The Laguna Playhouse netted more than $12,000...

The Laguna Playhouse netted more than $12,000 with a benefit Saturday, exceeding expectations, according to playhouse executive director Richard A. Stein. “Our goal was $10,000, and we budgeted to make only $5,000 because it was a first-time event,” Stein said Monday. About 100 people paid $125 each to attend “Murder at the Casino,” a mystery-theater production written and staged by playhouse artistic director Andrew Barnicle at the Moulton Theatre in Laguna Beach. The admission fee entitled guests to dinner, drinks, door prizes and $100 worth of chips to gamble Las Vegas-style while the murder mystery unfolded. All proceeds went to the playhouse, as did revenues from a silent auction of various celebrity items.

Barbara Moore Cavanaugh, a 34-year-old freshman film major at Orange Coast College, is the first winner of the Art Davis Scholarship, a $150 award given by members of bassist-educator Davis’ fan club. Moore, who has a 4.0 GPA, said she will use the money for a documentary of first-person accounts, to be called “My Life Is My Message.” She was selected from a field of 12 applicants from Orange County colleges. The presentation was made Sunday by Davis and fan club president Donna Smith outside the Music Mart record store in Costa Mesa.