Post by nhmystix on Sept 24, 2006 12:27:47 GMT -6
metromix.chicagotribune.com/news/celebrity/mmx-0609200407sep21,0,3491641.story?coll=mmx-celebrity_heds
Homeward bound As `CSI' begins its 7th season, William Petersen longs for Chicago's stages
By Maureen Ryan
Tribune television critic
Serious "CSI" fans have one burning question regarding the seventh-season premiere Thursday: Will the show delve further into the relationship between Sara Sidle and Gil Grissom that was revealed in the final moments of the CBS show's Season 6 finale?
William Petersen was cagey on that topic in a recent interview; he'd only allow that his character, Grissom, and Sidle feel they "have to protect" their relationship from the rest of the CSI team, lest news of it cause problems at work.
On another topic, however, Petersen was more than forthcoming. At the end of the season of "CSI" that kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday (WBBM-Ch. 2), his contract with CBS is up.
And Petersen wants to come home.
Home, for the Evanston-born actor, is the Chicago stage. And he's in talks with Victory Gardens Theater, which gave him his first starring role, about appearing in one of the company's 2007 productions. (Petersen also says he'd like to work at Chicago Shakespeare Theater or the Goodman Theatre.)
"I've been talking to [artistic director] Dennis Zacek at Victory Gardens, and we're going to do a play as soon as we can get enough time to make it worth everyone's while," Petersen says. "I plan to go back to Chicago and do plays starting next year."
Zacek says he'd love to get the actor into one of his 2006-07 productions, which will be staged at the company's new home at the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue. But if the work Zacek has in mind doesn't pan out, he and Petersen may end up teaming up in the 2007-08 season.
"I'm trying to have something custom-made for him, but it's in the making. It's not finished," says Zacek, who adds that he hopes to have the script ready for Petersen to read when the actor arrives in town for Victory Gardens' season-opening gala Oct. 14.
"I'm not sure this means we won't see him in any more movies or in any more TV stuff, but I do think there's a hunger to get back to the demands and the purity and the risks of live theater," Zacek adds.
"CSI" without Grissom? "I can't even imagine that," CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler says.
Petersen and his wife, Gina, bought a condo in downtown Chicago a year ago, and though the actor doesn't rule out a return to "CSI" in some capacity next year, it doesn't sound as though he wants to be on the show's L.A. soundstage all season.
In fact, to take some of the heat off his planned return to the Chicago stage, Petersen's taking a few weeks off this season to do "Dublin Carol" at Trinity Rep in Rhode Island. To do that show, he'll miss two "CSI" episodes.
"There may be stuff I do [on `CSI'] next year. I just know that I want to do a play in Chicago next year," says Petersen, who hasn't acted here since he had a starring role the 1998 production of "Flyovers" at Victory Gardens. "CSI's" producers will have to "make accommodations" that allow him to return to the theater, he says. "Because at some point, that's what I am," he says. "This is not what I am."
"This" has been six years of long days as a very famous television actor, in a show that became more successful than anyone involved in it ever dreamed.
"CSI" has matured into a behemoth that has drawn an average of 25 million to 26 million viewers in the last four TV seasons. It was the No. 1 show from 2002 to 2005 (it was knocked off its perch by "American Idol" in the 2005-06 season), and it spawned not only a host of lesser imitators but the spinoffs "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: NY."
Most wanted man
Petersen says many TV shows were offered to him over the years (CBS Corp. CEO "Leslie [Moonves] had been asking him for 10 years," Tassler notes), but the actor "didn't want to get locked down," he says. "CSI" finally snagged him, he says, thanks to the complexity of the role of Grissom, a shy, slyly funny entomologist turned dogged crime-scene investigator.
"This was somebody that I was not like, and I was going to be able to learn something," Petersen says. "Because I thought, what if it goes seven years? Everybody thinks it'll go seven days, but what if it goes seven years? You better have something that keeps you interested."
