Baltimore's performing arts have a long and distinguished history. The American national anthem was penned here and the elite of American society helped culture flourish.
Use
Ticketmaster (tel: (410) 547 7328; website:
www.ticketmaster.com) or
Baltimore Tickets at the Visitors Center, 451 Light Street (tel: 1 877 225 84673; website:
www.baltimore.org).
Baltimore Ambassador magazine lists cultural performances
and events and is often found in hotels. Monthly
Baltimore Magazine also lists events and offers dining suggestions.
City Search (website:
www.baltimore.citysearch.com) provides up-to-date information on cultural events.
Music: The city's main classical music venue is the
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral Street, Mount Vernon, home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (tel: (410) 783 8000; website:
www.bsomusic.org). The
Lyric Opera House, 140 West Mount Royal Avenue (tel: (410) 685 5086; website:
www.lyricoperahouse.com), boasts a few unusual guests, such as Alanis Morissette and the Moscow Ballet, as well as hosting musicals as well as opera. The
Baltimore Opera Company, 110 W. Mt. Royal Avenue (tel: (410) 727 6000; website:
www.baltimoreopera.com), is more traditional in its performances, although sometimes includes musicals. The
Peabody Institute, 1 East Mount Vernon Place (tel: (410) 659 8100; website:
www.peabody.jhu.edu), the oldest music school in the USA, often schedules free recitals as well as running workshops for the public.
Theater: Baltimore's many theaters are cast across the Downtown area.
The Strand Theater Company, 1823 North Charles Street
(tel: (443) 874 4917; website:
www.strandtheatercompany.org) aims to explore innovative drama to inspire the younger generation, with emphasis on the feminine perspective.
Theater Hopkins performs in a brick barn dating from 1804, located at Johns Hopkins University (tel: (410) 516 7159; website:
www.jhu.edu/~theater). This semi-professional company performs everything from Shakespeare to Shaw and Sophocles.
Center Stage, 700 North Calvert Street (tel: (410) 332 0033; website:
www.centerstage.org), produces a similarly diverse repertoire, keeping ticket prices low to ensure drama is available to all. The
Everyman Theater, 1727 North Charles Street (tel: (410) 752 2208; website:
www.everymantheater.org) performs classics, such as Chekhov, alongside contemporary premieres. It has plans to move to 315 W. Fayette Street by 2010.
The Vagabond Players, 806 South Broadway, Fells Point (tel: (410) 563 9135; website:
www.vagabondplayers.org), tend to perform modern classics, including those by local playwrights.
For dinner-theater, try
Toby's (tel: (410) 649 1660
or 1 866 998 6297: website:
www.tobysdinnertheater.com). It serves adaptations of popular musicals, like
Phantom and
West Side Story, with its buffet menu. Family owned
Lorenzo's Timonium Dinner Theater, 9603 Deereco Road (tel: (410) 560 1113
or 1 877 560 1113; website:
www.timoniumdinnertheater.com), offers Broadway-type shows and tasty homemade specialties.
Dance: In addition to occasional dance performances at some of the above venues, there is the
Baltimore Dance Center, 1546 Eastern Boulevard (tel: (410) 574 2444; website:
www.baltimoredancecenter.com), which offers classes. The
Baltimore Ballet School (tel: (410) 667 7974; website:
www.baltimoreballet.com) performs classics at major venues around the city.
Film: The
Senator Theater, 5904 York Road (tel: (410) 435 8338; website:
www.senator.com), was built during the golden age of Hollywood and is one of few surviving examples of a real neighborhood movie theater. As well as plenty of ordinary cinemas showing the latest Hollywood releases, there are a couple of specialist venues for art house releases. The
Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive (tel: (443) 573 1700; website:
www.artbma.org), screens independent shorts, with free entrance, while the
Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral Street (tel: (410) 396 5430; website:
www.pratt.lib.md.us), shows a broader range of material.
Because of its varied topography, Maryland has proved a popular destination for Hollywood film-makers. Two Baltimore-born directors, Barry Levinson and John Waters, have been responsible for putting their hometown on the movie map. Levinson's Baltimore-based films, starting with
Diner and later including
Tin Men (1987),
Avalon (1990) and
Liberty Heights (1999), pay tribute to life in 1960s-era Baltimore, when the director himself was growing up in the city. Waters, on the other hand, aims his attention toward the quirky side of life in Baltimore - films such as
Hairspray (1988) and
Serial Mom (1994) have become cult classics, with the former remade in 2007.
The Sum of All Fears (2002), based on the Clancy novel of the same name, sees Baltimore devastated by a terrorist nuclear bomb. Baltimore is also the setting for
Patriot Games (1992), the
Pelican Brief (1993) and
Twelve Monkeys (1995). A significant portion of
Enemy of the State (1998), starring
Will Smith, was set and filmed in Baltimore, as was
Live Free or Die Hard (2007).
Step Up (2006)
and its sequel
Step Up 2 The Streets (2008) are also set in the city.
Literary Notes: Strongly associated with Baltimore and standing on either side of the fence are two literary giants - writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and H L Mencken (1880-1956), critic par excellence. Poe's house, 203 Amity Street, is now a museum. His grave can be found at Westminster Cemetery, (corner of Fayette Street and Greene Street). Mencken, who became famous for his biting literary criticism, lived at 1524 Hollins Street, Union Square. His major work,
The American Language (1921), had a huge influence on American writing in the 1920s.
Francis Scott Key (1799-1843) is famous for his poem,
The Defence of Fort McHenry, penned while watching the American flag flying during the unsuccessful British siege of Baltimore. In 1931, it was adopted as the US national anthem,
The Star Spangled Banner.
Much of the town's literary past centers on the Mount Vernon district, which also hosts the annual Book Festival in September. Meanwhile, F Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, was treated for mental illness at the Johns Hopkins University. Fitzgerald (1896-1940) finished
Tender is the Night (1934) while living in the area.
The master of silly poems and snappy aphorisms, Ogden Nash, was living in Cross Keys when he died in 1971. Pulitzer Prize-winner Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), was born in Baltimore, while Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) studied at Johns Hopkins University. Russell Baker, a
New York Times Baltimore columnist, based his Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography
Growing Up (1995) on his boyhood, while several of Anne Tyler's works are set in Baltimore, including
The Accidental Tourist (1985).
The Corner (1997), by David Simon
, gives a gritty view of
inner city Baltimore. The author spent a year following local police homicide squads to learn about addiction and violence in the western suburbs of the city.
The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Related Baltimore Content
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
Related Maryland Content
The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
Maryland Airport Guides:
|
Maryland City Guides:
|
|
|
