A group of Kansas University students and faculty is making an odyssey of its own when the company visits Liege, Belgium, later this month to restage the KU Theatre for Young People’s dramatization of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

The production, originally presented at KU in late September, will be performed four times Feb. 26 and 27 as part of RITU 24, an international theatre festival at the University of Liege. Some of the performances will be staged for Liege schoolchildren.

Theater companies from all over Europe are invited to the Liege festival, and usually only one U.S. company is invited, according to Jack Wright, professor of theater and film, who is a member of an international committee which meets during the festival to talk about the state of college and university theater in the world.

“This is KU’s third trip in recent years,” Wright said. ” We have an open-ended invitation from Robert Germany, producer and host of RITU 24, to bring a production whenever we can. Our last trip was with ‘All in the Timing’ in 1999.”

The International University Theatre Association was established at the University of Liege in 1994 to develop and promote post-secondary activity in theater training, creation, and theoretical and practical research, throughout the world. The IUTA, which is present in every continent and has members in more than 50 countries, has a World Congress every two years.

Aware of the role theater plays in fostering dialogue and understanding between cultures, the association promotes exchanges and collaboration between university theaters as well as contacts with amateur and professional theaters.

Originally adapted by Gregory A. Falls and Kurt Beattie, the KU production of “The Odyssey” was directed by Dennis Christilles, KU associate professor of theater and film. Christilles also composed the music and created the scenic design. Musical director and violist for the production was Laura Raab, Olathe junior. Christina Montgomery, Manhattan senior, designed costumes, and Nick Kostner, Murdock graduate student, designed lights.

After more than a week seeing theater productions day and night during the festival, the KU group will spend two days in Brussels, Belgium, sightseeing and visiting museums, Christilles said.