Post by nhmystix on Nov 17, 2008 10:20:58 GMT -6
Theater tugs William L. Petersen away from 'CSI'
November 17, 2008
The Associated Press
William L. Petersen is in the process of getting his theater groove back.
The actor's final episode of the long-running CBS series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" already has been shot and is set to air in January. And though ratings for the show are sky high (the season premiere attracted an audience of 23.5 million), the man who plays Gil Grissom - that brainy forensic entomologist and night-shift supervisor at the Clark County, Nev., crime lab - is walking into the sunset.
Almost.
Petersen will continue to be executive producer of the show, and his character, a man who camouflages his passionate engagement with a veneer of detachment, might even reappear in the Las Vegas area from time to time.
But after nine years, the actor is returning to his first love - the live stage - starring in two emotionally fraught productions. First up is Conor McPherson's "Dublin Carol," which opens this weekend at Steppenwolf Upstairs with Amy Morton (just back from her Broadway triumph in "August: Osage County") directing.
Next will be David Harrower's harrowing "Blackbird," on stage this summer at Victory Gardens Theatre with his early mentor, Dennis Zacek, directing.
"I was supposed to have finished up with 'CSI' in May, but we were hit by the writers' strike, and I wanted to wait and take my character out in the right way," Petersen said. "So I ended up wrapping the last episode on a Friday this fall, (and) heading back to Chicago to start rehearsals on a Monday. No break, but I'm having a great time."
Petersen is not exactly starting from scratch with this play. In 2006, he used a winter hiatus from "CSI" to make his first return to the live stage in a production of "Dublin Carol" at Trinity Rep in Providence, R.I., where Morton also served as director.
But that was the first time he'd "gone live" since appearing in "Flyovers" at Victory Gardens in 1998. And the thought of coming back to Chicago - the place where he'd forged his career throughout the 1980s, co-founded the Remains Theater, and appeared in such landmark productions as "The Belly of the Beast" and "Speed-the-Plow" at Wisdom Bridge Theatre (before Hollywood called) - triggered a bit of anxiety.
"Working in the theater just requires so many different muscles," Petersen said. "It's like being a marathon runner as opposed to using those fast-twitch muscles of the 100-yard dash you can use (on) TV.
"Aside from becoming familiar with some of the medical terms or Latin words, I wouldn't even learn my lines for the show. I could just depend on my short-term memory. That is not the case with a play."
In "Dublin Carol," Petersen stars as John, an aging undertaker's assistant with an alcohol-riddled past whose long-estranged daughter (played by Nicole Wiesner) arrives one Christmas eve to inform him that her mother - the wife he abandoned years earlier - is now dying.
"For the first three years of 'CSI,' I couldn't even think about theater," Petersen said. "It was 14 hours a day, every day, all day, and I couldn't use my hiatus to rehearse and perform a play. Then I said, 'No more,' and it calmed down for me, with eight- or nine-hour days, and sometimes just three days a week. I think that's also why we were able to keep the cast and crew together for so long."
But then Curt Columbus, a Steppenwolf veteran who moved on to become artistic director of Trinity Rep, sent him McPherson's play.
"I knew McPherson's work from 'The Weir' and 'Shining City,' so I stuck the book in my bag on a trip back here to visit my mom (who since died at age 96)," Petersen said.
"And when I caught the flu somewhere along the way, I began reading it in bed. I thought it was just such a beautiful piece of writing that I agreed to do it in Rhode Island during a break, and I had a great time, even getting to live in the house of a board member of Brown University there.
"In this last season as Gil Grissom, I'm a man in midlife, very successful at what I do, but I've been watching things around me change and decide to take a brave new way," he said. "The poor guy I play in 'Dublin Carol' is a mess, but it's such an honest portrait of a man in crisis - a perfect little painting that I suppose will have special appeal for all those who have a terrible time of it during the holidays. It's sort of the Irish answer to 'A Christmas Carol.'
"The role I'll play in 'Blackbird' is something quite different (he plays a former child molester). I've been warned by someone who was in the play in New York that I won't want to go out afterward and socialize, that the whole play leaves you feeling filthy dirty, and no one wants to see you or be with you."
He laughs knowingly, adding: "Of course, my wife's whole Italian-American family is coming to see it."
Petersen, 55, easily confesses that he doesn't have to work, and his green eyes light up when he notes, somewhat cautiously, that "things do have a way of working out for me." Yet something continues to drive him.
"Do I take chances or not? And if I don't, will the theater actor in me - the part of myself I like best - cease to be part of my makeup?"
Meanwhile, Gil Grissom continues to live within Petersen.
"I've spent more time being that man than I have myself for the past nine years," he said.
"And I left because I thought I had nothing left to bring to him. In fact, I stayed on the show two years longer than I thought I would. I still like the producing end of things - the micro-managing. And I might be back when (film director) William Friedkin returns to direct our 200th episode."
Stepping into a crucial new role in "CSI" will be Laurence Fishburne, playing a former doctor and criminology professor.
"We shot two episodes together before I left," Petersen said. "In the story I meet him in Vegas while he's on a lecture tour about the nature of the serial criminal's mind, and I end up in his class. But he doesn't exactly take over my job."
www.southtownstar.com/entertainment/1278854,111708steppenwolf.article
November 17, 2008
The Associated Press
William L. Petersen is in the process of getting his theater groove back.
