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| Online edition: Volume 15, Number 11 - November 6, 1998 |
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Festival celebrates C.S. Lewis’ birthday By Amy Geiszler-Jones The life and works of C.S. Lewis, an Oxford professor considered the most popular and most effective communicator of Christian faith writing this century, will be celebrated in Wichita during a festival in honor of his 100th birthday in November. A conference at WSU Nov. 20-21 will be part of the festival being held Nov. 15-29. Lewis was a prolific writer who also wrote other non-fiction and fiction before his death in November 1963. His children’s books, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” remain popular. Some people may be familiar with Lewis through the movie “Shadowlands,” which starred Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger in the story about Lewis’ relationship with American divorcee Joy Davidman. The conference is open to anyone interested in learning more about Lewis’ extraordinary life and literature, according to Frank Kastor, WSU English professor emeritus. Workshops have been tailored for the beginner, intermediate and advanced readers of Lewis. The workshop presenters are current and emeriti faculty members from WSU, Friends University, the University of Kansas and Kansas State University. Several of the keynote speakers, who include a former student of Lewis and editors of books on Lewis, will present talks at other Wichita venues during the festival. In addition to the workshops, the conference will include discussions, theatrical performances and a centenary birthday party/masked ball. A British husband-wife team who have been performing for 35 years as Theatre Roundabout will do two dinner theater performances. William Fry and Sylvia Read will present “Shadowlands,” from 7-10 p.m. Nov. 20 and “Exploring C.S. Lewis” from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 21. The pair will also perform “Pilgrim’s Progress,” about an itinerant tinker’s spiritual quest while serving a jail sentence, from 6-9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church as part of the festival. The Khool School Academy, a private performing arts school in Wichita, will perform “Narnia,” a musical adaptation of Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” from 9-11:45 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at the conference. They will perform during another festival event Nov. 22. The masked ball, 8-10 p.m. Nov. 21, closes the conference. As part of the C.S. Lewis festival, Kastor will present “Meet C.S. Lewis: An Introduction” at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Wichita Public Library main branch. The conference costs $50 for both days, $35 for one day; the dinner theater performances are $15. To register, call 686-8700. For information about the festival, visit www.twsu.edu/~cslewis.
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The C.S. Lewis Society of Kansas has recently formed as an outgrowth of a group that had met for 15 years at WSU. Already the group has 30 members and more are welcome, says Frank Kastor, WSU English professor emeritus and group organizer. The group meets the second Saturday of each month from 4-6 p.m. at Eighth Day Used Books, 3700 E. Douglas, Wichita, through 1998. The C.S. Lewis Society of Kansas meets jointly with the C.S. Lewis Socratic Club, a WSU student organization. For more information, call Kastor, ext. 3130. |
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