|
|
| Home > City Guide - Philadelphia - Culture | ||
|
||
|
Culture Philadelphia's cultural history is one that stretches back quite far into America's past – the city lays claim to both the country's oldest music hall still in use and oldest theatre. So popular are the arts in Philadelphia that the city has renamed a section of South Broad Street the ‘Avenue of the Arts’, with many theatres, concert halls and performing arts schools located along here. The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 260 South Broad Street (tel: (215) 790 5800 or 893 1999, fax (215) 790 5801; website: www.kimmelcenter.org), is the city’s spectacular new landmark, occupying an entire block on the Avenue of the Arts. It comprises two state-of-the-art venues, which serve as the backdrop to some of Philadelphia’s acclaimed performing groups. The Kimmel Center Verizon Hall is the new home of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra (tel: (215) 893 1900; website: www.philorch.org). The Orchestra’s summer venue is the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Fairmount Park (tel: 215) 893 1999; website: www.manncenter.org), which also features jazz, pops, dance and musical theatre. Peter Nero and the Philly Pops (tel: (215) 546 6400; website: www.phillypops.com), one of the country’s most famous pops orchestras, also perform jazz, big band and Broadway classics at the Fairmount Park venue. Companies resident in the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater include the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (tel: (215) 545 5451; website: www.concertosoloists.org), the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (tel: (215) 569 8080; website: www.pcmsnet.org), American Theater Arts for Youth (tel: (800) 523 4540; website: www.atafy.org) and Philadanco (tel: (215) 387 8200; website: www.philadanco.org). Entertainment listings can be found in the main daily newspapers – the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News – the monthly Philadelphia Magazine and the free publications – City Paper and Philadelphia Weekly. Tickets can be purchased directly from the venues or from TicketMaster (tel: (215) 336 2000; website: www.ticketmaster.com). Another agency to try is A First Class Ticket Company (tel: (888) 848 3836; website: www.afirstclassticket.com). Music: The Academy of Music, Broad Street and Locust Street (tel: (215) 893 1999), opened in 1857, is the country's oldest music hall that is still in use. It is home to the Opera Company of Philadelphia (tel: (215) 732 8400; website: www.operaphilly.com), which performs many of opera’s greatest hits. Theatre: Philadelphia has a strong theatrical tradition embodied by the Walnut Street Theater, Ninth Street and Walnut Street (tel: (215) 574 3550; website: www.wstonline.org), America’s oldest theatre. Other leading theatres include the Freedom Theatre, 1346 North Broad Street (tel: (215) 765 2793; website: www.freedomtheatre.org), an award winning African-American theatre company. The Forrest Theatre, 1114 Walnut Street (tel: (800) 447 7400; website: www.forrest-theatre.com), named after matinée idol Edwin Forrest, performs Broadway blockbusters, while the Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut Street (tel: (215) 569 9700; website: www.princemusictheater.org), produces original musicals. The Arden Theatre Company, 40 North Second Street (tel: (215) 922 1122; website: www.ardentheatre.org), in the Old City, stages innovative productions ranging from musicals to the classics. Productions at the Wilma Theatre, Broad Street and Spruce Street (tel: (215) 546 7824; website: www.wilmatheater.org), range from new drama to black comedy and world premieres. Dance: The Pennsylvania Ballet (tel: (215) 551 7000; website: www.paballet.org) performs classics and new works at the Academy of Music, Broad Street and Locust Street (tel: (215) 893 1999), including the perennial holiday favourite The Nutcracker. Philadanco (tel: (215) 387 8200; website: www.philadanco.org), one of the country’s leading African-American dance companies, performs at the Kimmel Center, 260 South Broad Street (tel: (215) 790 5800 or 893 1999, fax (215) 790 5801; website: www.kimmelcenter.org). Film: Philadelphia has been the setting for a number of films, including Rocky (1976), Trading Places (1983), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000) and, of course, Philadelphia (1993). Among the best of the cinemas showing mainstream films are The Ritz Five, 214 Walnut Street, and The Ritz at the Bourse, Fourth Street and Chestnut Street, which also show foreign, arthouse and limited release films and have comfortable reclining seats. Cutting-edge films by local and worldwide film makers can be seen at the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema (tel: (215) 733 0608; website: www.phillyfests.com/pfwc), which takes place 4-15 April, 2002. The Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (tel: (215) 735 7887; website: www.phillyfests.com/piglff) is held 11-22 July, 2002. Cultural events: The Mummers Parade, on New Year’s Day, is a unique Philadelphia tradition, with string bands and extravagantly costumed ‘Mummers’ strutting up Broad Street, followed by the Mummers Fancy Brigade Finale at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The Philadelphia Flower Show (tel: (215) 988 8899; website: www.theflowershow.com), held in early March, is one of the largest in the world. The Greater Philadelphia Blues Fest takes place 1 June, at Irvine Auditorium on the University of Pennsylvania campus (tel: (215) 662 1612). The Mellon Jazz Festival (tel: (610) 667 0501) is held throughout the city in June. Independence Day celebrations around the city on the Fourth of July range from parades to music to fireworks. Literary Notes Philadelphia’s best-known literary figure is Edgar Allan Poe, who came to the city in 1837 and lived here for ten years. In a house at North Seventh Street and Spring Garden Street, which is now the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, he penned some of his most famous stories, including The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) and The Gold Bug (1843), as well as the poem Annabel Lee (1849), dedicated to his beloved wife. A century earlier, Benjamin Franklin was writing his timeless word of wisdom in the annual, Poor Richard’s Almanack (1733-58). His philosophies are further explored in Autobiography and Other Writings (1771-1788) by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Franklin: His Life As He Wrote It (1990), by Esmond Wright. Other famous literary Philadelphians include the poet Walt Whitman and the author James A Michener, who hails from nearby Bucks County – there is a museum in Michener’s honour at Doylestown. Bucks County was also home to the Pulitzer- and Nobel-prize-winning author, Pearl S Buck, author of The Good Earth (1931). Her farmhouse at Perkasie can also be visited. Upper-crust Philadelphia society was portrayed in Philip Barry’s play, The Philadelphia Story (1939), which was made into a film starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. |
||
