Saturday is a chance for cornhole champions and karaoke stars to show off their skills while also supporting the arts.
Basin Theatre Works is having a spring fundraiser with a Cornhole and Karaoke event from 6:30 p.m. to midnight Saturday at the MCM Elegante.
“So what we’re doing, usually we do Divas and Desserts in the fall,” Heather Valenzuela said. “But we decided this year to change it up a little and do a spring fundraiser and a fall fundraiser. Our spring one is going to be cornhole and karaoke. It’s going to be a double elimination cornhole tournament. “
The event will be run by Boom or Bust Cornhole, a local group that helps do cornhole tournaments in town.
“It’ll be double elimination,” Valenzuela said. “There’ll be great prizes. We’ll have cash prizes and we’ll have raffles. And then we’ll have prizes for first second and third.”
The last round of the night will feature a calcutta, Valenzuela said.
“Our karaoke lounge is going to be our losers’ lounge,” Valenzuela said. “Once you’ve lost in cornhole, you can go in there and have cocktails and karaoke.”
Gaven Norris of the Norris law firm will run the karaoke and the event will feature lots of food.
“We’re having tailgating type of food,” Valenzuela said. “It’ll be like burgers and hot dogs and corndogs and cocktails.”
The fundraiser is to help raise money for next season at Permian Playhouse and also for its kids and educational programs.
“These fundraisers help keep us afloat and help us continue to do our kids Kaleidoscope Company and our kids educational theater,” Valenzuela said. “Something we always like to say is that any kid can find a spot in theater, whether they are on stage or makeup or lights or sounds. Kids can find a spot in theater. We think it’s important that we push the education piece especially right now with all the mental health issues that we have right now with COVID. We feel very passionately that we want kids to have a space where they can feel safe. Our goal is to be able to continue to do that.”
Last year and 2020 saw the Permian Playhouse unable to do many of its shows due to COVID.
This year, the playhouse has been able to return to a normal schedule.
The playhouse recently finished doing “Charlotte’s Web” and will soon be putting on “The Spongebob Squarepants Musical,” which is scheduled to run from July 29-Aug. 7.
“It’s been hard not being opened for sure,” Valenzuela said. “We’re so excited to be back. We just ran Charlotte’s Web. We were sold out all six nights that the show ran. I think people are so glad to be back to seeing live theater. People are excited to be back. We’re thrilled to have our performances back. We are most excited right now about being a safe place and that we’re back and we’re going to offer a place for people to be happy and sort through their emotions through the last two years. We’re excited to be a place to make laugh and feel good because we haven’t done a lot of that.
The auditions for the musical will take place May 13, 14 and 15.
“We’re doing SpongeBob the Musical this summer and we chose to the do that instead of something heavier because now that people are out of their house, we want them to be able to feel good and come and be happy in our space and have a break from the daily routine,” Valenzuela said.
Valenzuela says she hopes they can raise $50,000.
“That would be our pinnacle if we could,” Valenzuela said.
This weekend’s fundraiser will be the first time Basin Theatre Works has done a cornhole tournament.
“We were going to do a poker tournament this year,” Valenzuela said. “But we started to do some research and decided that cornhole has gotten so big. No one else does a cornhole tournament. It also spans the age group. College kids like to play it and adults. It’s something everyone can do which makes it fun.”