Still, despite six years leading the ensemble on television's top-rated scripted show -- plus a substantial career in films before "CSI" -- Petersen says he still considers himself a theater guy first and foremost.
"If you learned to play baseball first, that's your sport," said Petersen, a die-hard Cubs fan. "That doesn't mean you can't play basketball and football, but you're always going to want to return to baseball."
"He's an incredibly charismatic guy, and he's also someone who's not afraid of taking risks," Zacek says. "He has taken many a risk in many a show. He's extremely courageous as an actor, and also someone who is very kinetic and physical in his work, as well as verbal. He's got a lot going for him."
Before Petersen gets back to Chicago for the Victory Gardens gala, there's the little matter of launching the seventh season of "CSI." This year, life gets more difficult for Grissom, the actor says. Years of coming upon corpses in bizarre and tragic situations have taken their toll.
"Now he's having to supervise every death encounter that happens in Las Vegas. And it's daunting," says Petersen, who became a grandfather almost three years ago. "As anyone's job is as they grow older and as they become more proficient, it becomes more daunting. It's more daunting for me to do the seventh season of `CSI' than it was to do the first, oddly enough."
Grissom's journey and his own have parallels, he says. Like Grissom, who now supervises and mentors the Las Vegas CSI staff, Petersen feels a deep responsibility to both the show's fans and to the 200 people who work on "CSI."
Dealing with heroics
When Grissom comes across a body, Petersen explains, the investigator "can say to himself, `I didn't have anything to do with this, but I want to make sure that somebody explains it.' That's the heroic part, and that's the part that can keep him doing it.
"And it's kind of the same way for me as an actor in the show. You know, yeah, a lot of the doing of it is tedious and routine and it's not the new play from Ireland or England, but I want to make sure that the audience is OK. I want to make sure that they get some kind of closure."
But will there be closure -- or at least more details -- for fans who want to know more about the Grissom-Sidle romance? It sounds as though the show is going to take its time on that front.
"I think they've been very careful, because it's obviously a very dicey situation at work if this was a relationship that was uncovered," Petersen says. "And yet, they found themselves together on some levels. We don't know what levels for sure, you know?"
"If you want a lot of the audience to come with you and be part of the journey, then you have to trust the creators to take you there," Petersen notes. "And if I say, `This is what happened and this is where it's been and this is where it's going,' then [viewers might] watch `Grey's Anatomy'!"
Still, especially given the Thursday matchup with last season's No. 5 show, the romance has given "CSI" an unusual amount of buzz for a show going into its seventh season.
"I don't know that I'm surprised," says Tassler, when asked about the pre-season "CSI" chatter. "I'm relieved," she says, unleashing a full-throated chuckle.
A `Grey' area
And despite their public lack of concern over getting "dinged" by "Grey's Anatomy" when the two dramas go up against each other, CBS executives must be at least a little nervous about whether the cornerstone of their crime-procedural empire will take a serious hit from ABC's doctor drama.
Petersen, for his part, says he doesn't think about the threat from ABC's sexy doctors. But he is worried about competition from one man. One bald man. On NBC.
"I think Grissom watches `Deal or No Deal,'" Petersen said. "I'm a lot more worried about that show than `Grey's Anatomy.'"
----------
Petersen puts money where his trap is
William Petersen is nothing if not loyal. When Victory Gardens acquired the Biograph Theater for its new home, a decision had to be made as to whether money would be spent on digging out space under the stage for "traps," or openings in the stage floor that can be used for various theatrical effects.
The lack of traps at Victory Gardens' old space had limited the kinds of plays the company could do, artistic director Dennis Zacek says, but there was resistance within the theater's organization from those who thought the traps would be too expensive or could lead to flooding.
Petersen heard about the situation, and ended up putting up most of the money for the construction of the traps. It was a sizable six-figure sum, Zacek says.
