Chester Theatre Group

The Mendhan-Chester Patch has published a fine profile of the CTG.

“Tucked away in a quieter corner of town at the crossroads of Maple and Grove Streets in Chester Borough, the Chester Theatre Group has been offering an array of musical and non-musical plays since 1958.

When pressed to categorize the theater group’s slate, board member Jeffrey Jackson described it as “off the beaten path.”

“While we don’t want to be completely fringe and obscure, we do like to lure people away from the completely tried and true,” Jackson said.

“Our goal is to entertain, but our ultimate goal is to enlighten and challenge our audiences and to broaden the experience of the talented local performers and artists who volunteer at our theatre both onstage and off,” said Roseann Ruggiero, board secretary, who has been involved with the organization for 40 years.”   READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

ALL THE CAST  NOW SET FOR “BY JEEVES”    Thank you to everyone who participated in the auditions.

Chester Theatre Group of the Black River Playhouse, Chester, NJ (Corner of Maple and Grove)

Directors: Jeffrey Jackson (also playing “Wooster”) with Roseann Ruggiero

Performances (9): March 2–18, 2012, Fri. & Sat. eves., Sun. matinees

Auditions were held: Sunday, Jan 8th (afternoon) and Tuesday, Jan. 10th (evening), 2012

Orchestra: 6 (piano, woodwinds, keyboard, bass, drums, guitar)

Cast: 10 leads, 3 ensemble

JEEVES:     Bob Longstreet

BERTIE:     Jeff Jackson (Director)

BASSETT:   Bob Mackasek

BINGO:        Rich McNanna

GUSSIE:      Jeffrey Fiorello

HAROLD:    Eric Harper

HONORIA:   Juliet Brines

STIFFY:         Kathleen Campbell Jackson

MADDY:       Tina Kaye

BUDGE:         Mike Patierno

ENSEMBLE:   Diane Butler, Barb Haag, Steven Nitka, Bob Sackstein

For more information: http://www.curioproductions.com/byjeeves/

By Sheila Abrams (njartsmaven.com)

“If he killed the fatted calf, you would complain about the cholesterol,” says Ann Stevens to her son, John, about his relationship with his father. The uncomfortable relationship between father and son is only part of the dysfunctional family dynamic that is at the heart of A.R. Gurney’s witty comedy of manners, “The Cocktail Hour,” running through Nov. 20 at the Black River Playhouse in Chester.

The play, a production of the Chester Theatre Group, has been adroitly directed by Annandale resident Cindy Alexander.

“The Cocktail Hour” is also the name of a play within the play that sets things in motion. John, a playwright who has already had some commercial success, has come home to Buffalo, N.Y., to ask his parents’ permission to produce his new opus. It is, he explains, about them.

His parents are, of course, understandably aghast. Are their foibles and family secrets, such as they may be, to be paraded in front of just anyone who buys a ticket? While offstage, dinner seems to be indefinitely delayed, the alcohol flows, along with both revelations and recriminations.

Ann and Bradley are predictably upset with the turn society has taken as they perceive it. They see their culture, their values, their very way of life being judged and found wanting. In the theater, people shout at each other and take their clothes off!

When daughter Nina arrives, further sibling conflict emerges, some of which is confusing and seems to make little sense. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of family interactions in real life are confusing and make little sense. Gurney, who seems to have based the play on his own family, really delivers a slice of life.

This slice of life, however, is some improvement on the real thing. The Stevens family is funny, intentionally or not. The dialogue is witty and clever. A passage where Ann and Bradley show how their 50-year relationship has rendered them able to finish one another’s sentences is delicious, when performed by two of the brightest stars in the CTG firmament: the wonderful Michael Foley and the eternally gorgeous Penny Hoadley. It’s as if Gurney created the roles with them in mind.

Standing in for Gurney himself, Stephen Catron gives John just the right touch of irony. He is a successful playwright. One of his earlier plays starred Swoosie Kurtz, an actress with whom Bradley is somewhat smitten. Nevertheless, his parents seem to take his playwriting as some sort of hobby. Not a real career. Bradley demands to know how much John stands to earn from “The Cocktail Hour,” and offers him a check for $20,000 not to produce it.

As Nina, Donne Petito is operating for the most part in an emotionally over-the-top mode. The oldest of the Stevens children and the only girl, she carries with her a lot of grievances, not the least of which is the sense of obligation to her parents. Her life’s passion, dogs, and particularly Seeing Eye dogs, seems appropriate for someone with her emotional affect. By the way, being a Morris County resident, I am astonished that nobodyever told Gurney that “Seeing Eye dog” is not a generic term for “trained service dog.” He has Nina wanting to go to Cleveland to work with Seeing Eye dogs, rather a long commute to Morristown, where she would actually have to go. Just a little Garden State nitpicking, but we should get credit where it’s due.

We also ought to mention the extremely handsome set which Stephen Catron designed. It’s always impressive to see how CTG’s scenic artists use
their limited space. In this case, three of the four corners of the performing space are used to superb purpose, one of them especially forming an entry way to the house. The Stevens’ classy living room (drawing room?) is spot on.

This is a stimulating evening. Gurney set the play in 1975, but Ann and Bradley, or the people they represent, are still with us. If they were unhappy about the people yelling at each other and taking their clothes off, what would they say about the Kardashians and “Jersey Shore”?

For information and reservations, call CTG at (908) 879-7304 or visit www.chestertheatregroup.org.”

PHOTO: Penny Hoadley and Michael Foley by Lamont Hill

Please read njartsmaven.com  and  njfootlights.com

Ruth Ross over at nj arts maven had some very very nice things to say about our current production of Grey Gardens:

Once again, Chester Theatre Group has tackled a challenging play, pulled out all the stops and given us a Broadway-quality musical—all without one single Actors Equity performer in the cast! … That the actors are superb raises the performance and production level way above what one might expect from community theater, but it is in line with what the  Chester Theatre Group usually gives us. Although neither Bouvier Beale woman achieved a successful career as a singer/actress, Barbara Haag who gets to play both the matriarch Edith and her daughter Edie, is certainly a class act. In the first act, Haag is imperious and manipulative as Big Edith, planning her daughter’s party to the last detail while planning to hijack the festivities for her own ends. In the second act, she’s Little Edie, giving weird pronouncements about fashion, complaining about having to come home to care for her mother, and just being an all-around drama queen. She takes hold of the audience by the throats in both acts and knocks ‘em down with an absolutely marvelous performance as both women. If she doesn’t win an award from NJACT, I don’t know what will.

Tickets are still available, but going fast, so reservations are recommended and can be made by calling the box office at 908.879.7304

Since our upcoming production of Urinetown is a musical comedy satirizing a country in which the shortage of water requires everyone to “pay to pee”, the cast and crew of  Urinetown have developed a special humanitarian project dubbed, Pennies for Potties. 

Named by cast member Roxanna Wagner who is heading up the effort, Pennies for Potties will raise money to be be donated to the international non-profit organization, Foundation for Peace, based in Ironia, NJ. 

The Foundation for Peace has provided much needed emergency care to many materially impoverished countries.  They are currently working tirelessly in Haiti by building schools, providing medical care and most importantly, building water filter and purification systems and latrines to stem the outbreak of cholera. Coin drops will be placed at the public rest rooms in the theatre through the run of the show. 

It takes $400 to build a latrine and the Urinetown folks are hoping to collect enough money to build two latrines.

 For more information about Foundation for Peace, go to http://www.foundationforpeace.org/