Arthur Miller
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Nue @sQue
he University of Michigan
hopes by the end of this
year it will be ready to
unveil its Arthur Miller
'I heater. While final plans will not
be ready until the spring, shortly
after Death of a Salesman marks its
50th anniversary on Broadway, Lee
Bollinger proposed the creation of
the theater when he took the reins as
U-M president in 1997.
"When Lee Bollinger came here,
one of his strong initiatives was to
recognize some of the great past fi b-
tires at the university and capture
our history," says Anne Knott, spe-
cial counsel to the president
In particular, he wanted to cap-
ture the very strong connection the
university has with Arthur Miller and,
at the same time, seize an opportunity
to fill a need in the community,
which is [a place for fine theater.
"The Arthur Miller Theater may
be modeled after the University
Musical Society, which brings out-
standing musical events to town."
A faculty advisory committee has
been meeting to help define the pro-
gram for the theater. However,
whether there will be student produc-
tions and who will be appointed artis-
tic director is yet to be determined.
What is certain is that the Arthur
Miller Theater will be intimate, seat-
ing some 300-400, similar to the
Cottesloe Theater, which is a part of
the National Theater in London.
"But even after plans are final-
ized, there will be a lot of flexibili-
ty," adds Knott. "Although you
need to have a good idea of what
you want to achieve in order to
recruit the appropriate people, you
don't want it to be so detailed in its
description that you foreclose on
creative talent, opportunities and
personalities that might take things
in very exciting directions. And
even after it's developed, there will
be room for
change."
Arthur Miller
Although
at the University
the location
of Michigan.
has not yet
The playwright is
been deter-
scheduled to return
mined, Robert
to Ann Arbor
in October for a
Kasdan, U-M
executive vice
public symposium.
2/5
1999
president and chief financial officer,
says the university is seriously explor-
ing a number of sites both on and
off campus. "We hope that within
the next few months, a decision will
be made," he says.
"If it's a place that we are rehabil-
itating, it will be ready a lot sooner
than if it's a place that we are devel-
oping from the ground up."
Miller has been asked to lend his
name to other theaters around the
country, but the playwright only
agreed to one — in Ann Arbor.
"Miller said it never seemed right
before," says Knott. "We are all very
excited to have Arthur's support and
interest."
In the meantime, President Lee
Bollinger is looking forward to the
day the theater can be officially ded-
icated. to one of the university's most
famous alumni.
"Arthur Miller is by common
agreement one of the greatest play-
wrights of the century; and, by his
own account, he began his remark-
able career while a student at the
University of Michigan," he says.
"To start to realize your potential is a
basic goal of education. To place
before students, therefore, the exam-
ple of Arthur Miller is an opportunity
not to be missed. And, not insignifi-
candy, we need a theater, too."
— Alice Burdick Schweiger
Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller on the set of "The Misfits," 1960.
English and editor of the Michigan
Quarterly Review.
While at Michigan, Miller became
part of the editorial staff at the
Michigan Daily. "One of the first
pieces he wrote challenged Nazi
rhetoric," says Enoch Brater. "It was a
time when certain Michigan politicians
were flirting with Hitler, and Miller
wanted to challenge them."
At the time, Miller lived at 411 N.
State St. in a house owned by the Doll
family. During spring break in his
sophomore year, he stayed in Ann
Arbor to work on his first play.
He finished the play in five days and
asked Jim Doll, one of the Doll family
sons, to read the play and give his can-
did reaction. Doll had the room across
from Miller's.
"Finally his door opened, and he
came across the corridor into my room
and handed me the manuscript,"
Miller writes in his autobiography.
"Aesthetic pleasure makes people vul-
nerable, and Jim's long, bony face was
like a child's now. ... 'It's a play, all
right. It really is!' he laughed with a
naivete I had not seen in him before.
`...I think it's the best student play I've
ever read.' Something like love shone
in his face, something, incredibly
enough, like gratitude.
"Outside, Ann Arbor was empty,
still in the spell of spring vacation. I
wanted to walk in the night, but it
was impossible to keep from trotting.
My thighs were as hard and strong as
iron bars. I ran uphill to the deserted
center of town, across from the Law
Quadrangle and down North
University, my head in the stars. I had -`
made Jim laugh and look at me as he
never had before.
"The magical force of making
marks on a piece of paper and reach-
ing into another human being, mak-
ing him see what I had seen and feel
my feelings — I had made a new
shadow on the earth."