DISCOVER ORANGE COUNTY

Looking for a new neighborhood to explore? Here are a few suggestions, culled from recent articles. Complete articles can be accessed at https://www.calendarlive.com/go/discover/

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UC Irvine: Theater-Going Can Be a Delight for the Senses Where can you stop to smell the roses on your way to the theater? The Chancellor’s Rose Garden, outside the Irvine Barclay Theatre on the UC Irvine campus. Before a show, you can drop by the UCI Bookstore and check out its theater, dance and music books to bone up on what you’ll be seeing.

The Chancellor’s Rose Garden was just a bit of grass until April 1996, when a few far-sighted people decided to plant a cross-shaped garden of roses. Their idea blossomed. Now there are about 92 varieties.

Irvine Barclay Theatre (4242 Campus Drive. [949] 854-4646) provides a wide range of offerings--plays, musicals, chamber music concerts, ballet, modern dance programs, lectures and things beyond. It can offer all of this because it’s an independent nonprofit organization that serves as a public-private partnership between the city of Irvine, the university and the private, Irvine Barclay Theatre Operating Co.

The 40,000-square-foot UCI Bookstore houses about 10,000 textbooks, plus 60,000 books of general interest. There is also a computer sales and service store. The store is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Getting there: Exit the San Diego (405) Freeway at Jamboree Road; go south. Turn left onto Campus Drive. The theater is on Campus Drive near West Peltason Drive, across from the University Center mall.

* A new Discover Orange County will run next Sunday in the Orange County Calendar.