Virginia Playwright Brought ‘Jack Tales’ To Hundreds Of Thousands

This story originally aired in the Sept. 14, 2025 episode of Inside Appalachia.

A Virginia playwright who brought Appalachian folk tales to hundreds of thousands of children and people across the United States has died. Rex Stephenson was a theater professor at Ferrum College at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. He was 81.

Stephenson wrote numerous plays, including at least 25 that were performed on stage. He was known for playing famed American author Mark Twain. And he was best known for telling Jack Tales, in performances that mixed drama, humor and musical performances to entertain and engage their audiences.

The Jack Tales relate the adventures of a scrappy protagonist. In Stephenson’s telling, they often were set in Appalachia and incorporated regional culture and tropes. 

“Jack Tales are stories, mostly about a central Jack character,” says Emily Blankenship-Tucker, who teaches Appalachian music and theater at Ferrum College. “The Jack that I know is lucky, and he’s smart, and he goes through all kinds of situations where he encounters devils or giants or witches or big brothers that pick on him. And he always outsmarts whatever he’s up against and comes out on top.” 

Stephenson’s Jack Tale Players celebrate their 50th anniversary this year. They’ve performed for more than a million audience members in 34 states and in England. But the group of players Stephenson cultivated is more than just a troupe of theater performers; it’s a community with its own sense of history and lineage. 

“On the banner, it says, ‘Today and always,’ because the stories we tell, the Jack Tales themselves, are part of an oral tradition,” says Blankenship-Tucker. “There’s also an oral tradition among the troupe, among the company. In the company, you can say, ‘Oh, I played this part and who I learned it from and who they learned it from,’ and you can see the contributions of the storytellers as it goes on.”

Stephenson presented the first edition of his Jack Tales at Callaway Elementary School in Franklin County in 1975. From the get-go, they were designed to engage kids in the audience.

“You can see photos of actors going up to kids and saying, ‘Would you help me with this?’” says Blankenship-Tucker. “There’s nothing really there, but the kids get up and struggle together, because they see it.” 

There’s a photo of Stephenson in a hallway at Ferrum showing him surrounded by kids, smiling, roaring, laughing. 

Blankenship-Tucker met Stephenson and joined up with the troupe in 2001. She was just out of college and ran into him at a conference in Philadelphia where he was looking for actors. She remembers reading about the Jack Tales Players at a showcase where various theater companies were pitching their upcoming shows. 

“It said this was in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in a rural place, that we’d be out in elementary schools and performing traditional Appalachian tales and songs, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh that’s the place I want to go,’” she says. “I remember meeting Rex in a callback, and him saying, ‘You’re going to work hard! You’re going to be up before the sun comes up! You’re going to be out in elementary schools!’ And I thought, ‘Yeah – that’s what I want to do.'” 

But what started as a summer job turned into more than two decades of working with Stephenson in Ferrum. Today, Blankenship-Tucker, her wife Rachel Blankenship-Tucker and their son Silas all work and perform with the Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre, which Stephenson helped found in the 1970s. The theater showcased a variety of productions, but the Jack Tales became his calling card.

“Rex said at first he didn’t know it would have such a life, and after a year, he thought maybe we should do something else,” says Blankenship-Tucker. “And people would say, ‘Can we book a Jack Tales show?'”

Stephenson retired from Ferrum College in 2012. But that wasn’t the end of his story – or Jack’s story.

Emily Blankenship-Tucker, Rachel Blankenship-Tucker and Rebecca Crocker came together to gather archival materials and clean up the old theater at Ferrum College. Tina Hanlon, a Ferrum College English professor, worked as Stephenson’s script consultant for decades.

“They came up with the most brilliant plan to completely remodel this space,” says Hanlon. “They got him back teaching, they got the idea for these murals and everything. All that is so incredible.”

In 2023, they relaunched the Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre. The theater itself was named in honor of Stephenson, and his image adorns the wall. Across from it is an illustration of the cover of Richard Chase’s 1943 edition of the Jack Tales. Stephenson had received permission from illustrator Berkeley Williams’ widow to use the image for his Jack Tale Players. Below it reads, “The house that Jack built.” 

A 1990 performance of the Jack Tales concludes with Rex Stephenson speaking to the crowd of students. 

“Now back up in the mountains, you know morning comes early, so we’ve got to break up all these good times we’ve been having,” he said. “But I do want to tell you. All of Jack’s adventures. Why a man by the name of Mr. Chase, he wrote ’em all down. They’re good stories for you to read and for you to read to your brothers and sisters. There’s two books, and, well, we hope you’ll read ’em. And thanks a lot for inviting us to your school today.” 

Stephenson died in August at the age of 81. The 50th anniversary show and tour by the Jack Tale Players will take place in October.

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This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.