Twenty theaters in Washtenaw County. Four of them have hours.
That is the thing nobody tells you when you search for theaters in Ann Arbor. Most of the famous rooms are not places you can walk into. Hill Auditorium seats 3,538 people and is locked on a random Tuesday. The Power Center has no box office of its own. A visitor who drives to 121 Fletcher Street on the strength of a Google listing finds a closed door and no explanation.
So this guide sorts the county’s theaters the way they actually work: the handful with a showtime today, the companies that keep their own rooms lit on a published season, the big university halls that are booked rather than open, and – the part that trips up almost everyone – which of five different box offices sells the ticket for which room.
Everything below was checked against the venue’s own website on 30 September 2026.
The short answer
Four rooms in Washtenaw County show something to the public essentially every day:
1. Michigan Theater, 603 E Liberty St, Ann Arbor
2. The State Theatre, 233 S State St, Ann Arbor
3. Cinemark Ann Arbor 20 + IMAX, 4100 Carpenter Rd – which is in Ypsilanti, not Ann Arbor
4. Emagine Saline, 1335 E Michigan Ave, Saline
Everything else in the county runs on a season, not a clock.
The four rooms with daily showtimes
Michigan Theater
Michigan Theater at 603 E Liberty St has been running since 1928, designed by Detroit architect Maurice Finkel. The main auditorium seats over 1,700 under its original 1927 Barton theatre pipe organ, and a 200-seat screening room was added in 1999. It runs first-run and repertory film, live music, and community events in the same building on the same day.
The operator’s name changed and most directories have not caught up: the Michigan Theater Foundation now trades as Marquee Arts, and michtheater.org redirects to marquee-arts.org. If you are looking for the organization behind the building, that is the name to search.
Regular hours: afternoon screenings generally start around 4pm and evening screenings around 7pm, with theater doors opening 30 minutes before the stated start time. The administrative box office runs Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm on (734) 668-8397. Verified 30 Sep 2026.
The State Theatre
The State Theatre at 233 S State St is the other half of the same nonprofit. Its four screens sit on the balcony of what was a single 1,900-seat auditorium, rebuilt in a $8.5 million renovation. Four screens means four simultaneous starts, so the State is the best bet in the district when you want a film in the next hour rather than the next evening.
Regular hours: the box office typically opens one half-hour before the first showtime of the day for in-person ticket purchases; afternoon screenings generally start around 4pm and evening screenings around 7pm. Same box office line as the Michigan, (734) 668-8397. Verified 30 Sep 2026.
Both buildings are walkable from the downtown restaurants on Main and Liberty. Street meters are enforced Monday through Saturday 8am to 6pm; the operator points people to the Maynard Street structure at 324 Maynard and Liberty Square at 500 E Washington.
Cinemark Ann Arbor 20 + IMAX
Cinemark Ann Arbor 20 + IMAX carries Ann Arbor in its name and sits at 4100 Carpenter Rd in Ypsilanti, about a fifteen minute drive southeast of downtown. It is the county’s only IMAX screen and the only twenty-screen house in the area, with D-BOX and luxury loungers.
Regular hours: on 30 September 2026 the schedule ran from a 10:25am first show to a 10:55pm last start. The building runs to the film schedule rather than fixed doors. Phone (734) 973-8424. Verified 30 Sep 2026.
Emagine Saline
Emagine Saline at 1335 E Michigan Ave is the nine-auditorium option on the south side of the county, about twenty minutes from downtown Ann Arbor.
Regular hours: Monday to Sunday 10am to 10pm, with the building opening 30 minutes before the first showtime and staying open 15 minutes after the last. Phone (734) 316-5500. Verified 30 Sep 2026.
The companies that keep their own room lit
These are the theaters with a published season. They are dark between productions, so the question is not “are they open” but “what is running right now.”
Theatre Nova
Theatre Nova at 410 W Huron St is the professional new-work house downtown, and the most reliable place in the county to see a play on a given weekend because it programs six mainstage productions plus a playwrights festival across the year.
Currently running: Maestro by Michael Alan Herman, 25 September to 18 October 2026. Performance times Fridays 8pm, Saturdays 3pm and 7pm, Sundays 2pm. Tickets $33 general, $30 seniors 65+, $20 students, and the company states that pay-what-you-can tickets are available for every show. Phone (734) 635-8450. Verified 30 Sep 2026.
