small in size but packed with character ...it's like stepping back in time taking a ride in a time machine built in 1931 and pretty much has stayed the same from being movie theater to music venue You walk up to the ticket booth to get you ticket to then ushered to your seat. My 83 year old Mother felt like she was a teenager again...Such a Great all around experience in a Small town read more

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The entertainment that is brought in to this small community is amazing great job and a shout out to all the staff that work so hard and especially to debbie and chuck great work for this little community love it!!! read more

Watseka Theatre Inc - Had an amazing time!! - Performing Arts Near Me - Watseka, Illinois

Had a blast. Small intimate beautiful theatre. Sound system is awesome and excellent seating. Well worth the drive out to see any band you like. Take advantage of their pre show dinner. read more

I don't like to "bash" local businesses. In fact, I'm the kind of person that usually gives it a second chance before I form a hard opinion. However, with the amount of money that was spent...I figure it's justified. We were unbelievably disappointed. Before you think, "oh here we go..", read the entire review. My fiancé, our parents and I were looking for a local venue to host our wedding reception. We had a destination wedding and wanted all of the family to be included in the reception. We searched low and high for a business that would be able to accommodate and serve over 120 of our closest friends and family. I did a lot of research and stumbled upon three that I thought would be perfect, the Watseka Theatre was the last one we toured. We met the owners the same day and were pleasantly surprised. We discussed menu possibilities thoroughly and were presented with the idea that we could use the theatre for a slideshow and dancing. We were sold! The owner and I shared roughly 5 or 6 emails a week for months before the reception. We ironed out every single detail, he even had a doorman for us!(who was fantastic!) The menu was carefully chosen after enjoying one of their open cafe nights. A few more months passed by, in which I kept in contact with the owner. He assured me that they were equipped to handle such a large crowd of people and that we were in great hands. Boy, were they wrong! Our big night came and I had boasted to everyone for months about how beautiful, exciting and fun it was going to be. My husband and I arrived at the venue to see that the hors dourves had fallen flat of what we were promised. In fact, there were three things that we had agreed on that were not even an option! We figured not to stress it, that the dinner meal would make up for it. Although dinner was started over 45 minutes late, we seated all the guests with hopes that the meal would make everything else a distant memory. Again, utter disappointment. Our salads were placed at the tables over an hour before the meal, so they were wilted. (Yes, over an hour before..we watched them set up..) It still had a fairly decent taste, so we ate what we could and waited for the main plated meal. We, of course, we served first. The meal itself was not bad. It had a lot of flavor and was decent quality. I had a few comments about the prime rib being over cooked, but no complaints of taste. The groom and brides family were one of the last tables to be served....over 50 minutes after we were served. We had finished our meal and about three of the tables, an hour later, still didn't have theirs. Also, we were promised tea and ice water would be placed at every table. Not even the head table had both. When asked if the tables could have pitchers of ice water, it was as we had asked for the world. We were also told that wine would be available for purchase during the meal..not! We had a blown up beverage container, that's it. The image of my guests looking bored as they waited for their meal was an awful feeling. The wait was so bad that we even let them cut our wedding cake. Yes, our wedding cake. It was sad that we didn't want to interrupt the few people who did have their meals with our first cut into the cake as a married couple! Yet, most people didn't even have utensils to eat it. Silverware was promised and after 15 minutes I had guests eating cake with their fingers. Talk about embarrassing. We waited for the staff who was poorly directed themselves, to direct the guests downstairs for our slideshow. Here's the kicker for that too. I was approached 30 minutes into the hors dourves, by my mother in law. She informed me that the slideshow wouldn't be played due to technical difficulties. The slideshow I had worked on for 6 weeks? The same slideshow I had brought in 2 days before, so they could tech and check it to make sure it would work? The same slideshow that I had in fact talked to the owner about the morning of? (In which he said he himself saw and would make a beautiful edition to our evening..) I was told it worked on the owners laptop, but not the DJs. So why not use the owners? It was in fact the main reason we booked the venue. He should've done everything possible to fix the situation. I was then told by the DJ that Chuck, the owner told him he didn't have time to be worrying about the slideshow. GREAT. This is the "personable" man I told everyone about?! The rest of the night was a flop. Guests left after the meal due to it taking so long and having a long distance to travel. Yes, I had a schedule for the night. No, they did not come close to following it. I could ramble on all day about how rude and unprofessional Chuck, his wife(co owner) and some of the staff was. Also, about all of the other things that went wrong and where they have room for improvement. My hope for you, is that you in fact have better luck than we did if you ever book your event here. Good luck! I would NEVER recommend this venue! read more

