The Union Playhouse, later known as the Mimes Theatre (pictured in 1930), was constructed inside the former Michigan Union Club House in 1921. The Mimes Society managed the facility under Michigan Union auspices. But when an order from the fire marshal prohibited use of the University Hall auditorium in 1930, the Department of Theatre & Drama took over and remodeled the Mimes Theatre. The department formally opened the theatre under the name Laboratory Theatre when it presented Moliere’s Les Precieuses Ridicules” there on Dec. 1, 1930. The fire marshal closed the theatre again, in 1933. The department relocated play productions to Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre.
— Information courtesy of the Department of Theatre & Drama, celebrating its centennial. The department is part of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
