SECTION TWO
THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1989
Moses Gunn stars with William Kuhike in "I'm Not Rappaport." Performances start today at 8:00 p.m. at Crafton-Preyer Theatre.
KU professor. TV actor stars in 'Rappaport'
by Kris M. Bergquist Kansas staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Two 81-year old men sit on a park bench in Central Park. The black man tries to figure out how to keep his job as a janitor of a housing development. The Jewish man starts telling him about how he's a CIA agent masquerading as an escaped Cuban terrorist.
After listening for a while, the black man said that he didn't believe the story.
the story.
"That's fine. That was a nice story.
That lasted a long time," said Nat,
the Jewish man.
William Kuhke, professor of theatre and film, who plays Nat, said that his character's last for life kept him going and after a time, also kept Midge, the black man, going in the play, "I'm Not Rappaport."
"It a love for life," Kuhlike said. "Nat loves to make his day interesting by creating scenarios with his imagination. Human beings are the only beings that can go wherever our imagination takes us."
"I'm Not Rappaport" will be performed today through Sunday in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre at Murphy Hall. The performances are at 7:30 p.m. except on Sunday, when the production will be at 2:30 p.m.
Moses Gunn plays Midge, the black man Gunn, a St Louis native, attended graduate school at KU from 1896 to 1961. He began his professional acting career in New York in 1962 in a production of Genet's "The Blacks." He received an Emmy Award for "Roots," in which he portrayed Kintago, the African chief elder.
Gunn will be awarded the Charles "Buddy" Rogers award by Rogers after the Saturday performance. This is the second year the award has been given to honor Rogers, a KU graduate who began his film career in the 1920s during the silent film period.
Horton wants to ride wave of future in corrections
The award is given to individuals who have distinguished themselves in their professional careers and have maintained their support for the
See MOSES, p. 19, col
bv Noel Gerdes
Special to the Kansan
HORTON — “Horton, Kansas: prisons 'r'
us.”
Horton Kansas Inc. plans to build a $55 million, municipally operated medium-security prison with 1,000 cells, then lease cell space to overcrowded prisons in other states, counties and cities. Ground breaking for the tentatively scheduled for this summer.
Residents of the northeast Kansas community of 2,130 think that should be the town's new slogan. They have watched their community go from a railroad center 40 years ago to the home of the Bank of Herton, one of the nation's leaders in guaranteed student loans.
loans.
Now they hope to see Horton catch an early ride on what some corrections experts call the wave of the future in incarceration.
Horton Kansas Inc. is a non-profit organization formed more than a year ago to encourage the state to build its proposed maximum-security prison there, said Jeff Teter, vice president of data processing at the bank and president of the group. Its
members include the Horton Chamber of Commerce, city commissioners and the board of directors of the Horton Industrial Development Corporation.
Seattleptown. Here he was one of 12 sites reviewed by the state but was not selected as a finalist because of its location, said Bill Miskell, public information officer for the Kansas Department of Corrections. Because 26 percent of the prison population is under new maximum security prison probably will be built close to Wichita, he said.
When Horton Kansas inc. learned Horton was not selected as a primary site for the state, the group decided to research the feasibility of building its own facility.
Phone calls and letters to national corrections associations, universities and other states, plus research commissioned from an urgent need for more prison beds.
Building Walle
binding Walls
Laura Cary, research and statistics coord.
Teter said, "Everybody we talked to said, What you guys are doing is the wave of the future."
nator for the American Correctional Association in College Park, Md., said in a telephone interview that her office had completed a nationwide survey of prison and jail construction in January.
struction in January.
According to the survey, states will complete about 250 prison projects at a cost of $3.3 billion in the next five years, adding about 89,000 beds. Counties will complete about 727 jail projects at a cost of $3.3 billion, adding about 53,000 beds. That would be a total 142,000 new beds.
Those are just the projects already financed. Cary said.