A couple of years ago my husband wanted to surprise me for my birthday. So he got us tickets to go see "The Marshall Tucker Band!" Even though I'm a homebody and rarely go out, I was excited! He said the women sold him " the VIP package" (how impressive!) Needless to say the "VIP pkg." wasn't what she said it was going to be Actually there were no extras! Nothing she had promised; it just cost more. We did get good seats, But ended up looking at her and her friends backside throughout the concerts. They wouldn't stay seated. So needless to say, We won't be attending any other events there... Not worth the headache. read more

Review w/sole intent that Watseka Theatre understands the value of customer service and begins to provide not only good, but exceptional customer service that will cause people to write positively not only of shows but of their incomparable services provided just as promised, secondary only to the outstanding customer service.Lyndee J's review broke my heart.6/12 my husband and I went to our 1st show there for PPL,great time,told many. Marshall Tucker Band was playing 8/13.Got 4 tickets 6/30 $300, for show/dinner.E-mail from Debra Liddell 8/22,she sold us seats already sold,would like to remedy situation by giving us 4 padded seats stageside(aisle),encouraged me:"to be candid in response as I will work hard to make this right "Few emails back/forth the 22nd she offered her seats,asked another party of 4 to move so we could be back further where we wanted to be,offered 20 drink tickets.I respond,"As encouraged,responding candidly. Would you be willing to increase your offering of 20 drink tickets to 30?(it takes several tickets to buy any drink) In addition,to promote good faith, would you consider extending a generous offering toward a dining experience at Club Cafe for four on a Friday evening? I appreciate your honesty and integrity in an effort to make restitution for this scheduling oversight; fully realized that unintentional slip ups happen sometimes despite our best intentions.".Plans since 6/30 now 2 days before the show this unpleasantness.She never responds,ask for refund. I wrote a blatantly honest/cutting email to her regarding customer service saying we would never frequent them again. Wrote MTB relaying the treatment of their fans in hopes that the Theatre would improve their customer service. Talked with Chamber of Commerce stating that the Theatre is a gem for the city but w/o good customer service means nothing. Found out from friends that the same happened to them.They went,was overbooked,were dissatisfied.I realized at this time they were struggling with organizational skills.No more contact between them/ I until 9/13 when a band my husband is in was invited to open for a band there.I called bought ticket from Debra who does NOT personally know me.Night of show,box office rep picked up the envelope, obviously read something on the outside that caused a definite expression on her face, handed me ticket. There for 20 minutes enjoying my husband/friends when Debra (who I knew what she looked like but she had no idea of what I looked like,she was either watching for me or had her rep point me out)came down the aisle smiling with a gaze explicitly on me,asked if we could take a walk. Took a few steps she said" Now we aren't going to have any trouble tonight, are we?'" I asked if this was about last August,she advised she was not going to talk about that,tried to grab my arm,made a derogatory comment about me,told me to get out while trying to march me past what I am sure would have been her assembled onlookers as she was adamant I take a specific route out of the building. I chose my own route out leaving w/o incident. Later my son came home with an envelope with doodles of smiling faces/sun/flying birds and a check for a full refund of $40 that had been given to him by Debra Liddell for me. In retrospect, after the first incident of 8/12 in light of finding out from others that they had experienced the same issue that me and my party had, I realized that she could have handled the situation in a better manner by professionally resolving the mistake they had admittedly made, I likewise resolved to understand it hadn't been anything personal toward me, but an organizational skills problem that is why, after vowing that I would not patronize their business again, I decided to let it go giving them the benefit of the doubt. Debra Liddell obviously did not; she sold me her services with the sole purpose of malicious intent. She recognized me on the phone when she sold me the ticket,advised box office staff, and took much joy in her theatrical, climatic display of arrogance by throwing me out. Had she not wanted me there she had many opportunities to prevent that by not selling me a ticket or by personally confronting me at the box office. She lured me there to publicly humiliate a customer who had expressed dissatisfaction with services that were purchased in good faith and sold by what I presumed was a business of integrity. I am a peaceful,understanding,amicable person; had I been a nuisance to them in any way they would not have given any portion let alone full refunds twice. While the owners have invested a lot to create this beautiful,lucrative gem to the city I hope that they will invest more effort into business integrity. We always have the very best of experiences with welcome and professional customer service from all other's in the city. I hope Watseka Theatre will aspire to do business with the same professionalism as the rest of their fellow Watseka Business Community does. read more