Ein deutscher Artikel über amerikanische Serien. Ein wenig CSI ist enthalten
http://www.grissomandsara.de/direkt/index.htm
Freitag, 31. Juli 2009
Dienstag, 28. Juli 2009
TV Guide Interview mit Jorja Fox
Exclusive! Jorja Fox Speaks on Her CSI Return
by Megan Walsh-Boyle July 27, 2009 02:55 PM EST
It's official: Lauren Lee Smith is out on CSI, and Jorja Fox is back in! The prodigal star spoke exclusively to TVGuideMagazine.com about her return for at least five episodes.
So what prompted your return to CSI?
Right around March, I felt really rested and was itching to work—I was ready and going to meetings and auditioning. When I was in Atlanta [filming a guest shot on Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva], I got the call about CSI—it was completely out of the blue! I never thought I’d be going back to work with people that I knew, I thought I’d be starting new things. That was a surprise, so I’m going back to work and it’s with the same people who I’ve worked with for eight years in the past. [Laughs] I was thrilled! For me it was a huge compliment!
When do you begin filming?
I was there all week—they started shooting July 20. I think I’m about knee-deep back in the water. It has just been a ball and a half. I think CSI’s premiere episode is one of the best that I’ve ever read. It’s a pleasant surprise. You think, "They’re starting Season 10—how is it going to be as good as it was last year or four years ago?" And they blew me away.
Do you know yet what brings Sara back to Vegas?
I think all I can really say is [pause] the team has had a rough year—there has been a lot going on—and so Sara comes back mostly just to see if she can help for a while, because she loves those guys and she misses them.
And if Sara is back in the lab, where does that leave Gil? Ah! That will hopefully be a reveal in the premiere. They’ve prevented me from discussing Grissom at all. [Laughs]
It’s got to be the burning question for fans of the show… Thank you. We hope we’ve picked the right stuff to be a surprise.
Samstag, 25. Juli 2009
Entertainment Weekly - July 2009
Source: Tee from YTDAW
'CSI' Scoop: Sara's back! Will Grissom be next?
Less that a year after reuninting in the jungle with leading man William Petersen, Jorja Fox is heading back to CSI this fall -- alone. But don't take Fox's five-episode to mean that Sara and Grissom's happily-ever-after was a bust. "They're absolutely together," insists executive producer, Naren Shankar, who nonetheless says Sara will drop hints at trouble in paradise. "We're talking about a coulpe of very independant individuals who have decided to share their life together. The first few months of that for any couple are a weird adjustment."
So, if it's not a breakup, what does prompt Sara to revisit the Vegas strip? Shankar and fellow executive producer Carol Mendelsohn maintain it was not a mandate from CBS to stem last season's rating slide. That said, the pair concede that the back-to-back-to-back departures of Fox, Gary Dourdan and Petersen, combined with the arrivals of Laurence Fisburne and Lauren Lee Smith, took a toll. "The family had disintegrated a little bit," Shankar says. "We had people off in their own bubbles, and we want to restore that family [feeling]. And Jorja's helping with that." Adds Mendelsohn: "Sara comes in and brings everyone together. And she helps Catherine understand that as he [new] leader, she needs to make the team cohesive and really fire on all cylinders again."
Might she get an in-person assist from Petersen? "You never know when Grissom will show up on CSI," teases Mendelsohn. "The theme of [season 10] is family. And he certainly is a big part of the family -- a big part of the family." I'll that that as a yes.
Time Out Chicago
Blackbird
By Kris Vire
Victory Gardens Theater. By David Harrower. Dir. Dennis Zacek. With Mattie Hawkinson, William L. Petersen.
It may be Petersen’s TV fame that had some performances of this Chicago premiere selling out before it opened. But audiences who come for Gil Grissom will leave Mattie Hawkinson fans—the depth and precision of her performance is nothing short of breathtaking.
Hawkinson plays Una, a young woman who tracks down the man (Petersen) who, 15 years earlier, was her lover. Or rather, perhaps, her molester; at the time of their sexual encounters, he was 40 and she was 12. It’s that “perhaps” that makes Harrower’s play so confoundingly, uncomfortably complex. The playwright doles out with great care the details of the entanglement, its end and what’s ensued in the intervening years, before Una sees Ray’s photo by chance in a trade magazine; the play unfolds in real time as Una confronts Ray in his workplace’s break room.