States also are considering an additional 372 projects, which would cost about $3.8 billion and add about 79,000 beds. Counties are considering an additional 369 projects worth about $3.1 billion, adding about 41,000 beds, that would mean 12,900 additional beds.
adjudunct. According to an article published in Jail Inmates 1987, published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of inmates housed in local jails because of overcrowding at state prisons is growing. In 1986, 16,833 inmates were housed in jails because of
overcrowding at state prisons. In 1967, that number rose to more than 19,000.
And Kansas has not escaped the overcrowding problem. It is under court order to eliminate overcrowding at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing by July 1, 1991
Miscell said that in addition to the overcrowding that already existed, the Department of Corrections anticipated an average monthly increase of 44 inmates, or more than 500 inmates a year, based on averages from the past five years.
Horton sees a why
To be sure, a need for more prison beds exists, but the question is why a quiet, essentially rural community such as Horton should become involved in corrections.
Money, jobs and stability. Peter salo.
He said his group was impressed by how new prisoners in Ellsworth and Cameron, Mo., had affected those towns.
"It had a real significant economic impact in their communities," Teter said.
in their equipment.
For example, Hoyt Brill, assistant super-
intendent of program services at the Western
Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron
Mo., said that the rise in property values since that prison was built has been tremendous.
"The average acre of land worth $5,000 has doubled." Brill said.
doubted. "burn said.
The state said, roughly 1,900-bed prison
causes its first inmates Nov. 8 and has a
population of about 900. Brill said the prison
also tentatively planned to lease cells to other
states and expected to fill to capacity within
a few months.
a few months.
Besides increasing property values, Horizon Kansas Inc. estimates a prison would create as many as 600 jobs and bring into the area between $12 million and $15 million a year.
Teeter said that for rural areas, every dollar changes hands more than four times before leaving the community. That means people are spending.
are spending. A new industry in Horton also would stimulate other businesses, all of which would pay for repairing potholes in Horton sidewalks and roads and other needed public works.
See TOWN, p. 20, col. 3
KU violinist to join the KC symphony
Haid faced national competition for job
by Kris M. Bergquist Kansan staff writer
When Katy Haid was 10 years old, her parents didn't want her to play sports because they were afraid she would be bullied and needed her hands to play the violin.
Despite being a tomboy, Haid said she never hurt her hands and was glad of it now. She will be using them to play the violin in the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra beginning in August.
Haid, Lawrence graduate student,
was selected to be the assistant
principal second of the orchestra.
The assistant principal second sits
with the second violin section and
helps the principal second oversee it.
She auditioned along with 24 other
people for the position.
Howard Boyajian, professor of violin in the music and dance department, said that in his 20 years of teaching at KU no other student had been selected to be a member of the Kapas City orchestra.
Kalisha said she usually practiced about four hours a day, but for the auditions she had to work even harder.
interior for the audition, Haid had to prepare 12 orchestra excerpts and a Moztar concerto. During the audition, she had to sight-read a piece and for the final audition, sight-read pieces with four members of the orchestra.
"I heard about the opening three weeks before." Haid said. "I was practicing very intensively for those three weeks."
"I was real nervous," Haid said. "The people I was competing with came from all over the country.
came to me thing I keep reminding myself is that I prepared as much as I could, so I'll just have to try my best."
This was Haid's first audition for a professional orchestra. Haid is the principal second in the KU chamber orchestra. She received a bachelor of arts at the New England Conservatory in Boston. She is working on her master's degree in violin performance at KU because her husband, Ben Sayewich, is an assistant professor in violin here.
"For a professional violinist, there is not too much to do in this area." Haid said. "This is the best possible thing that I could do in this area. I knew if I didn't get the job, it was still a good opportunity to audition."
"I would have been surprised if she hadn't made it," Boyajian said, "She's very talented, has a real personality to her playing, and learns
"Learning music quickly is a very important requisite. Since you have to play week after week, if you slaved for it, it would be a terrible drudgery.
