Black Ties - And Blue Denim

Miller And His Wife, Inge Morath, Following 'Up from Paradise’

Black Ties—And Blue Denim

By Adaline Huszczo

(News Dimensions Editor)

It seemed almost informal for a formal affair.

Flamboyant touches, as when then executive director of the Professional Theater Program Robert C. Schnitzer appeared at an opening night preview four years ago in a stunning black cape sent to him from Spain by dancer Jose Limon, were absent.

It was generally a younger crowd than one expects to find at such affairs.

Black tie was optional. There were still enough black ties and tuxedoes and ruffled shirts to make the sport coat set squirm a bit.

But there were also men in modish light blue denim casuals, in suede jackets and leather brimmed hats. And it wasn’t the younger set either.

There were women in long formal gowns and furs. But they strolled the same lobby as women in street dresses and tailored pant suits.

At the reception that followed the special preview performance of Arthur Miller’s new play, “Up from Paradise,” the warm champagne fizzed instead of bubbled, and it ran out early.

The event was attended by some 400 invited guest, plus 100 who got the limited number of tickets made available to the public at the last minute.

Plans for the evening got underway a little late, admitted PTP General Manager J. Roland Wilson. The invitations went out a bit late to be fit into the social calendars of those they were designed to attract.

University of Michigan President Robben Flemin was out of town. Governor and Mrs. William G. Milliken had been expected to attend, but the governor’s secretary phoned his regrets at the last minute, leaving Wilson to bemoan the fact that the governor has not yet been in the Power Center for the Performing Arts.

The evening was not entirely lacking in celebrities by any means, however. Most of the University executive officers were there, along with Regent Gertrude Huebner, President-emeritus and Mrs. Harlan Hatcher, Mayor and Mrs. James E. Stephenson and the Eugene Powers.

All in all it was being proclaimed as the biggest social evening Ann Arbor has seen since Truman Capote’s “Grass Harp’ ’ opened the Power Center.

The compelling photographic exhibition by Miller’s wife, Inge Morath, seemed to draw as many comments as the play.

And those who eagerly sought autographs not only from Miller and Morath, but from God and Lucifer, two of the characters in “Up from Paradise,” were complaining about nothing.

Play Review On Page 34