
The project was enabled by a gift of $10 million from Charles Walgreen, Jr., a 1938 graduate of the College of Pharmacy, for the construction of the Walgreen Drama Center which would include the theatre.

“I’ve resisted similar proposals from others, but it seems right from Ann Arbor.” The venue would be the only theatre in the world to bear his name. “The theatre is a lovely idea,” he wrote in fall 1997. This is vital to what we are as a community and as an institution.” When the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright was approached by his alma mater, his response was a simple postcard.

“This is a community that loves the word, that loves performance.

The idea for the Arthur Miller Theatre originated in 1997 when University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger proposed it to the Board of Regents.
