Sean C. Morgan
The annual talent contest to raise funds for arts in Sweet Home, SHARC Showdown V, is scheduled for 7 p.m. on April 6.
The deadline to register as a contestant is April 2.
The event has helped pay for new sound and lighting equipment in the Sweet Home High School auditorium. It has replaced stage curtains, and volunteers with the Sweet Home Auditorium Remodel Committee repaired the stage, painted and completed other work inside the auditorium.
“I started out with SHARC, with the purpose of raising funds for the auditorium,” said Shirley Austin, the event organizer and a member of the Sweet Home Oregon Coalition for Artistic and Scholastic Enrichment, which emerged from SHARC two years ago. “I just think SHARC was the catalyst to getting things started.”
It’s not done yet, Austin said. “We still have to get curtains for the sides and the back.”
SHARC has become a function of SHOCASE, which will continue working on the auditorium, but whose mission is broader.
The Showdown “supports the arts in the community,” she said, “such as an upcoming art show, possible productions in the auditorium, possibly bringing in entertainment.”
SHOCASE is interested in remodeling the auditorium’s lobby and installing an art display and donor board, Austin said, but the stage curtains are a higher priority.
“For the last five years, I’ve wanted to do a theater arts group,” Austin said, and SHOCASE wants to support students and their arts education, such as helping send the choir on trips.
“These things will continue,” she said. “It’s not like there’s an end to any of this.”
The auditorium improvements have just opened up “more possibilities,” she said. “There’s nothing that can’t be done in there.”
The contest is open to youths and adults in two separate divisions. Cash prizes are available for adults. Gift cards will be given to the winners of the children’s division.
Prizes will be given for the People’s Choice Award, which is achieved by stuffing the ballot box with the most votes – one quarter for one vote. The Showdown will also have raffles and drawings.
Violinist and singer Moriah Winn, last year’s champion in the children’s division, will be a judge and will provide a special performance.
The contest is open to all kinds of talent.
Singing should be accompanied by a music file on a flash drive. It may not include an original vocal track, and no karaoke screen will be available.
Registration forms are available at local schools, the Chamber of Commerce and The New Era. It also is available on the SHARC Showdown Facebook page.
For more information or to get involved, call Austin at (541) 409-8957.