Haid said she may have to quit school. The symphony performs almost every week and rehearses almost every day.
"This audition was very unusual."
Franano said. "Kathy from Lawrence got a position and someone from Emporia did also. Usually, it will be people from Juliard or California."
Boyajian said he wasn't surprised that Haid got the position.
Frank Franano, personnel manager of the Kansas City Symphony, said he was excited that someone from Lawrence was selected.
"We just looked at all of those kind of things in a musician and Kathy had the best qualities in all of them," Franano said.
During auditions, Franano said the symphony looked for musicality, technique and tone.
Professor finds answers in Muslim teachings
by Michelle Stark Special to the Kansan
Just after sunset, the last of five daily prayers is recited.
About 25 students fill the Masjid,
1300 Ohio St., and with them is
Jeffrey Lang, offering his prayer
to God.
For the past seven years, Lang,
associate professor of mathematics,
has filled his days with the five
titles he earned from Cornell and
practices in teaching it.
Facing Mecca, the followers of Mohammed stand in straight lines as they are led in a five-to-seven-minute prayer. Verses were recited, and individual prayers of supplication are offered to God.
Lang is a man who stands out in a crowd for his religion; he is an American Muslim. He stands out culturally, but he says he is accepted spiritually among his fellow believers.
Lang has been the faculty adviser of the KU Muslim Student Association for two years:
"Giving the speech put the issue to rest. The Muslim students felt that at least they were heard, and I was able to get across the idea that Muslims kill people by killing people just because they disagree with you," Lang said.
As the faculty adviser, Lang spoke Feb. 28 on "The Satanic Verses" and explained that the Muslim students didn't believe that the Ayatollah Khomeini should have issued a death sentence for Salman Rushdie, the author of the book.
usage with fear. For Lang, issues that cause conflict need to be dealt with in a manner that gets results.
A religious journey lay ahead of Lang on Jan. 30, 1954, in Bridgeport, Conn., when he was born into a Roman Catholic family.
The first 18 years of his life were spent in Catholic schools. "They gave a good education. They were
very good at doing that," Lang said.
A Catholic education developed a smart man, but it also left him with many unanswered questions about the Catholic religion, Leng said.
"I like most kids back in the late 60s and early 70s, I started to question all the values that we had at those times — political, social and religious." Lang said. "I rebelled against all the institutions that society held sacred. One of those was the Catholic Church."
At age 17, Lang was finishing his last year of high school. It was also his last year as a Catholic.
"If there is a God, and he is all merciful and all loving, then why is there suffering on this earth? Why doesn't he just pop us to heaven? Why create all these people to suffer?"
people to sacrifice.
"By the time I was 18, I was a full-fledged atheist," Lang said.
tulled hegened
accept suffering as something that happened by chance gave him more peace than believing that God created it and forced it down people's throats, said Lang.
Lang God's existence in Lang's life ceased until he was 25.
ceased until he "If you have ever tried to commit yourself to believing that there is no God after believing that there is one for so long, it is very difficult after a while," Lang said.
left at age 17.
When he was 25, he started attending church again, but he still felt the answers he got to his questions concerning God were incomplete.
"They tried to answer my questions, but their answers didn't satisfy me." Lang said. "I gave up on the entire idea. I would love to have believed then, but I just couldn't."
Patrick G. Brungardt/Special to the KANSAN
Jeffrey Lang
a reality.
God was shot to him by a few of the friends he had made at the university. They were Muslim<sup>a</sup>.
While teaching at the University of San Francisco, Lang met God again, and for him God was finally a reality.
"We talked about religion. I asked them my questions, and I was really surprised by how carefully they had thought out their answers," Lang said.
answers. Lang said
It was in the Koran that Lang
found his long-awaited answers.
1 "started to believe again."
Lang said. "Reading the Koran gave me a great deal of comfort and strength in difficult times."
See KORAN, p. 28, col. 1