Purple Rose Theatre Company
Purple Rose Theatre Company at 137 Park St in Chelsea is the professional Equity house in the county, about a twenty-five minute drive west on I-94. Its 2026-27 season runs four productions on a theme of family: Bastard this fall, Mildred’s Whiskey in winter 2027, Vinyl in spring, Ravioli in summer.
Box office: (734) 433-7673, business office (734) 433-7782. Season events already on the calendar include College Night on 24 October and a 30s and 40s meetup night on 7 November 2026. Verified 30 Sep 2026.
The Encore Musical Theatre Company
The Encore Musical Theatre Company at 7714 Ann Arbor St in Dexter is the county’s musical house, now in its eighteenth season. It is the one company here with a long holiday run, which matters if you are planning December.
Box office hours: Tuesday to Friday 10am to 2pm, plus two hours prior to performances during production runs. Phone (734) 268-6200. Season 18: Sister Act 8 to 18 October 2026, Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn 27 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, The Pirates of Penzance 18 February to 14 March 2027, Come From Away 15 April to 9 May 2027, A Chorus Line 17 June to 18 July 2027. Verified 30 Sep 2026.
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre is the best example of why a street address is not enough. A2CT’s studio is at 322 W Ann St, but its 2026-27 season plays in three different buildings, and a ticket buyer who turns up at the studio for the wrong show has driven to the wrong place.
2026-27 season and room, verified 30 Sep 2026: Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical, 22 to 25 October 2026, at the Arthur Miller Theatre, Walgreen Drama Center, 1226 Murfin Ave on North Campus. Myth Understood (Junior Theatre), 28 to 29 November 2026, at the Ann Arbor District Library downtown. Machinal, 4 to 6 and 11 to 13 December 2026, at the A2CT Studio, 322 W Ann St. Skeleton Crew, 29 to 31 January and 5 to 7 February 2027, at the Studio. Matilda, 18 to 21 March 2027, at the Arthur Miller Theatre. The Art of Murder, 4 to 6 and 11 to 13 June 2027, at the Studio. Tickets are sold through a2ct.ludus.com, not through any university box office.
The Penny Seats Theatre Company
The Penny Seats Theatre Company is a company rather than a building. Its listed address, 206 E Huron St, is Cahoots, the downtown event space where the company mounts most of its low-cost shows; it also plays other rooms when a production calls for it. Recent programming has run Thursday to Saturday at 8pm with a Sunday 2pm matinee. Phone (734) 926-5346.
Riverside Arts Center and PTD Productions
Riverside Arts Center at 76 N Huron St in Ypsilanti is the performance and gallery building in Depot Town’s neighborhood, and PTD Productions is the resident theatre company there.
Regular hours, from the center’s own site: office Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, with the North Gallery open Saturdays 11am to 2pm during exhibitions, and the building open to the public during events. Note that Yelp and several aggregators publish a Thursday to Saturday 3pm to 8pm schedule instead – follow the center’s own page. Phone (734) 480-2787. PTD tickets are $20 general, $15 students, seniors and active military, with pay-what-you-can on Thursdays at the box office only, (734) 483-7345. Verified 30 Sep 2026.
The university rooms: booked, not open
These five are the big-name halls. None of them has public hours. Each is lit only when a presenter books it, and none of them sells you the ticket directly.
| Room | Address | Seats | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hill Auditorium | 825 N University Ave | 3,538 | 1913 |
| Power Center for the Performing Arts | 121 Fletcher St | 1,342 | 1971 |
| Rackham Auditorium | 915 E Washington St | 1,060 | 1938 |
| Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre | 911 N University Ave | 600 | 1929 |
| Arthur Miller Theatre | 1226 Murfin Ave | 220 | 2007 |
A few things worth knowing about that table. Hill is the acoustic room, and the one the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and touring classical programs aim for. Lydia Mendelssohn is inside the Michigan League building, which is also where the ticket office lives, so 911 N University is both a theater address and a box office address. The Arthur Miller Theatre is the only theater in the world named for the playwright, and at 220 seats it is the smallest of the five and the one most often handed to student and community productions – which is why A2CT plays there twice this season.
Two more university rooms sit in the same drama complex and the same booked-not-open category. Stamps Auditorium shares the Walgreen Drama Center address at 1226 Murfin Ave on North Campus, and Burton Memorial Tower at 881 N University Ave is the administrative home of the University Musical Society rather than a performance room you buy a seat in.
