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Culture

Cultural life in Chicago is so diverse that no single event can be picked out as the most significant. To keep abreast, the free weekly The Reader and the New City, both distributed on Thursdays, are useful. The city's daily Chicago Tribune has up-to-date cultural critiques and comment, particularly on Fridays, as well as good listings on their website (www.metromix.com). Another good source of information is the cultural section of the city's website (www.cityofchicago.org).

Tickets can be purchased from individual box offices or from Ticketmaster (tel: (312) 559 1212, rock music and general events or 902 1500, arts). The Hot Tix booths offer unsold and discounted tickets. Half-price tickets usually have to be bought on the day of the performance, although weekend tickets can be bought on Friday. These are located at 108 North State Street, the Visitor Information Center at Chicago Waterworks, 163 East Pearson Street.

Music:
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 220 South Michigan Avenue (tel: (312) 294 3000), under director Daniel Barenboim, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 North Wacker Drive (tel: (312) 332 2244), are the city's two most acclaimed and internationally renowned classical companies. Both are often sold out well in advance, but returns are usually available. At the Lyric, English translations of the opera are projected above the stage. The William Ferris Chorale, 690 West Belmont Avenue (tel: (773) 325 2000), often has distinguished guest artists, performing twentieth-century works. The Chicago Opera Theatre (tel: (773) 292 7578), usually performs at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 North Southport Avenue (tel: (773) 935 6860), but always in English.

Theatre:
There is an immense range of theatre from among over 125 companies. The mainstream Goodman Theatre, 200 South Columbus Drive (tel: (312) 443 3800), which, founded in 1925, is one of the oldest theatres in the city and renowned for its workings of the classics as much as its contemporary productions. The Looking Glass Theatre (tel: (773) 477 9257) appears at different venues and specialises in a unique blend of physical theatre, gymnastics, circus skills, dance and music, putting on three world premieres a year. The City Lit Theater Company, 410 South Michigan Avenue (tel: (312) 943 9446), specialises in adapting literature for the stage - from Woodhouse and Wharton to Chekhov. In the regenerated Loop area, the Storefront Theatre, 66 East Randolph Street (tel: (312) 744 8952), is a forum for Chicago's own artists in diverse fields, including chamber opera, puppetry, theatre, dance, cabaret, staged readings and performance art.

Dance:
The city's top ballet company is the Joffrey Ballet Company of Chicago (tel: (312) 739 0120), performing four times a year in its home town. For a more daring mix of dance, the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (tel: (312) 850 9744) is the latest dance success in the city blending jazz dance with classical ballet and contemporary techniques. Jazz dance is the speciality of the Gus Giordano Jazz Dance of Chicago (tel: (847) 866 6779), founded in 1962 and based in the Evanston suburb. Ethnic dance troupes reflect the whole of the city's mix. Trinity Irish Dance Co, 6655 North Avondale Avenue (tel: (773) 594 1115), is self-explanatory and performs both traditional and the Riverdance style developed by Chicagoan, Michael Flatley. For traditional African rhythms and African-American style, there is Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago (tel: (773) 602 1135). The Chicago Dance Coalition Information Hot Line has details on all scheduled dance performances (tel: (312) 419 8383).

Film:
Many of the mainstream cinemas have several screens, probably none as many as the Water Tower Theater, 845 North Michigan Avenue (tel: (312) 649 5790). Some cinemas have historical associations, such as the Biograph Theatre, 2433 North Lincoln Avenue (tel: (773) 348 4123), in front of which the gangster John Dillinger was shot dead by the FBI in 1934. Cheap, cheerful and sometimes rowdy typifies the Brew and View cinema, 3145 North Sheffield Avenue (tel: (312) 618 8439), which screens late-night films, cult numbers and new releases. For a rich mix of the old and the new, there is the Music Box Theatre, 3733 North Southport Avenue (tel: (773) 871 6604). It is a 1920s 'movie palace' and shows independent films, foreign films, classics and silent films accompanied by a live organ. Moviephone (tel: (312) 444 3456) is a principle source of information and also sells tickets to some cinemas ('movie theaters').

Of the many films set or filmed in Chicago, these are some of the most famous: The Sting (1973), The Untouchables (1987), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), When Harry Met Sally (1989), Groundhog Day (1993) and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994).

Cultural events:
A summer tradition dating from 1935, the Grant Park Concerts at the James Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park, on the lake side of the Art Institute of Chicago, just east of the Loop (tel: (312) 742 4763), are free performances ranging across pop, classical, music, opera and blues. The Spring Festival of Dance takes place annually between March and May, featuring international, national and local companies. The annual Summer Dance Festival, from mid-July to late September, takes place in the Spirit of Music Garden, Grant Park. The festival offers one-hour dance lessons as well as dancing to live orchestras. In October, the Chicago International Film Festival lasts two weeks featuring, not only the latest Hollywood offerings, but also international films, animation, short films, documentaries, student films and videos.

Literary Notes
The poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was part of the heady 'Chicago Renaissance' in the first two decades of the 1900s. In his poem 'Chicago', he coined the phrase 'City of the Big Shoulders'. Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) wrote famously about the horrors of the meatpacking world of Union Stockyards and the Jewish-Lithuanian ghetto in The Jungle (1903). The book changed the food laws in America.

Today, probably Chicago's most famous writers are Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961), born in the Oak Park suburb (see the Excursions section), and Saul Bellow (b 1915), whose family moved here from Canada in 1924. Bellow has portrayed the postmodern city in many guises, including Pulitzer-Prize-winning Humboldt's Gift (1975) and The Dean's December (1982).

The dangerous, frenzied, unscrupulous underside of the Board of Trade was the subject of The Pit (1903) by Frank Norris (1870-1902). James T Farrell (1904-1979) was born in Chicago. His best-known work is the trilogy Studs Lonigan (1932-1935), depicting the ethnic turmoil in the slums of the South Side district. The clash of races in the slums was also the subject of Richard Wright's (1908-1960) Native Son (1940). Detroit-born Nelson Algren (1909-1981), as part of the 'Chicago School of Realism', continued the unadorned style associated with the city's portrayal in several novels including The Man with the Golden Arm (1949), a novel about drug addiction and often regarded as his best work.

Theatre has also had its say, particularly with American Buffalo (1976) by David Mamet (b 1947), the Chicago-born playwright and film director. With Chicago's gangster tradition, it is fitting that he also wrote the screenplay for The Untouchables (1987). It is also fitting that two writers have based their detective novels in the city. Sara Paretsky's 'V.I. Warshawski' stories and Andrew Greeley's 'Monsignor Ryan' tales feature Chicago as a major character.



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