8A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2007
》 THEATER
Professor says call to stage turned into call of lifetime
Christilles attributes current health to fulfilling life-long passion for the bright lights of theater
BY JEFF DETERS ideters@kansan.com
Dennis Christilles credits theater with saving his life. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1975, he returned home to Texas and joined a theater troupe and worked as a waiter. Because of his job, he had to have a health card. Chest X-rays showed a tumor was wrapped around his aorta. He immediately went into surgery and the tumor removed. Christilles said the doctors told him that had it gone untreated, it would have been fatal in about six months.
"Something inside me told me to come back to Texas and get involved in the theater troupe," Christilles said.
In his 14 years as an associate professor in the department of theatre and film at the University of Kansas, Christilles has been involved in nearly every aspect of theater production. His latest work is a production of Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There." The play is a sequel to "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Christilles directed and designed the
sets and lights for the play. He said performing for a live audience was special because the audience and performers could interact.
"You just don't find it any other form," Christilles said. "It's not pre-recorded, it's not removed from the audience by distance of miles or anything like that. You're in the same room with the audience, and there you are. And that aspect of it, to me, is really, really special and excited."
Christilles earned his doctorate from the University in 1990 and worked for four years in Louisiana before returning to the University in the fall of 1994. Since then, Christilles has, in a sense, directed students' lives. He said one key component of his job was to set the scene of the play long before the opening curtain.
"Whenever I'm directing I just try to create an environment and atmosphere that's creative and not very high pressure so people feel to experiment and realize the joy of it, the fun of it," he said.
Angela Chrysostomou, Nicosia, Cyprus junior and theatre major, has been involved in many of Christilles' shows as an actress. She said that Christies helped her become a bet-
ter_actress by helping her_develop her English speaking skills.
"I learned how to feel comfortable on stage," she said.
Kate Giessel, Larned graduate student, completed her degrees in theater and linguistics last spring. In the summer of 2006, she and other members studied abroad with Christilles in Greece, and last summer, they went to Belgium and performed The Odyssey.
"He's a great teacher because he will introduce material and then let you as a person find meaning for it," Giessel said.
Christilles said that at the University, working with actors has not been difficult. He said that actors generally want everyone to succeed and to have the best performance. Shy people sometimes need a little extra help.
"That's one of the things a director does is to be that bridge and a person who can move everybody along," he said.
In the future Christies wants to continue studying abroad during the summer and also spend more time conducting research on Greece and contemporary theater. Christies said that he advises his students the same way he does his own children.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Dennis Christilles, associate professor of theater and film, directs during a rehearsal or "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There" September 13 in The Inge Memorial Theater in Murphy Hall. The play opens Saturday.
"Don't make your dreams little," he said. "Dare to dream big dreams, and don't be afraid to go out and try to make them come true."
— Edited by Kaitlyn Syring
Now playing
University Theatre and Theatre for Young People are performing Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There."The play is a sequel to "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"The play began on Monday and can be seen at 9:45 a.m. Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Inge Theatre inside Murphy Hall. The play can also be seen at 9:45 a.m. Sept. 26-28. Tickets are $10 for the public, $9 for senior citizens and $5 for students.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Lebanese inspector, center, checks a dead body which lies on the ground at the scene where a powerful bomb killed a pro-government Parliament member and six other people in a Christian suburb east of Beirut, Lebanon on Wednesday. The bomb killed Antoine Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange party. Ghanim was the eighth anti-Syria figure and fourth lawmaker from the governing coalition to be assassinated in less than three years.
》 WORLD
Lebanese bomb kills seven wounds at least 67 others
BY SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP)_A powerful bomb killed an anti-Syria lawmaker and six others Wednesday in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut, threatening to derail an effort by an already divided Parliament to elect Lebanon's next president in voting that begins next week.
Antoine Ghanem, a 64-year-old member of the Christian Phalange party who had returned from refuge abroad only two days earlier, was the eighth anti-Syria figure and fourth lawmaker from the governing coalition to be assassinated in less than three years.
Coalition members blamed Syria. Damascus denied involvement, as it has for the previous seven assassinations, including the 2005 bombing death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — a killing that ignited huge protests and forced Syria to withdraw its troops after a three-decade occupation.
Security officials said at least 67 people were wounded in Wednesday's blast, half of which had left the hospital by day's end. The explosion occurred at rush hour on a busy street in the Sin el-Fil district, severely damaging nearby buildings, setting several cars on fire and scattering blood and debris along the street.
Explosive experts were seen checking the engine of Ghanem's car, which was thrown more than 150 feet. A security official said the bomb was likely detonated by remote control near Ghanem's car.
"I have never seen a more cowardly regime than that of Bashar Assad's," lawmaker Saad Hariri said, blaming the Syrian president for Ghanem's death.
Hariri replaced his father, the assassinated ex-premier, as head of anti-Syria forces, which now hold a majority in Lebanese Parliament.
Cabinet member Ahmed Fafat also blamed Syria for the attack, and said Damascus wanted to derail efforts by majority and opposition leaders to reach some agreement before they begin presidential voting in Parliament on Tuesday.
"It is the only regime that does not want presidential elections in Lebanon to be held" Fatat told The Associated Press.
President Emile Lahoud, an ally of Syria, also implied Ghanem's death was meant to undermine the presidential vote, saying "it is no coincidence that whenever there are positive signs that someone is killed."
Syria said the attack was aimed at sabotaging the efforts by the
Lebanese people to reach an agreement.
"This criminal act ains at undermining efforts paid by Syria and others to achieve Lebanese national accord," Syria's state-run news agency SANA quoted an anonymous Syrian official as saying.
Many people fear the divisions over the presidency could lead to the creation of two rival governments, which could cause a repeat of the last two years of Lebanon's civil war from 1975 to 1990, when army units loyal to competing administrations battled it out.
The United States has accused Syria of trying to undermine Lebanon's government, but has not yet tied the Damascus regime to the political killings.
"The bombing that claimed these lives was another in a campaign of terror by those who want to turn back the clock on Lebanon's hard-win democratic gains," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement. "Enemies of peace and freedom want to gain through violence, threat, and intimidation what they cannot win in free and fair elections."
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The assassination of anti-Syria figures began with the killing of Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005, in a bombing that also killed 20 other people. Large demonstrations and international pressure forced Syrian troops to leave, and Lebanon elected a government led by anti-Syria politicians.
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Since then, U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has been mired in a power struggle with the opposition, led by the Syrian-allied militant group Hezbollah. Government supporters said Syria wanted to end Saniora's small majority in Parliament by killing off lawmakers in his coalition, which now holds 68 seats to the opposition's 59.
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With the loss of Ghanem and the earlier killing of Pierre Gemayel, the Phalange party — one of the main political and military powers during the 15-year civil war — now has just one representative in Parliament.
After the assassination of lawmaker Walid Eido in June, some majority legislators left the country to spend the summer abroad in safety, while those who stayed took extra security.
Fatfat told the AP that Ghanem had just returned Monday from an undisclosed country where he took refuge for two months.
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