The balance of power shifts often enough to make one nauseous; indeed, as the waves of recriminations crash back and forth, both Ray and Una reach the verge of physical illness. What may induce discomfort in those watching is the play’s emotional intricacy. It’s natural to want a clear moral denouncement of what was definitely abuse. But Harrower doesn’t allow us that ease: While neither blaming the victim nor letting the abuser off the hook, Blackbird whittles away at these two until we can’t help but see the affair the way they did—as a love story, albeit one that destroyed both their lives. Petersen crumples masterfully in Zacek’s tightly wound production, but it’s Hawkinson’s play. As you watch her crescendo in the long, riveting indictment of a monologue in which she recounts the last time she saw Ray, just heed our advice: Remember to breathe.
Time Out Chicago - 25. July 2009
Blackbird: a dissenting view
Posted in Theater by John Beer on July 25th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Victory Gardens’ current production of David Harrower’s Blackbird has been greeted with nearly universal acclaim. And news of its extension to August 9 was enough to melt down the theater’s reservation system. I made the trek to the Biograph Theater on Wednesday (the anniversary of John Dillinger’s death, no less) to see Billy Petersen and Mattie Hawkinson duel it out. But while I agree that the two actors turn in accomplished performances in arduous roles (and as set designer, Dean Taucher is no slouch, either), I found myself decidedly less enamored with Harrower’s play.
As you’ve probably heard, Blackbird (British slang for an ex-con) revolves around a sexual relationship between 56-year-old Ray (Petersen) and Una (Hawkinson), now 27, when she was 12. The topic is, to put it lightly, controversial; plenty of people find the very idea that Ray is portrayed as anything but a predatory monster intolerable. That doesn’t seem like a very productive stance toward the play, in my view. It’s not as though we need another contemporary bear-baiting exhibition like NBC’s vile To Catch a Predator, as exploitative an effort as one could imagine regarding the issue of child sexual abuse.
And to some degree, Blackbird is more effective in its delineation of the damage Ray’s done because it registers complexities. When Una, in the lengthy monologue that forms the core of the play, describes herself as happily waiting in a motel room for Ray, eager for “her man” to bring her chocolate, the detail is precise and heartbreaking. It’s the voice of a child who wants very badly to be fully grown, and as Hawkinson’s performance makes clear, Ray, by taking advantage of this desire, has left her marooned in childhood even as an adult.
What bothers me about Blackbird isn’t the complexities it offers, but what it lacks: in a word, drama. It’s not that Petersen and Hawkinson don’t get ample opportunity to show their vocal registers or throw things around. But the situation between the two characters is fundamentally undramatic—because there really isn’t anything for them to do about it. It’s not even clear that it make sense to talk about a shared situation. The events that matter have all happened fifteen years before Una shows up at Ray’s workplace. So, when the play ends without clear resolution, that doesn’t seem like Harrower’s artistic choice: it seems like his acknowledgement of the limits of his setup.
Those limits ultimately had three consequences for me as a viewer. First, since we’re given virtually nothing about this pair except for their relationship as abuser and abused, the play comes to seem more like a kind of case study of a particular kind of crime than a fully-fledged drama (maybe appropriate for CSI’s Petersen, but still disappointing). Second, the imbalance of power between the two characters, in setting up Una as, however enraged, still supplicant to Ray, who still gets to slip out of the room at the end, replicates the logic of the original abusive situation, but does so arbitrarily: Una’s left putting herself at Ray’s mercy again simply because that’s how the play sets it up. And it’s the conjunction of these aspects that makes the play feel exploitative to me. It purports on one level to give a clear-eyed examination of sexual abuse, but its lack of context and dramatic inertia leave it uncomfortably close to presenting the situation simply for our entertainment: uneasy entertainment, to be sure, but entertainment nonetheless.
Freitag, 24. Juli 2009
In David Harrower's Blackbird, It's Complicated
In David Harrower's Blackbird, It's Complicated
He's not just a pedophile, and she's not just his victim.
By Albert Williams
The first thing you hear in Victory Gardens Theater's Blackbird is the sound of an acoustic guitar—a gentle prelude to the fireworks to come. There's no vocal, but the song—Paul McCartney's "Blackbird," from the Beatles' 1968 White Album—is instantly recognizable, and its words float in your head: "Blackbird singing in the dead of night / Take these broken wings and learn to fly . . . into the light of the dark black night."
