Miller unable to attend symposium

By Gina Hamadey

and Maria Simon

Daily Staff Reporters

Doctors have ordered bedrest for famed playwright Arthur Miller after he broke three ribs last week. Miller, one of the University's most distinguished alumni, was scheduled to attend the University's symposium in his honor today.

"I'm feeling not too bad," Miller told The Michigan Daily. "They'd rather I just rested for a while."

"I just tripped on a piece of sidewalk. I didn't see it because I was looking around and this will teach us all to look where we're walking," Miller said.

Despite the setback, Miller plans to talk to students via satellite from his home in Connecticut at 2 p.m. this afternoon in the Rackham Auditorium.

Miller said he was "just devastated" about cancelling his trip to Ann Arbor.

"Miller will be there in more than just spirit," said English and theater Prof. Enoch Brater, the symposium's organizer.

The international symposium "Arthur Miller's America: Theater and Culture in a Century of Change" will continue as scheduled throughout the weekend.

The symposium honors the playwright's 85th birthday with exhibitions, performances and presentations highlighting his work.

"It is depressing that he won't be there, but it will be a great event to attend," said LSA senior Brandon Parker, who is taking Prof. Brater's English class focusing on Miller.

"This is a landmark event for the University because Arthur Miller is one of the greatest living playwrights and one of the most distinguished alum," Brater said. Miller graduated in 1938.

The Arthur Miller Theater, part of the planned Walgreen Drama Center, will be the largest of a conglomeration of small theaters for student productions. The University Board of Regents approved construction for the theater following a $5 million dollar donation from Charles Walgreen Jr. in May. The project is still a few years away from construction.

"To me, (the symposium) symbolizes what a university like the University of Michigan can be about for bright, creative people," said University Regent Olivia Maynard (D-Goodrich). "It says what this University can be about in terms of nurturing the best in people."

A panel discussion will assess Miller's works in an international forum, American literature critic Linda Ben-Zvi of Tel Aviv University, American Drama Prof. John Dorsey of Rikkyo University in Tokyo, BBC Producer Louis Marks in London and American and English drama critic Hersh Zeifman of York University in Toronto, Canada. The discussion is scheduled for tonight from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Rackham Auditorium. Other discussions and lectures are scheduled throughout Friday and Saturday with an encore performance of "A View from the Bridge" on Friday night in the Trueblood Theater.

All exhibitions and events occurring this weekend are free and open to the public.

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