Joe Allen Brown has a long history in Fort Worth and the theatre community. This is Joe’s 48th year at Texas Wesleyan, where he has served the institution in many capacities. He was Chair of Theatre Wesleyan for 22 years where during that time he was also the Dean of the School of Fine Arts for 5 years and then Dean of Freshmen for 19 years. In the last four years he has served again as Chair of Theatre.
A Phi Beta Kappa honors graduate with a BA in Theatre and Speech from the University of Arkansas; Brown also has an MFA in Theatre Design from SMU where he studied with the Broadway design team of William and Jean Eckart.
In his service to Texas Wesleyan, he has received awards from the faculty, students, Board of Trustees, and the Alumni association for his teaching and artistry and student advocacy.
Joe has served for various terms as President of the Live Theatre League of Tarrant County and is the only person to receive three awards from the LTL: The Elston Brooks Lifetime Achievement award, the Theatre Advocacy Award and recently the Outstanding Theatre Arts Educator Award. He was also recognized last spring by the Slaughter Family Arts Awards for their Leticia Gray Award for dedication to theatrical arts and theatre education.
Joe has designed and directed area theatres including Circle Theatre, Jubilee Theatre, Amphibian Theatre, Stage West Theatre and Artisan Center Theatre. He is a past Regional Design Chair for the Southwest Region of the American College Theatre Festival. He is currently the Vice President of the Board for Jubilee Theatre but in his tenure at Wesleyan he has also served on the board for Stage West, Shakespeare in the Park, and Arts 5th Avenue. Brown was also one of the first adjudicators for Casa Manana’s Betty Buckley Awards where he served as a lead judge for five years.
Known to his first generations of theatre students as “Papa Joe” and now is as “Pro Joe” to the students from his many years as Dean of Freshmen.
In his service to Wesleyan, he has been involved in designing the stage for six Presidential Inaugurations and served on many faculty committees and currently is again serving on the Faculty Council. He is also very happy to play Santa Clause for the Wesleyan Christmas events.
Joe is proud to live in Fort Worth and be a part of its Theatre and Artistic energy. He has “grown up” at Wesleyan and watched the theatre community grow and expand in his 48 years at Wesleyan. He is super proud of the many Theatre Wesleyan students that have gone on to work professionally or to become Theatre Arts instructors both at the middle school and high school levels, and at the college level. There are so many directions and career paths for a student with a theatre and liberal arts degree, and his many generations of students have also become lawyers, doctors, business entrepreneurs, restaurant owners, counselors and leaders in their communities. Brown is also happy to brag about the number of Theatre Wesleyan alumni that work in the theatres in the metroplex.
Joe is a loyal East-sider where he lives with his partner of 43 years, Gary Jordan and their ever-changing “Eastside Zoo” of many dogs and cats and birds and rescue animals. He and Gary are honorary fathers to a Wesleyan alumnus: Joakim Soederbaum who was an international student from Sweden. He is now a successful attorney with his wife, Nadeen, who is a doctor and their four boys: Johan, Elam, Noah and Leo, the grandsons.