KU Connection

Alumnus, filmmaker headlines conference

Director and KU alumnus Neil LaBute, g’89, was the keynote speaker of the 2007 Literature/Film Association Conference "Adaptation, from Stage and Page to Screen," sponsored by the KU department of theatre and film and the Hall Center for the Humanities. The conference took place Oct. 11-14 at KU.

Along with LaBute’s role in the conference, presenters from England, Canada, Turkey, Australia and the United States discussed topics such as vaudeville on screen, American gangsters, drama and film, innovative directors, reinventing the biopic, European adaptations and minorities, and adaptation and cinema.

"This is the first time this prestigious academic organization has held its annual conference in the Midwest," said John C. Tibbets, associate professor of theatre and film and conference director. "Not only does it bring renowned figures in the theatre and film community to our campus, but it affords us an opportunity to showcase the activities and interactions of our own faculty and students of the department of theatre and film."

LaBute gave the keynote address Friday, Oct. 12, at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. Titled "Life Onstage and On Film," his speech included clips of films adapted from his plays, including "The Shape of Things" and "In the Company of Men."

A native of Detroit, LaBute also spent part of his youth in Spokane, Wash., and studied theatre at Brigham Young University. He earned a master's in theatre and film history from KU and went on to write screenplays for several major motion pictures. "In the Company of Men" won the Filmmakers Trophy at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. He went on to direct other well-known films such as "Nurse Betty," "Possession" and "Wicker Man." Read more.