The actor's final episode of the long-running CBS series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" already has been shot and is set to air in January. And though ratings for the show are sky high (the season premiere attracted an audience of 23.5 million), the man who plays Gil Grissom - that brainy forensic entomologist and night-shift supervisor at the Clark County, Nev., crime lab - is walking into the sunset.
Almost.
Petersen will continue to be executive producer of the show, and his character, a man who camouflages his passionate engagement with a veneer of detachment, might even reappear in the Las Vegas area from time to time.
But after nine years, the actor is returning to his first love - the live stage - starring in two emotionally fraught productions. First up is Conor McPherson's "Dublin Carol," which opens this weekend at Steppenwolf Upstairs with Amy Morton (just back from her Broadway triumph in "August: Osage County") directing.
Next will be David Harrower's harrowing "Blackbird," on stage this summer at Victory Gardens Theatre with his early mentor, Dennis Zacek, directing.
"I was supposed to have finished up with 'CSI' in May, but we were hit by the writers' strike, and I wanted to wait and take my character out in the right way," Petersen said. "So I ended up wrapping the last episode on a Friday this fall, (and) heading back to Chicago to start rehearsals on a Monday. No break, but I'm having a great time."
Petersen is not exactly starting from scratch with this play. In 2006, he used a winter hiatus from "CSI" to make his first return to the live stage in a production of "Dublin Carol" at Trinity Rep in Providence, R.I., where Morton also served as director.
But that was the first time he'd "gone live" since appearing in "Flyovers" at Victory Gardens in 1998. And the thought of coming back to Chicago - the place where he'd forged his career throughout the 1980s, co-founded the Remains Theater, and appeared in such landmark productions as "The Belly of the Beast" and "Speed-the-Plow" at Wisdom Bridge Theatre (before Hollywood called) - triggered a bit of anxiety.
"Working in the theater just requires so many different muscles," Petersen said. "It's like being a marathon runner as opposed to using those fast-twitch muscles of the 100-yard dash you can use (on) TV.
"Aside from becoming familiar with some of the medical terms or Latin words, I wouldn't even learn my lines for the show. I could just depend on my short-term memory. That is not the case with a play."
In "Dublin Carol," Petersen stars as John, an aging undertaker's assistant with an alcohol-riddled past whose long-estranged daughter (played by Nicole Wiesner) arrives one Christmas eve to inform him that her mother - the wife he abandoned years earlier - is now dying.
"For the first three years of 'CSI,' I couldn't even think about theater," Petersen said. "It was 14 hours a day, every day, all day, and I couldn't use my hiatus to rehearse and perform a play. Then I said, 'No more,' and it calmed down for me, with eight- or nine-hour days, and sometimes just three days a week. I think that's also why we were able to keep the cast and crew together for so long."
But then Curt Columbus, a Steppenwolf veteran who moved on to become artistic director of Trinity Rep, sent him McPherson's play.
"I knew McPherson's work from 'The Weir' and 'Shining City,' so I stuck the book in my bag on a trip back here to visit my mom (who since died at age 96)," Petersen said.
"And when I caught the flu somewhere along the way, I began reading it in bed. I thought it was just such a beautiful piece of writing that I agreed to do it in Rhode Island during a break, and I had a great time, even getting to live in the house of a board member of Brown University there.
"In this last season as Gil Grissom, I'm a man in midlife, very successful at what I do, but I've been watching things around me change and decide to take a brave new way," he said. "The poor guy I play in 'Dublin Carol' is a mess, but it's such an honest portrait of a man in crisis - a perfect little painting that I suppose will have special appeal for all those who have a terrible time of it during the holidays. It's sort of the Irish answer to 'A Christmas Carol.'
"The role I'll play in 'Blackbird' is something quite different (he plays a former child molester). I've been warned by someone who was in the play in New York that I won't want to go out afterward and socialize, that the whole play leaves you feeling filthy dirty, and no one wants to see you or be with you."
He laughs knowingly, adding: "Of course, my wife's whole Italian-American family is coming to see it."
Petersen, 55, easily confesses that he doesn't have to work, and his green eyes light up when he notes, somewhat cautiously, that "things do have a way of working out for me." Yet something continues to drive him.
"Do I take chances or not? And if I don't, will the theater actor in me - the part of myself I like best - cease to be part of my makeup?"
Meanwhile, Gil Grissom continues to live within Petersen.
"I've spent more time being that man than I have myself for the past nine years," he said.
"And I left because I thought I had nothing left to bring to him. In fact, I stayed on the show two years longer than I thought I would. I still like the producing end of things - the micro-managing. And I might be back when (film director) William Friedkin returns to direct our 200th episode."
Stepping into a crucial new role in "CSI" will be Laurence Fishburne, playing a former doctor and criminology professor.
"We shot two episodes together before I left," Petersen said. "In the story I meet him in Vegas while he's on a lecture tour about the nature of the serial criminal's mind, and I end up in his class. But he doesn't exactly take over my job."
www.southtownstar.com/entertainment/1278854,111708steppenwolf.article