"It was artist to artist," Zacek says of the gift. "It allows us to have a flexibility we've never had before." And it was, he jokes, "major payback for time spent over coffee."
-- Maureen Ryan
Homeward bound As `CSI' begins its 7th season, William Petersen longs for Chicago's stages
By Maureen Ryan
Tribune television critic
Serious "CSI" fans have one burning question regarding the seventh-season premiere Thursday: Will the show delve further into the relationship between Sara Sidle and Gil Grissom that was revealed in the final moments of the CBS show's Season 6 finale?
William Petersen was cagey on that topic in a recent interview; he'd only allow that his character, Grissom, and Sidle feel they "have to protect" their relationship from the rest of the CSI team, lest news of it cause problems at work.
On another topic, however, Petersen was more than forthcoming. At the end of the season of "CSI" that kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday (WBBM-Ch. 2), his contract with CBS is up.
And Petersen wants to come home.
Home, for the Evanston-born actor, is the Chicago stage. And he's in talks with Victory Gardens Theater, which gave him his first starring role, about appearing in one of the company's 2007 productions. (Petersen also says he'd like to work at Chicago Shakespeare Theater or the Goodman Theatre.)
"I've been talking to [artistic director] Dennis Zacek at Victory Gardens, and we're going to do a play as soon as we can get enough time to make it worth everyone's while," Petersen says. "I plan to go back to Chicago and do plays starting next year."
Zacek says he'd love to get the actor into one of his 2006-07 productions, which will be staged at the company's new home at the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue. But if the work Zacek has in mind doesn't pan out, he and Petersen may end up teaming up in the 2007-08 season.
"I'm trying to have something custom-made for him, but it's in the making. It's not finished," says Zacek, who adds that he hopes to have the script ready for Petersen to read when the actor arrives in town for Victory Gardens' season-opening gala Oct. 14.
"I'm not sure this means we won't see him in any more movies or in any more TV stuff, but I do think there's a hunger to get back to the demands and the purity and the risks of live theater," Zacek adds.
"CSI" without Grissom? "I can't even imagine that," CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler says.
Petersen and his wife, Gina, bought a condo in downtown Chicago a year ago, and though the actor doesn't rule out a return to "CSI" in some capacity next year, it doesn't sound as though he wants to be on the show's L.A. soundstage all season.
In fact, to take some of the heat off his planned return to the Chicago stage, Petersen's taking a few weeks off this season to do "Dublin Carol" at Trinity Rep in Rhode Island. To do that show, he'll miss two "CSI" episodes.
"There may be stuff I do [on `CSI'] next year. I just know that I want to do a play in Chicago next year," says Petersen, who hasn't acted here since he had a starring role the 1998 production of "Flyovers" at Victory Gardens. "CSI's" producers will have to "make accommodations" that allow him to return to the theater, he says. "Because at some point, that's what I am," he says. "This is not what I am."
"This" has been six years of long days as a very famous television actor, in a show that became more successful than anyone involved in it ever dreamed.
"CSI" has matured into a behemoth that has drawn an average of 25 million to 26 million viewers in the last four TV seasons. It was the No. 1 show from 2002 to 2005 (it was knocked off its perch by "American Idol" in the 2005-06 season), and it spawned not only a host of lesser imitators but the spinoffs "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: NY."
Most wanted man
Petersen says many TV shows were offered to him over the years (CBS Corp. CEO "Leslie [Moonves] had been asking him for 10 years," Tassler notes), but the actor "didn't want to get locked down," he says. "CSI" finally snagged him, he says, thanks to the complexity of the role of Grissom, a shy, slyly funny entomologist turned dogged crime-scene investigator.
"This was somebody that I was not like, and I was going to be able to learn something," Petersen says. "Because I thought, what if it goes seven years? Everybody thinks it'll go seven days, but what if it goes seven years? You better have something that keeps you interested."
Still, despite six years leading the ensemble on television's top-rated scripted show -- plus a substantial career in films before "CSI" -- Petersen says he still considers himself a theater guy first and foremost.
