The cultural heart of the city is Playhouse Square Center, 1501 Euclid Avenue (tel: (216) 771 4444; website: www.playhousesquare.org), a cultural complex consisting of five restored landmark theatres - the Ohio, State, Palace, Hanna and the Allen Theatres. Playhouse Square is the second largest performing arts centre in the USA, and now attracts over one million patrons every year. Tickets for Playhouse Square productions can be purchased in person from their box office, online from their website, or from Tickets.com (tel: (216) 241 6000; website: www.tickets.com).

Ticketmaster (tel: (216) 241 5555; website: www.ticketmaster.com) also sells tickets for most cultural events in Cleveland.

Entertainment listings can be found in Friday!, the weekly magazine accompanying Cleveland's local newspaper, The Plain Dealer, which is also available online (website: www.plaindealer.com) . The following magazines and newspapers all provide listings: the weekly Scene (website: www.clevescene.com) and Free Times Magazine (website: www.freetimes.com), and the monthly Northern Ohio Live (website: www.northernohiolive.com) and Cleveland Magazine (website: www.clevelandmagazine.com).

Music: The Cleveland Chamber Symphony (tel: (216) 687 9243; website: www.clevelandchambersymphony.org) performs free concerts of musical works by present-day composers. Cleveland Opera (website: www.clevelandopera.org) finds its home at Playhouse Square (see above), performing grand operatic works, such as The Barber of Seville and La Bohème, in the renovated State Theatre. The Cleveland Orchestra (tel: (216) 231 1111 or 1 800 686 1141; website: www.clevelandorch.com) performs at Severance Hall, 11001 Euclid Avenue. It offers a popular outdoor concert series during the summer at the Blossom Music Center, 1145 West Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls.

Theatre: The Cleveland Play House, 8500 Euclid Avenue (tel: (216) 795 7000; website: www.clevelandplayhouse.com), was founded in 1915 and is the longest running regional theatre in the country, presenting critically acclaimed major theatrical productions alongside works by more obscure writers. The Cleveland Public Theatre, 6415 Detroit Avenue (tel: (216) 631 2727; website: www.cptonline.org), is the city's best-known alternative theatre, presenting local, national and international avant-garde works.

The Great Lakes Theater Festival (tel: (216) 241 5490; website: www.greatlakestheater.org) puts on the classics from October to May at the Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square (see above). Karamu House, 2355 East 89th Street (tel: (216) 795 7070; website: www.karamu.com), is an African-American cultural institution, which has been putting on performances and working with the community for more than 75 years.

Dance: The Ohio Ballet (website: www.ohioballet.org) was formed in 1968 and finds its home near Cleveland in Akron, Ohio. When in Cleveland, the company performs at the Ohio Theatre, 1511 Euclid Avenue, at Playhouse Square (see above). DanceCleveland (tel: (440) 516 7837/STEP; website: www.dancecleveland.org) hosts different contemporary/modern dance troupes from around the world at various Playhouse Square venues (see above).

Film: Fairly recent films, including Rain Man (1988) and Air Force One (1997), show off Cleveland, but one of the most memorable is Major League (1989), a comedy about baseball, directed by David S Ward and starring Charlie Sheen.

Mainstream cinemas worth visiting in Cleveland include Shaker Square Cinemas, 13116 Shaker Square (tel: (440) 349 3306), and Tower City Cinemas, Tower City Center (tel: (440) 349 3306), the only multiplex in downtown Cleveland. The Cedar Lee Theatre, 2163 Lee Road (tel: (440) 349 3306), screens independent and foreign films, plus limited-run Hollywood movies.

Literary Notes: Toni Morrison, author of Beloved (1987), The Bluest Eye (1969) and Paradise (1998), was raised in Cleveland. Langston Hughes (1902-1967), the prolific African-American poet, novelist and essayist, spent his high-school years in Cleveland, where much of his early poetry was written. He was part of the Harlem Renaissance movement of black artists. Cleveland was also home to another of America's early 20th-century poets: Hart Crane (1899-1932). Crane spent his youth here and was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father's business, but instead he gave it all up to move to New York and become a writer.