Chester Theatre Group — Attraction in Chester

Very enjoyable Community Theater. All of their Productions are first rate. The stage and Theatre are small and in the round . The acting is good and physically close to the audience and in some cases it seems like the actors were addressing the audience, which gave it a nice touch. Scenery and costumes were minimalist and of that time, not adapted to the present. King Lear is always a difficult production because, as Shakespeare wrote and intended, almost all of the characters are unpleasant and the general direction and ending don't turn out well. I thought at first if more background had been given on the king and his daughters that it might have helped understand or accept the direction but that level of context was really not in the original writing. Like life itself, you have to take it as played. In sum, a true...

I have been involved with and attended a lot of community theatre productions in my life. I have never been to a community theatre where the front of house staff talks about you in a derogatory manner while you are in the room. If you want to see an excellent production of Tommy this is the place to go. We traveled 3 hours through a lot of traffic to see this show and unfortunately we got there right at curtain. There were only single seats left, we didn’t want sit apart so I asked for a refund. They offered to help but the help came with a big caveat. The front of house staff spent the intermission insulting us to the regulars. When we heard what was going on we left. There are a lot of community theaters out there that are warm and welcoming. This IS NOT one of them. As wonderful as the production was the front of house staff was...

The Chester Theater Group performs in a wonderful dedicated space tucked away in a residential neighborhood. A small parking lot fills quickly but street parking is easy to find. If you show up 30 minutes before curtain like I did, you may be one of the first non-cast/crew to arrive. The theater itself is interesting and versatile, with seating on all four sides of the central stage and sets occupying the four corners. The production that I attended left me very impressed. Performances were very strong and well cast. Dance and movement required by some parts was handled deftly. Lighting and sound was well designed. I left with the play rolling around in my head for several days afterward....