"If you learned to play baseball first, that's your sport," said Petersen, a die-hard Cubs fan. "That doesn't mean you can't play basketball and football, but you're always going to want to return to baseball."
"He's an incredibly charismatic guy, and he's also someone who's not afraid of taking risks," Zacek says. "He has taken many a risk in many a show. He's extremely courageous as an actor, and also someone who is very kinetic and physical in his work, as well as verbal. He's got a lot going for him."
Before Petersen gets back to Chicago for the Victory Gardens gala, there's the little matter of launching the seventh season of "CSI." This year, life gets more difficult for Grissom, the actor says. Years of coming upon corpses in bizarre and tragic situations have taken their toll.
"Now he's having to supervise every death encounter that happens in Las Vegas. And it's daunting," says Petersen, who became a grandfather almost three years ago. "As anyone's job is as they grow older and as they become more proficient, it becomes more daunting. It's more daunting for me to do the seventh season of `CSI' than it was to do the first, oddly enough."
Grissom's journey and his own have parallels, he says. Like Grissom, who now supervises and mentors the Las Vegas CSI staff, Petersen feels a deep responsibility to both the show's fans and to the 200 people who work on "CSI."
Dealing with heroics
When Grissom comes across a body, Petersen explains, the investigator "can say to himself, `I didn't have anything to do with this, but I want to make sure that somebody explains it.' That's the heroic part, and that's the part that can keep him doing it.
"And it's kind of the same way for me as an actor in the show. You know, yeah, a lot of the doing of it is tedious and routine and it's not the new play from Ireland or England, but I want to make sure that the audience is OK. I want to make sure that they get some kind of closure."
But will there be closure -- or at least more details -- for fans who want to know more about the Grissom-Sidle romance? It sounds as though the show is going to take its time on that front.
"I think they've been very careful, because it's obviously a very dicey situation at work if this was a relationship that was uncovered," Petersen says. "And yet, they found themselves together on some levels. We don't know what levels for sure, you know?"
"If you want a lot of the audience to come with you and be part of the journey, then you have to trust the creators to take you there," Petersen notes. "And if I say, `This is what happened and this is where it's been and this is where it's going,' then [viewers might] watch `Grey's Anatomy'!"
Still, especially given the Thursday matchup with last season's No. 5 show, the romance has given "CSI" an unusual amount of buzz for a show going into its seventh season.
"I don't know that I'm surprised," says Tassler, when asked about the pre-season "CSI" chatter. "I'm relieved," she says, unleashing a full-throated chuckle.
A `Grey' area
And despite their public lack of concern over getting "dinged" by "Grey's Anatomy" when the two dramas go up against each other, CBS executives must be at least a little nervous about whether the cornerstone of their crime-procedural empire will take a serious hit from ABC's doctor drama.
Petersen, for his part, says he doesn't think about the threat from ABC's sexy doctors. But he is worried about competition from one man. One bald man. On NBC.
"I think Grissom watches `Deal or No Deal,'" Petersen said. "I'm a lot more worried about that show than `Grey's Anatomy.'"
----------
Petersen puts money where his trap is
William Petersen is nothing if not loyal. When Victory Gardens acquired the Biograph Theater for its new home, a decision had to be made as to whether money would be spent on digging out space under the stage for "traps," or openings in the stage floor that can be used for various theatrical effects.
The lack of traps at Victory Gardens' old space had limited the kinds of plays the company could do, artistic director Dennis Zacek says, but there was resistance within the theater's organization from those who thought the traps would be too expensive or could lead to flooding.
Petersen heard about the situation, and ended up putting up most of the money for the construction of the traps. It was a sizable six-figure sum, Zacek says.
"It was artist to artist," Zacek says of the gift. "It allows us to have a flexibility we've never had before." And it was, he jokes, "major payback for time spent over coffee."
-- Maureen Ryan