The two county halls
Towsley Auditorium is a 495-seat hall in the Morris Lawrence Building at Washtenaw Community College, 4800 E Huron River Dr, reopened after a $13.5 million renovation. It hosts the Washtenaw Community Concert Band, which plays “Things that Go Bump” there at 7:30pm on Thursday 29 October 2026. Bookings go through the college’s events office on (734) 677-5033.
Frederic H. Pease Auditorium at 494 College Pl in Ypsilanti is Eastern Michigan University’s 1914 concert hall, seating 1,700 at the corner of West Cross Street and College Place. Non-athletic EMU events are ticketed through the university’s own ticketing site, not at the door.
Who actually sells the ticket
This is the part that costs people an evening. Five separate box offices serve rooms that sit within about six blocks of each other, and the building you are going to is usually not the one that sold you the seat.
| If you are seeing | Buy from | Where it is | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| A film at the Michigan or State | Marquee Arts box office | 603 E Liberty St | Opens 30 min before the first showtime; admin line Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, (734) 668-8397 |
| A UMS-presented concert at Hill, Power, Rackham or Mendelssohn | UMS Ticket Office | Michigan League north end, 911 N University Ave | Phone Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, closed weekends, (734) 764-2538 |
| A U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance production | League Ticket Office, same counter as UMS | 911 N University Ave | As above; online sales close one hour before curtain |
| A campus event, an Ark show or a student production | Michigan Union Ticket Office (MUTO) | Michigan Union, 530 S State St, room G002 | Reduced-period hours Mon-Fri 11am-4pm; open 10am-2pm on home football Saturdays, (734) 763-8587 |
| An Ann Arbor Civic Theatre show | A2CT directly, a2ct.ludus.com | Online only | 24/7 online |
| A Theatre Nova, Purple Rose, Encore or PTD show | The company itself | Each venue’s own box office | Listed per company above |
All box office hours verified 30 Sep 2026. One caveat worth stating plainly: the UMS ticket office page publishes its walk-up hours as a schedule “through May 1, 2026” with summer hours from 4 May, and has not been updated past that window, so the phone hours above are the figure to trust and it is worth calling before making a special trip to the counter.
Three entries you should ignore
Our own directory, and most others, still carry rooms that no longer run. Being straight about that is more useful than a longer list.
Blackbird Theatre, 1600 Pauline Blvd. Yelp has carried it as closed since January 2026 and the ticketing sites show no upcoming events. Our listing is still live. Do not plan around it.
Arbor Opera Theater. Yelp marked it closed in March 2026, and the most recent season anyone lists is 2018-19. Our listing is still live and does not carry an address.
Quality 16, 3686 Jackson Rd. The sixteen-screen multiplex on the west side closed for the pandemic on 16 March 2020 and never reopened; the successor company to Goodrich Quality Theatres chose not to bring it back. It is the reason the county’s only large multiplex is now over in Ypsilanti. We do not carry a listing for it, but plenty of map apps still do.
Separately, three large amphitheaters appear in the same directory category as the rooms above – Pine Knob, Meadow Brook and the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill. All three are real and worth the drive, but they are in Oakland and Macomb counties, not Washtenaw, so they are not part of an Ann Arbor theater evening.
Planning notes
The season is the calendar, not the week. Between productions a company’s room is simply dark, and there is no notice on the door. Check the company’s own site before driving.
October and December are the thick months. Right now Theatre Nova, the Encore, A2CT and Purple Rose all have a production up or opening within four weeks, which is not true in, say, late January.
Book the university halls the day tickets go on sale. Hill and Power hold thousands of seats but host very few public nights, so a UMS concert is not a walk-up proposition the way a 4pm film at the State is.
Weekday matinees barely exist here. Outside the four movie houses, almost every performance in this guide starts at 7pm or later, with Saturday and Sunday afternoons the only regular daytime slots.
Related guides
– Best live music in Ann Arbor for the clubs and listening rooms rather than the proscenium stages
– Art galleries and museums in Ann Arbor
– Date night in Ann Arbor for pairing a show with dinner
– Things to do in Ann Arbor
– Downtown Ann Arbor restaurants, most of them within four blocks of the Michigan and the State
