Each Saturday is ripe with possibilities. Although there are movies to be watched and drinks to be drunk, there is only one place to go where the spirit of Walker, Texas Ranger shares a stage with the three little pigs, a belly dancer and the music of Styx: the ISU Varieties.

Varieties is a 75-year-old tradition at Iowa State. Each year, groups of students take on the challenge of creating and staging their own 20-minute musical theater production. Two productions debut each Saturday night at the Great Hall of the Memorial Union and are complimented by shorts from an emcee group and various talent acts. This year, Varieties features three weeks of original shows and a fourth week featuring the two best musicals and emcee groups from previous weeks.

Last Saturday’s Varieties featured musicals “Imagine Nation” and “Fast Times at Henchmen High,” a belly dancer and a Chuck Norris-obsessed emcee group, “Corn Fed.”

Varieties originated at Iowa State during the Great Depression to give students something to do during the winter. Today’s students often don’t have the luxury of excess time, so instead they draw on a resource familiar to most college students.

“Many late nights, incredibly many late nights,” said Emily Brightwell, senior in English.

Brightwell played the lead in “Imagine Nation,” a classic tale of an imperiled heroine caught in a fairy-tale land. However, “Imagine Nation” is not the typical fairy tale. The unique spirit of the show is apparent from the first notes of the shows opening tune, a lyrical reworking of Styx’s “Mr. Roboto.”

“The beginning of ‘Mr. Roboto’ had the perfect dream sequence sound,” said Elyse Flagg, senior in music and co-chairperson of the “Imagine Nation” team. “It worked really well for what we wanted.”

Each team is responsible for assembling their own live band and creating their own songs. Popular radio tunes, reworked to fit the scenario, are a staple of Variety musicals. Andrew Murphy, junior in pre-advertising and co-chairperson of “Fast Times,” said familiarity is a prime concern when choosing songs to adapt for the show.

“[AC/DC’s] ‘TNT’ was great, everyone who has ever been to a sporting event knows it,” he said of the song used during their performance.

“Fast Times at Henchmen High” takes a different look at the eternal confrontation between good and evil. The show focuses on the early careers of the hand-wringing underlings who devote their professions to caddying arch-villians’ bad-guy accessories.

“Everyone really has the same ideas [for their musicals],” said Bethany Mazur, freshman in pre-journalism and mass communication and co-chairperson of “Fast Times.” “This one was really out there.”

Thomas Schmitt, sophomore in pre-business and co-chairperson of “Fast Times,” believes that although their show is different, it is still accessible to audiences.

“I think everybody has seen at least one [James] Bond movie,” said Schmitt.

Emcee group “Corn Fed” entertained the crowd between musicals. Clad in matching Chuck Norris T-shirts, many of the group’s routines involved spreading inflated pro-Norris propaganda.

Group member Julie Hunt, sophomore in accounting, said although Chuck Norris is not universally appreciated, Walker humor connects with other people besides college students.

“A lot of the dads were like ‘Chuck Norris, yeah,'” she said.

Varieties is about more than idolizing former cable stars. All profits from the shows are donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Stacey Goodman, senior in management and co-chairperson of “Imagine Nation,” believes charity is an important, if peripheral, inspiration for all the hard work that goes into a show.

“It’s great that our efforts serve a cause, but throughout we just worry about putting on a good show,” she said.