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Culture

Cultural Events: Unfortunately, Detroit's reputation precedes it - as a city scarred by urban waste, surrounded by vast suburbs of malls and parking lots. In some ways, nothing could be further from the truth. Not only was Detroit home to the birth of Motown, but it has had a thriving arts scene for a very long time. Professional opera dates back well into the nineteenth century and continues to thrive within the superb acoustics of the historic Detroit Opera House. Detroit also has a thriving theatre community spearheaded by the well-known Fox Theatre. The city also possesses the most live theatre seats in the United States outside of New York.
Ticketmaster
(tel: (800) 364 4774 ) sells tickets for a large number of Detroit cultural events.

Music:
Michigan Opera Theatre (tel: (313) 237 7464; web site: www.motopera.org) stages opera, operetta, dance and musical works at the Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (tel: (313) 576 5111; web site: www.detroitsymphony.com) performs classical, pop, jazz and holiday concerts at the historically and acoustically acclaimed Orchestra Hall, 3711 Woodward Avenue.

Theatre:
The cornerstone of the Detroit theatre district is the Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Avenue (tel: (313) 596 3200), which hosts big-name musicals. The Birmingham Theatre, 211 South Old Woodward Avenue (tel: (248) 647 5678), is host to touring productions of New York comedies, dramas and musicals, as is the Fisher Theatre, 3011 West Grand Boulevard (tel: (313) 872 1000). The Ploughshares Theater Company (tel: (313) 872 0279) is Michigan's only African-American theatre company, presenting comedies, new works and state premieres of African-American plays at the Charles H Wright Museum of African-American History, 315 East Warren Street.

Dance:
The Music Hall Centre for the Performing Arts, 350 Madison Avenue (tel: (313) 963 2366), dubbed the 'dance capital of middle America', is an intimate theatre that possesses good sightlines and acoustics and presents a strong dance programme. The Detroit Dance Collective (tel: (313) 965 3544) and the Eisenhower Dance Ensemble (tel: (810) 286 2222) companies perform modern dance throughout the Detroit area.

Film:
Visitors wishing to take in a movie in Detroit will find a Motown-themed lobby and stadium seating at the Star Theatre, 25333 West 12 Mile Road, in Southfield (tel: (248) 372 2222). The AMC, 44681 Mound Road, in Sterling Heights (tel: (810) 254 5663), features no less than 30 different screens. Tickets may be purchased over the phone. Repertory and arthouse films can be seen at Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue (tel: (313) 833 3237), and the Main Art Theater, 118 North Main Street, in Royal Oak (tel: (248) 542 0180).

The pleasant community of Grosse Pointe was the setting for the recent romantic comedy starring John Cusack, Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage, 1998). The more sinister side of Detroit was explored by Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987), a tale of urban decay, insane corporate greed and technology run amock.

Cultural events:
The North American International Auto Show, held in January every year, is Detroit's world-famous auto show, where America's latest car designs are unveiled to the public. In May, the Greektown Arts Festival is a celebration of art, music and food. The Michigan State Fair, the oldest in the country, featuring livestock, agricultural displays, rides and concerts, takes place every summer at the end of August and early September. The Detroit Festival of Arts is an international arts festival featuring over 100 artists, a children's fair and food. It takes place in September.

Literary Notes

Mitch Albom is a Detroit native who is one of America's most recent phenomena after publishing Tuesdays with Morrie (1997). After hearing that one of his former university professors was terminally ill, Albom spent a great deal of time with him and documented the life of his mentor in this moving work, which had a very lengthy run on the New York Times bestseller list.

Elmore Leonard is one of America's best-known thriller and Western writers and lives in Detroit. He is best known for Rum Punch (1992), which was made into Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997), and Get Shorty (1990), which was made into a movie of the same name starring John Travolta. Having written over three dozen novels, it is not surprising that his hometown and surrounding countryside make it into his subject matter. City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit (1980) is the story of a veteran homicide officer in a showdown with a psychotic killer.



Copyright © 2001 Columbus Publishing
    
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