University Daily Kansan / Friday, November 11, 1988
11
Arts & Entertainment
Director to quit administrative role
Willis leaving post to teach full-time
Ron Willis is stepping down after this semester from his administrative position in the University Theatre.
By M. Meredith Relph Kansan staff writer
Within his small, cluttered office at Murphy Hall, amid play scripts and piles of books, Ron Willis is gladly preparing to make a minor career change.
the end of
But it is with no regrets that he will
once again become a "plain old
faculty member."
After 13 years as director of University Theatre, Willis will step down from the administrative position at the end of the semester.
faculty member.
Tall, bearded and bespectacled.
Willis is a well-known figure in university theater circles as a director, but described himself as a reluctant administrator.
"I'm looking forward to being able to teach full time again," he said. "I sure do enjoy it. The joys of teaching and directing are lasting."
freelance in 1935.
Willis' wife Marie said she was happy that he was getting back to the classroom.
"Ron's served the department well, and after 13 years it's time," she said. "Now he can focus on his professional development as a teacher and scholar."
teacher and school.
Willis will take a sabbatical during the spring semester and return to the University next fall. Among his pursuits during the sabbatical is a book on play spectatorship.
"I have found that aesthetic education in our country is sadly deficient." Willis said. "People don't know how to watch plays."
Willis said the art of observing plays was something he stressed when teaching his drama classes.
well teaching "Witnessing a play properly has the same precepts of a good education," he said.
Willis has given workshops on play spectatorship through the American College Theatre Festival.
A colleague who has worked with
Wills in staging, production and the
ACTF, said that the right words to describe Ron Willis were difficult to find.
"He's such a vivacious personality I couldn't compare him with any one," said Roger Gross, professor of drama at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
"Artistically, he is a very adventurous director, always doing something surprising." he said.
Wills" last play this semester is "Whose Life is it Anyway?" a medical ethics drama written by Brian Clark.
Will Carpenter, a Tulaa, Okla., junior who plays the leading role in "Whose Life Is It anyway?" said he had enjoyed working with Willis in the production.
"Ron is a genius." Carpenter said.
"Ron is a really good friend."
Willis said he liked staging new plays because he did not have to fight audiences' pre-conceived notions.
"With a new play, you work out the bugs while it's in progress," he said. "What the audience doesn't see is the development of new talent and the development of the product itself. I like witnessing that."
With the numerous productions he has staged at KU and other universities, Willis said it was difficult to pick a favorite. However, there is one production that he is not likely to forget for awhile.
Just more than a year ago on Nov. 5, 1987, while making the final adjustments for the University production of "Hamlet," Willis broke a leg, a rib and his nose when he fell off the stage in Crafton-Preyer Theatre.
Fully recovered now. Willis is able to laugh about the accident.
"Since they reconstructed my nose, I can breathe better than I ever could before," he said. "It's kind of a humorous dimension to the whole story."
Wills said he viewed each production as a voyage but admitted that he
didn't remember much about a show when its run was complete.
what is it? "I'm very boring when I'm working because everything relates to the show. It even wakes me up at night. When then it's over, that feeling's gone," he said.
"But I give him my own feelings."
Marie Willis said that her husband encouraged feedback on his plays.
Wills said that he enjoyed working with classic plays but that he tried to enhance the excitement of the original texts. He also owned his own thoughts and interpretations.
"Mostly I just listen," she said.
"At this point, it doesn't matter so much to me that other people like a play or not," he said. "What matters is my own ideas about each performance."
and Wills said that during his sabbatical he planned to read so he could be updated on things he would be teaching after his return to academia.
"I want my students to become good, liberally educated people," he said.
Next fall, Willis will be found alternately teaching classes in acting
and drama, and in the darkened seats of Crafton-Preyer Theatre coaxing emotion and feeling from young actors on the stage. These are the places where he wants to be, and where he feels most comfortable
where he feels most comforted.
His wife said the shift in jobs was a change whose time had come.
"He'll be able to make a different kind of contribution now," she said.
'Whose Life Is It Anyway?' addresses dying with dignity
Kansan staff writer
By M. Meredith Relph Kansan staff writer
Dignified living is a goal for which many people strive throughout their lives, but often consideration is not given to the right to die with dignity.
"Whose Life Is It Anyway?" a medical ethics play by Brian Clark, focuses on a disabled man caught between his desire to die and the loss of control over his body.
The KU University Theatre will present the drama at 8 p.m. today, tomorrow and on Nov. 18 and 19 in Crainton-Preyer Theatre at Mur
phy Hall. Ron Willis will direct the production, which will be his final play before retiring as administrative director of University Theatre. Willis will return to teaching and directing next fall after a spring sabbatical.
Will Carpenter, Tulsa junior, portrays Ken Harrison, a sculptor who has been paralyzed as a result of a car accident which destroyed his central nervous system and left only his brain functional. Harrison wants to be removed from life support systems and allowed to die, but Carpenter said the scope of the play extended beyond the
"It's not about life or death," Carpenter said. "It' s about making a choice and having your rights and dignity stripped away.
paralyzed man.
"A lot of people have handicaps but you don't realize your limits. Once you separate the head from the body a lot of things become obvious."
carpenter had Harrison battled throughout the play with doctors and lawyers to receive permission to disconnect his life-support system. The overriding question is whether Harrison is mentally stable enough to make such a
the medical community wants to force Harrison to live until he dies a "natural death."
Marcus Richey, Wichita senior, plays Dr. Barr, a psychiatrist who examines Ken to determine whether he is suffering from depression that would hinder his decision-making faculties.
"It it's definitely not depressing or sad. The playwright was careful not to let anyone wallow in self-pity." Richey said.
Dr. Emerson, who was responsible for keeping Harrison alive after the accident, makes it his duty throughout the play to see that Harrison is kept alive until he dies a natural death.
Reggie Hodges, Compton, Calif.. senior, plays Dr. Emerson.
"As a doctor, it is my duty to save life, that's the bottom line." Hodges said. "The doctor thinks he has accomplished something by
saving this man's life, and now the man wants to die."
The legal battle which is waged within the hospital room ultimately is a victory for Harrison, but Richey said the conclusion left the question unanswered whether the decision reached was the right.
“It’s ironic. You don't know whether to cheer or to feel bad.” Richey said. “Ken is a funny guy, he's made you laugh for two hours and now he's going to die.
"It has a powerful effect. It's funny, sad, touching, and it makes you feel good."
Hodges said that the doctors were not perceived as the bad guys in the play, even though they were good. The HarlowerArchive also despishe his wishes.
'each person in the play truly believes that he is standing up for what he thinks is right,' Hodges said. "There are no real villains."
"Whose Life Is It Anyway?" was originally staged in London and was named the best play of 1977. In 1979, the play received the New York Outer Critics Circle Award for best play during its run in New York City. The play is the University of Kansas' associate entry in the 1989 American College Theatre Festival to be held in spring.
Carpenter said that the play did not evoke sadness, but that it was also not a lighthearted story.
"The audience will leave with mixed feelings. It's a two-way thing; everyone will have to make their own choice." he said.
Hodges said that he wanted the audience to think about its feelings on the topics considered in the play.
"This has been a tremendous experience for me and I hope the audience walks away really affected," he said. "I want it to cause them to think."
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