Franco Dragone is a master of the mixture of old arts, new vision and advanced technology that make up the astonishing entertainments of Cirque du Soleil. A Belgian by birth, he spent 15 years with Cirque, creating 10 shows, some touring ("Quidam," "Saltimbanco") and some designed for purpose-built Las Vegas entertainment palaces ("Mystere," "O").

Then in 2000, Dragone split from Cirque (though remaining friendly, he says) to found his own company, based in La Louviere, Belgium, and Montreal. The Dragone Group has since created "A New Day . . . " (2003), featuring Celine Dion at Caesar's Palace; "Le Reve" (2005), a Cirque-like water-fantasy at Wynn Las Vegas; and such other shows or events as an urban opera for La Louviere and a "Cinema Parade" for Disneyland Paris.

Although he admitted to some ambivalent feelings about facing a group of critics, Dragone spent an hour talking with the American Theatre Critics Association on June 24, the final day of its Las Vegas conference. It was a sort of keynote speech after the fact.

Dragone's English is highly accented but expressive. He joked, "if I am unclear, tell me, and I will make it more visual" -- in reference to his shows, which are very visually theatrical but often dispense with dialogue or use nonsense language.

He began, he said, as an actor in the subsidized Belgian art theater, which didn't attract a popular audience. So he switched to activist theater, "theater without actors," working with "junkies, immigrants, prisoners, the unemployed or young," trying to help them understand their lives.

The problem was that they didn't have an actor's tools: audiences would applaud their lives, not their performances. So Dragone began to teach staging, by which he means visual expression. He met people from show biz (the commercial theater) and came to believe, "it is possible to do high quality shows for mainstream people."

He says theorist Antonin Artaud and the example of many painters drove him toward "concrete language intended for the senses" -- a poetry of the visual in place of the poetry of language.

Fate tooh him to Montreal in pursuit of "a beautiful girl." There, he saw a sticker advertising Cirque and ended up doing a workshop for them, returning often. Eventually they asked him to direct, with the goal of doing commercially successful work of quality.

He objects to the many times Dali or Fellini have been invoked to describe his work, saying he has seen and been influenced by many painters -- "I travel a lot." He seeks to invoke the common language or "emotional archetypes" beneath spoken language. He cited Peter Brook in his search "to make the invisible visible," to create "visual theater with a certain content."

He read aloud a passage from one critic who complained that in his work, "style and production overwhelm the artists and content." "Yes!" he said, in complete agreement.

"Why Las Vegas?" Because it offers the "chance to reach 14 million people." But he doesn't always need huge casts. He remembered a show he did in Europe with two actors, and he plans a production of "Othello" with just four. He says it has been underground theater from which he learned most.

In "Le Reve," he used performers mainly from the gymnastic world, which is usually done with them when they are still young: "we've given them a long career -- acting, dancing, coaching, designing."

He admitted that things changed when he formed his own producing company. Before, he asked for everything he needed; now, he has a tougher producer.

"To do the new theater in New York is impossible. Here, if the concept is good, they give you the money. In New York, we have to go too fast, and you get paid after."

Now he wants to work in more ways. He has a new version of the opera "Carmen," now playing at the La Jolla Playhouse and headed for Broadway: "if I do opera, it's not for the few. I want to take back our opera!" He has an extravaganza planned for Macau in China in 2009, and he's working with the composer Ennio Morricone on an adaptation of Dante's "Divine Comedy."

"Greek tragedies were done in huge spaces, too," he reminded those who might question whether what he does is theater.

"One reason I quit Cirque, I don't want to be in jail in one kind of show. I was tired of seeing people bouncing on trampolines."

"The way you make the show is the show," he says.

"Only stupid people don't change their minds."