By Lookout Staff
September 24, 2009 -- What would you rather be doing after work? A) Eat a meal at a restaurant and go to a play. B) Catch a show at Cirque du Soliel. C) Ice skate outdoors in balmy Southern California. D) Sit behind the wheel in rush hour traffic.
City and Bayside officials are counting on Santa Monica residents and commuters picking the first three choices. And to make sure the answer is simple for those thinking about heading straight home, they’re making an offer that’s hard to refuse.
Starting in October, the City’s Cultural Affairs Department, along with the Santa Monica Performing Arts Committee, will launch a new program to entice the thousands of commuters who travel to Santa Monica every day for work to stay a few hours after they clock out.
Called “Come to Work, Stay to Play,” the program has signed on several of Santa Monica’s best restaurants and cultural facilities, which will offer big discounts to the “Stay to Play” crowd. They include I Cugini, Lago and Wokcano, as well as the Miles Memorial Playhouse, the Santa Monica Playhouse and Ruskin Group Theatre.
On the four Thursdays in October – the 8th, 15th, 23th and 30th – restaurants will offer a special menu at discounted rates between 4 and 8 p.m. Cultural facilities will stage performances that will last from 30 to 60 minutes between 5 and 7 p.m.
“This way commuters can pick a show and a restaurant and enjoy themselves before getting back on the roads and heading home,” said Justin Yoffe, who is coordinating the program.
City officials hope the program will introduce commuters to Santa Monica’s restaurants and cultural facilities, pump money into local restaurants and arts venues and forge a greater sense of community among residences, businesses and visitors.
If Thursdays don’t work, commuters can join a growing number of residents who will flock to the outdoor skating rink Downtown when ICE at Santa Monica returns for its third holiday season October 30.
Visitors this year will find an added feature when what is usually a parking lot at 5th Street and Arizona Avenue is covered with ice. A 400-square-foot rink will be set aside where children six and under can learn to skate.
Last year 50,000 skaters twirled, glided and sometimes fell on the ice, up from 30,000 the first year. And Bayside officials are expecting even bigger crowds this holiday season.
“There’s been so much support for it, we are thrilled to bring it back,” said Debbie Lee, the Bayside District’s marketing director. “It has become a beloved tradition.”
Part of Bayside District’s elaborate Winterlit holiday program, ICE at Santa Monica will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday and until midnight on Friday and Saturday through January 18. Admission, including skate rental, is $10.
If you can’t skate, you can always get a vicarious thrill watching the acrobatic feats at Cirque du Soleil, which returns from October 16 through December 20, almost a decade after its last Santa Monica performance.
Housed at the 1550 beach parking lot just north of the pier, Cirque du Soleil’s new production, “Kooza,” will help mark the pier’s 100th anniversary and Cirque’s 25th year mounting unique performances that border more on performance art than the traditional circus.
But the upcoming show is a return to Cirque’s roots, combining two staples of the circus – acrobatic performance and the art of clowning, Cirque officials said.
“The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful melange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor,” officials said.
Eighteen performances have been added from November 17 to 29. For ticket information call 1.800.450.1480 or visit www.cirquedusoleil.com/kooza.
