Sharon Benge, MFA

Sharon Benge, a native of Dallas, has spent her life deep in the arts of Texas.  A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, she holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Texas Christian University.  Currently she’s a Professor of Theater at TWU, where she served as director of Theater at for 13 years.  Professor Benge is celebrating her 25^th year as co-host of Art Matters on WRR Radio (101.1 FM.)  For 12 years Professor Benge served as the performing arts coordinator for the annual MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival. 

She has directed over 90 plays at theatres in North Texas and throughout the state.  The founding director of Fort Worth’s Shakespeare in the Park, Professor Benge has also served in artistic and administrative capacities at Casa Manana Playhouse, Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County and the Dallas Theater Center.  In 1996 she was honored by the Live Theater League of Tarrant County with the Elston Brooks Award for Excellence and has received similar accolades from the City of Fort Worth, the Arts and Business Connection, the Fort Worth Business Press and the Altrusa Club. In 2010 she was named Theater Arts Educator by the Live Theater of Tarrant County.

In January of 2005, she spent three weeks at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin working on the Long March, a performance art piece which was presented in Ireland, Texas, and off Broadway in New York City.  Professor Benge has lead theater tours to Prague, Ireland, and Scotland where she produced Alice in Wonderland and The Panther Screams and other Texas Tales at the International Fringe Festival.  Her recent directorial credits for regional theatres include A Room for One’s Own and staged readings of Two Hotels and Vincent at Brixton for Amphibian Productions; A Raisin in the Sun, Bee-Luther Hatchee, Home, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, and Blues for an Alabama Sky at Jubilee Theatre;  To Be Young, Gifted and Black, Master Harold and the Boys at African American Repertory Theater; and Tuesdays with Morrie at Circle Theater.