Arthur Miller Theatre captures legacy of great playwright: grand opening production to explore human nature

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Expectations and excitement are building in the weeks before the grand opening of the only venue in the world named for the quintessential American playwright, Arthur Miller.

The grand opening of the Arthur Miller Theatre will take place with a private invitational performance Thursday, March 29 of Playing for Time, based on a harrowing World War II biographical account of a part-Jewish French cabaret singer. For his teleplay adaptation of the story, Miller won an Emmy in 1980 for Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or Special. Public performances of Playing for Time run March 30 - April 8. All performances are sold out.

The Arthur Miller Theatre is located within the Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. Drama Center on the University of Michigan’s north campus, home to the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, School of Art & Design, and School of Architecture. With its dramatic glass design, the Arthur Miller Theatre is a stunning presence.

The theatre seats 270 in straight proscenium configuration with the option of a 3/4 thrust configuration. The lobby features a three-story glass atrium with a central staircase that connects the theatre to the academic wing.

“Opening the doors of the theatre is both a symbol and invitation for students, the university community and the public to join a discourse about values, morality and the promise of how the arts can broaden our horizons,” said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman.

Drawing on Miller’s inspiration and providing first-rate facilities, the theater is a laboratory whereby students can explore the emotional dimensions of the human heart along with the truths of human nature.

Additional events surrounding the opening include “The Global Miller Symposium” which features an impressive list of internationally acclaimed Miller scholars March 29 - 31. The discussion of Miller’s influence on American theatre and his impact on shaping the moral responsibilities of 20th-century artists will be among the topics explored in the symposium. U-M Department of English Professor Enoch Brater will moderate the symposium.

Brater is a renowned expert on Samuel Beckett, and editor of two books on Miller, “Arthur Miller’s America: Theatre and Culture in a Time of Change” (University of Michigan Press), and “The Stages of Miller” (Thames and Hudson, London).

All Grand Opening events are sponsored by “Arts on Earth,” a new campus-wide initiative at U-M. Through performing and visual arts events and exhibits, and specially designed learning events, “Arts on Earth,” explores topics such as science, technology and the arts; art and commerce; art and conscience; the intrinsic value of the arts; and, socio-cultural reach of the arts.

More information on Grand Opening events.

Grand Opening of the Arthur Miller Theatre The Inaugural Production — Playing for Time by Arthur Miller

Playing for Time offers the type of moral and emotionally complex terrain that distinguishes Arthur Miller’s finest works. That Playing for Time is rarely performed likely adds a bit of its own drama to opening night preparations. The play is vintage Miller, touching on the playwright’s unique artistic vision — theater about ethics, morals, love and romance, religion, political issues, and the consequences of history. Arthur Miller once stated, “The job of the artist…is to remind people of what have chosen to forget,” a job he took to heart in his plays which reflect on the Holocaust, including The American Clock, Incident at Vichy, and Playing for Time.

“The play is rarely performed, given its scope and the large scale of its production,” states Department of Theatre & Drama Chair Dr. Gregory Poggi. “So it is fitting to open the Arthur Miller Theatre with a work with which audiences are not familiar, and one that expresses, in Miller’s words, ‘raising the truth-consciousness of mankind to a level of such intensity as to transform those who observe it’.”

A harrowing true story about members of the legendary women’s orchestra in Auschwitz, Playing for Time is based on the autobiography of Fania Fenelon. A popular half-Jewish Parisian cabaret singer, Fenelon was sent to Auschwitz and recruited for the orchestra. Under the baton of Alma Rose, the orchestra plays marches for the prisoners as they set off to work, welcomes and soothes new arrivals during their selection, and entertains Nazi officials - all aspects that horrify Fania. Alma tells her “We must play to please them” to which Fania replies, “I prefer to think I am saving my life rather than trying to please the S.S.” But Alma’s response highlights their shared emotional dilemma; “You think you can do one without the other?” Fania’s efforts to maintain hope and dignity and to create beauty in the face of terror are ultimately a celebration of life and a testament to the power of music.

Playing for Time was originally adapted from Fenelon’s memoir for television in 1980. The television film won a Peabody Award, four Emmys including Outstanding Drama Special and Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or Special, and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Miller revised the play for the stage in 1985.

UM’s production is directed by U-M Alumnus Robert Chapel, who joined the Department of Theatre & Drama in fall 2005 to direct its critically acclaimed production of The Laramie Project. Chapel is a Professor at the University of Virginia and former Chair of the Drama Department (1990-2005). He has been the Producing Artistic Director of the Heritage Repertory Theatre since 1995. This past year he directed She Stoops to Conquer at the Univ. of Tasmania and Sweeney Todd (Fulbright grant) at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow.

According to Chapel, “Martin Gottfried’s biography of Arthur Miller declares Playing for Time to be “Arthur Miller’s most emotional play since Death of a Salesman and that it “remains to be discovered.” What better play to open the new Arthur Miller Theatre than with one that is somehow a ‘new’ play to our populace even though it was written over twenty years ago? Beyond that, this play, like all Arthur Miller plays, concerns human ethics and morality — how far would you go and what would you be willing to do in order to live? Certainly, it is a thought-provoking question. I also believe, as our world changes and new generations are born, the history of the Holocaust and all of the horrors it symbolized to our world must never be forgotten (or erased as some would now have it). Hopefully this play will have many more productions in the future and it will be a part of the movement to keep those very brutal years in the forefront of history so that such a time will never occur again.”

Joining Chapel on the production team is scenic designer Vincent Mountain, whose designs were seen in December in the Dept. of Theatre & Drama’s production of You Can’t Take It With You. Jessica Hahn serves as costume designer. Hahn is a recipient of a several Jefferson Awards for her work in Chicago theatre and recently designed for the UM Department of Musical Theatre production of The Pajama Game. Lighting design is by Gary Decker whose work was recently seen in the UM Department of Theatre & Drama production of The Cradle Will Rock. Decker’s professional work includes designs on numerous nationally touring plays. He has also worked at the Boarshead and Purple Rose theatres in Michigan. Henry Reynolds, whose work was last heard last fall in the UM Department of Theatre & Drama production of The Laramie Project, designs sound. Mountain and Hahn are Associate Professors and Decker is an Assistant Professor in the UM Department of Theatre & Drama. Reynolds is an Assistant Professor in Department and Information Systems Administrator for University Productions, the producing unit for the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Creating the music elements in the drama are musical director Bradley Bloom, former School of Music Associate Dean and currently the Interim Director of Choral Activities at Eastern Michigan University and an adjunct lecturer for UM, and Department of Musical Theatre Assistant Professor Jerry DePuit with orchestrations.

Playing for Time opens March 29 with a private invitational gala with public performances on March 30 & 31 and April 6 & 7 at 8:00 PM, April 5 at 7:30 p.m. and April 1 & 8 at 2:00 p.m. All performances are sold out. A wait-list will be started one hour before each performance at the Walgreen Drama Center box office for any returned tickets. For more information on wait-list policies, contact the League Ticket Office at 734-764-2538.