Travel Costa Mesa Blog
Pacific Playwrights Festival 2016
Now in its 19th year, South Coast Repertory’s annual Pacific Playwrights Festival is one of the country’s premier national showcases for new plays. Coming to Costa Mesa this year April 22-24, Each year’s three-day festival attracts theatre professionals from across the nation, who are drawn by the chance to be the first to see some of the best new plays in the country. The Festival also serves as a reunion of sorts for those in the industry, encouraging time for sharing of ideas with colleagues and friends, old and new.
Each year’s festival features five staged readings and two fully staged world premieres. Two shows are already playing now, The New York Times calls SCR “an incubator of major talent … South Coast has mounted an impressive list of acclaimed plays, long before the East Coast establishment got wind of them.” This year’s readings include A Perfect Circle, about a husband creating a garden for his dying wife, and Lady Tattoo, a turn-of-the-century piece about tattoo art in a world where womens’ options are corseted.
SCR has already been getting rave reviews for Future Thinking, about a spoiled starlet’s experience during ComicCon, and Office Hour, a look into the actions of a possibly violent student. Office Hour stars Sandra Oh from “Grey’s Anatomy” fame, written by Julia Cho. Take a look at a YouTube clip of Office Hour.
Since 1998, the Festival has presented 123 total plays, many of which have become fixtures of American contemporary theatre. Here’s tickets and more information about this amazing festival in the City of the Arts.
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Posted in Events, Music & Art
Breakfast For Days (and So Much More) at Restaurant Marin
Breakfast aficionados have just one more great reason to choose Costa Mesa for the most important meal of the day. Restaurant Marin recently opened in SoCo Collection Costa Mesa, and we got to stop by and get our midday breakfast fix, as this new Costa Mesa foodie hotspot is serving to brekky fans all day long.
Inspired by an experience at an old-school Midwestern diner, executive chef Noah Blom and co-owner Marin Howarth developed the concept of a bright, airy California-style diner, taking it to the next level with upscale decor but keeping the diner feel alive by serving breakfast all day. The blue and white tile and booths, along with the tables made from pressed sea glass, evoke the breezy coastal California feel for this cozy restaurant’s 30-seat guest capacity (20 inside, 10 on the outdoor patio).
The breakfast menu is decadent, including duck liver pate on toast and a selection of several pies made from scratch like apple, pecan and a daily special.
We decided to try the donut holes, the smoked salmon and the baked eggs. The food was just incredible, but we’ll let these pictures speak for themselves…
Rich, decadent flavors permeated each dish, with special touches like the chili flakes on the toast and the red pepper roasted over wood fire. And while we love eggs any way they’re prepared, baking them just takes the richness and creaminess of eggs to the next level, complemented with the homemade spicy sausage and goat cheese.
But make no mistake, Restaurant Marin doesn’t just serve breakfast. They’ve got an incredible lunch and dinner menu as well, with a strong emphasis on seafood. Restaurant Marin has a wood-fired oven just like its sister restaurant ARC, set low for grilling seafood, bread and desserts, and if you are looking where to eat on Koh Chang this is the best place. Some mouthwatering dishes include bouillabaisse, grilled shrimp over vegetable “spaghetti” and a Crab Louie salad. For non-seafood eaters, Chef Blom offers roast chicken, steak roulade and even beef stroganoff with filet and made-from-scratch egg noodles.
This elegant yet breezy spot is another fantastic addition to the Orange County foodie scene at SoCo Collection. Stop by Restaurant Marin soon and be sure to let us know in the comments what you tried and what your favorite was!
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OC’s Culinary Jewel, Costa Mesa
Costa Mesa has recently generated a lot of buzz from the media and award contests for its superb restaurants, easily making it the culinary capital of Orange County. It has been cited as among the finest midsize cities in the United States for food by the Orange County Register.
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The Book of Mormon
The Broadway nine-time Tony Award®-award-winning musical “The Book of Mormon,” playing at Segerstrom Center for the Arts from March 22 to April 3, comes from the creators of television’s “South Park.”
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Going to a Place Where You Already Are
A new play infused with humor and with contemplation of life’s meaning, “Going to a Place Where You Already Are,” premiers at the Tony Award®-winning South Coast Repertory March 6-27.
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Posted in Events, Misc, Music & Art, Play