Una and Ray, the principal characters in this unremittingly intense 80-minute one-act by Scottish playwright David Harrower, are birds with broken wings—psychologically crippled by an episode that left both their lives in tatters. She's 27, he's 56, and they've had a brief affair—about 15 years earlier, when he was 40 and she was 12. They haven't seen each other since Ray was sent to prison for statutory rape ("blackbird" is British slang for "jailbird"). Una has endured a lifetime of being "talked about, pointed at, stared at," while Ray has done his time, changed his name, moved to a new city, and rebuilt his life. Now called Peter, he's the manager of a medical-supplies manufacturing firm. Una, who's found him after stumbling across his photo in a trade magazine in her doctor's office, has him cornered in the littered lunchroom of his workplace. But why? To accuse him? Humiliate him? Attack him? Hurt him? Kill him? Or to rekindle the relationship?
Blackbird debuted in 2005 at the Edinburgh International Festival before moving to London's West End and winning the Laurence Olivier Award for best new play. Now receiving its Chicago premiere at Victory Gardens, with William L. Petersen as Ray and Mattie Hawkinson as Una, it's the work of a very skillful writer. Like David Mamet and Harold Pinter, Harrower knows how to distill the fractured syntax, half-completed sentences, stuttering repetitions, and pregnant pauses of conversation into a stark, stylized, nerve-jangling poetry. He knows how to heighten tension with dramatically well-timed interruptions—a phone that rings at an awkward moment, an unwanted knock on the door—and startling outbursts of violent action. And he knows how to leave questions unresolved. Like Oleanna, Mamet's tale of a middle-aged college teacher's disastrous encounter with a female student, or Doubt, John Patrick Shanley's portrait of a nun who suspects a priest of child molestation, Blackbird allows—even forces—audience members to impose their own interpretations on the events they've seen.
As Una and Ray retrace the events that led to their "three-month stupid mistake," Harrower questions whether Una is more traumatized by the affair or by its aftermath—her parents' fury, the intrusive medical exams, the guilt-inducing sessions with a soft-spoken psychiatrist who asked her why she hurt people who loved her, the trial, the media, the gossip. Exploring the blurry line between passion and perversion, love and abuse, Blackbird suggests that intimate relationships between adults and minors are taboo not because they're abnormal but because they're all too natural. Ray insists he's not one of "those sick bastards" who gets off on underage girls; his desire for Una arose from an inappropriate but sincere affection. And Una was no Nabokovian nymphet, but an average pubescent girl drawn to a mature man who, unlike most other adults, didn't treat her like a kid.
This compelling play demands complete commitment and honesty from its actors while testing their memory and concentration to the limit. In Dennis Zacek's thoughtful, beautifully paced staging, every moment counts, as each answer raises new questions and each flash of insight raises the drama's emotional stakes, building to a shocking final twist. Petersen's haunting Ray—a man torn simultaneously by guilt and a lingering, aching passion—perfectly balances Hawkinson's blistering, surgically precise Una, whose life is a constant, quietly desperate struggle with panic, depression, anger, and longing. Watching this duo warily face off, then relax to the point where they can share water from the same plastic bottle, is like watching two hostile animals as approach the same water hole. Lit by Jesse Klug, Dean Taucher's lunchroom set comes complete with folding metal chairs, card tables, headache-inducing fluorescent lights, and garbage cans filled to overflowing with junk-food wrappers and soft-drink cans—a perfect metaphor for the emotional mess Ray has spent a lifetime trying to dispose of.
Blackbird dissects pedophilia but also transcends that subject, finding universality in extreme circumstances. Anyone who's ever tried to revisit a failed relationship—a broken love affair, a marriage that ended in bitter divorce, a childhood with abusive parents—will understand the challenge Una and Ray face as they sort through the secrets and self-deceptions, trying to comprehend the past so they can move forward into the light of the dark black night.
Tags: Victory Gardens Theater, Blackbird, David Harrower, William L. Petersen, Mattie Hawkinson, Dennis Zacek
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/in-david-harrowers-blackbird-its-complicated/Content?oid=1165696
Mittwoch, 22. Juli 2009
Kurier (Österreich) vom 22. Juli 2009
Ex-Star soll Quotenabsturz stoppen
Ein letzter Kuss zwischen Gil Grissom und seiner Sara, dann fielen die Quoten ins Bodenlose. Als William Petersen die Serie verlies, sank das CSI-Flaggchiff langsam, aber stetig.
