge)
- Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper (Eldridge)
- O’Callahan and the Ship That Wouldn’t Die
- Charity for All
- The Conspiracy
- Earlyʼs Light
- Faith of our Fathers: A Historical Dramatization of the Founding of Franklin County
- The General and His Lady
- Glenn Myth and the Legend of Booneʼs Hill
- A Movement to Lead
- Murder By Exam
- The Roar of the Silence
- Trial By Jury
- Victoria, I Account Thy Love
- The Vision: A Play about John Wesley and the Founding of Kingswood School
- Wicca