Da half auch Laurence Fishburnes Auftritt als neuer Ermittler nichts. Also besann man sich auf Bewährtes und holte Jorja Fox jetzt für 5 Folgen zurück. Carol Mendelsohn musste allerdings auch mitteilen, dass William Petersen nicht dabei sein wird. Er feiert inzwischen vor ausverkauften Häusern Erfolge auf der Bühne.
... Nach seiner Heimkehr ans Chicagoer Victory Gardens Biograph Theater musste jetzt sogar die Spielzeit des Stücks "Blackbird" bis Mitte August verlängert werden. Dabei ist Blackbird, inszeniert von Petersens Mentor Dennis Zacek, keine leichte Kost. das preisgekrönte Stück thematisiert die - auch körperlich - Liebe eines Erwachsenen zu einer Zwölfjährigen. 15 Jahre später und nach einem Gefängnisaufenthalt wegen Pädophilie, treffen die beiden einander wieder. Blackbird (in etwa "Galgenvogel") läuft denn auch 80 Minuten ohne Pause, Zu-spät-Kommende haben das Nachsehen, um das intensive Spiel zwischen William Petersen und Mattie Hawkinson nicht zu stören.
Und so wird Jorja Fox allein versuchen müssen, die schlechten Quoten zu steigern - ab 24. September 2009
Ein letzter Kuss zwischen Gil Grissom und seiner Sara, dann fielen die Quoten ins Bodenlose. Als William Petersen die Serie verlies, sank das CSI-Flaggchiff langsam, aber stetig.
Da half auch Laurence Fishburnes Auftritt als neuer Ermittler nichts. Also besann man sich auf Bewährtes und holte Jorja Fox jetzt für 5 Folgen zurück. Carol Mendelsohn musste allerdings auch mitteilen, dass William Petersen nicht dabei sein wird. Er feiert inzwischen vor ausverkauften Häusern Erfolge auf der Bühne.
... Nach seiner Heimkehr ans Chicagoer Victory Gardens Biograph Theater musste jetzt sogar die Spielzeit des Stücks "Blackbird" bis Mitte August verlängert werden. Dabei ist Blackbird, inszeniert von Petersens Mentor Dennis Zacek, keine leichte Kost. das preisgekrönte Stück thematisiert die - auch körperlich - Liebe eines Erwachsenen zu einer Zwölfjährigen. 15 Jahre später und nach einem Gefängnisaufenthalt wegen Pädophilie, treffen die beiden einander wieder. Blackbird (in etwa "Galgenvogel") läuft denn auch 80 Minuten ohne Pause, Zu-spät-Kommende haben das Nachsehen, um das intensive Spiel zwischen William Petersen und Mattie Hawkinson nicht zu stören.
Und so wird Jorja Fox allein versuchen müssen, die schlechten Quoten zu steigern - ab 24. September 2009
Montag, 20. Juli 2009
Victory Gardens - Magazine
Ich hatte versprochen mehr zum Talk zu posten. Das werde ich morgen machen. Heute ein paar Scans des VG Magazines.
Freitag, 17. Juli 2009
Bye Bye Chicago
Thanks to everybody from VG for making this trip so wunderful. We had such a great time here.
Mittwoch, 15. Juli 2009
Dienstag, 14. Juli 2009
Kritiken und Fotos
Ich bin heute noch erledigt, 3 Gläser Wein sind nicht viel. Aber die Aufregung dabei zu sein.
Es war wirklich eine tolle Premiere und eine noch bessere Feier. Wir konnten mi allen reden. marg haben wir nicht angesprochen. sie war mit einen unbekannten mann da. sie selbst sah eher blass aus. keine jorja :(
Billy war super rauf. die fotos treffen ihn wirklich nicht. er ist wirklich viel schlanker als man denkt.
gina hatte hochhkige schuhe an und war damit größer. sieht hat sich nicht so viel mit billy unterhalten. er stand fast nur in der einen ecke der lobby. und all die subscriber haben wie wild fotografiert. ein paar bilder sind schon aufgetaucht. die namen falsch geschrieben. Wir sind hinterher noch ein bier trinken gegangen. es war sehr laut und wir haben nur kurz mit billy und gina gesprochen. sie sind dann mit einem taxi nach hause gefahren. wir waren natürich im 7.Himmel. ansonsten waren alle total müde und ich denke, dass sie ihren freien tag genießen. morgen gibt es wieder proben und eine vorstellung. ich denke, dass alles ausverkauft seien wird.
Es war wirklich eine tolle Premiere und eine noch bessere Feier. Wir konnten mi allen reden. marg haben wir nicht angesprochen. sie war mit einen unbekannten mann da. sie selbst sah eher blass aus. keine jorja :(
Billy war super rauf. die fotos treffen ihn wirklich nicht. er ist wirklich viel schlanker als man denkt.
gina hatte hochhkige schuhe an und war damit größer. sieht hat sich nicht so viel mit billy unterhalten. er stand fast nur in der einen ecke der lobby. und all die subscriber haben wie wild fotografiert. ein paar bilder sind schon aufgetaucht. die namen falsch geschrieben. Wir sind hinterher noch ein bier trinken gegangen. es war sehr laut und wir haben nur kurz mit billy und gina gesprochen. sie sind dann mit einem taxi nach hause gefahren. wir waren natürich im 7.Himmel. ansonsten waren alle total müde und ich denke, dass sie ihren freien tag genießen. morgen gibt es wieder proben und eine vorstellung. ich denke, dass alles ausverkauft seien wird.
Montag, 13. Juli 2009
Opening Night
so, ich bin gerade zurück.marg was there. an john mahoney. und wir natürtich :)
es war toll und eine schöne party.
für den abend hatten wir pressekarten. :)
es war toll und eine schöne party.
für den abend hatten wir pressekarten. :)
you tube
Vielen Dank an die sogenannten Fans, die mich bei You Tube gemeldet haben. Ich hatte keine Copyright-Probleme. Also was soll das ? Wie gesagt, ganz toll und danke !
keine clips mehr !
keine clips mehr !
Sonntag, 12. Juli 2009
Opening Night am Montag
Niemand sagt hier Premiere, sondern Opening Night. Nachdem Mattie gestern ein paar Probleme mit der Stimme hatte, war heute alles in ordnung Allerdings ist sie ausgerutscht und fast gefallen.
gestern hatten wir ein gespräch mit Luisa aus Portugal. Sie ist beim Theater als Praktikant. Und sie kam auf mich zu und sagte: Oh, you are a friend of dennis (Zacek).
Und ich sagte yes. Und sie sagte. Nice to meet you.
Ich habe ihr dann gesagt, dass ich neben ihr gesessen habe. und dann haben wir uns eine weile unterhalten. wir sind immer recht lange da, weil unser hotel in der nähe ist. und ein wenig tuen mir die leute leid, die immer auf billy arten. er kommt wirklich nie vorn heraus. und ihm irgendwo auflauern - wie es die französinnen gemacht haben - ist nicht so nett.
gestern hatten wir ein gespräch mit Luisa aus Portugal. Sie ist beim Theater als Praktikant. Und sie kam auf mich zu und sagte: Oh, you are a friend of dennis (Zacek).
Und ich sagte yes. Und sie sagte. Nice to meet you.
Ich habe ihr dann gesagt, dass ich neben ihr gesessen habe. und dann haben wir uns eine weile unterhalten. wir sind immer recht lange da, weil unser hotel in der nähe ist. und ein wenig tuen mir die leute leid, die immer auf billy arten. er kommt wirklich nie vorn heraus. und ihm irgendwo auflauern - wie es die französinnen gemacht haben - ist nicht so nett.
Samstag, 11. Juli 2009
Talk with experts
Am mittwoch gab es für die subscriber einen re-talk with einem rechtsanwalt und einer kinderpsychologin. ich war positive überrascht, denn sie waren sehr offen und objektiv. für sie is jeder fall secial, aber das rechtssystem sagt sex mit minderjährigen ist ein verbrechen. zuschauer haben gesagt in vielen kulturen selbst in den usa ist es ganz normal. und es kam auch der umgekehrte fall frau missbraucht einen schüler ls beispiel. man kann nicht alles schwarz und weiß sehen. die psychologin meinte, der prozeß für una könnte eine heilung sein. aber am ende war sie nicht auf alles vorbereitet. und sie sieht sich nicht als opfer. interessant. sehe ich auch so. sie ging sogar soweit zu sagen, dass ihr die erwachsenen - anwälte und psycholgen gesagt haben, was sie denken soll. jedenfalls hatte sie den eindruck nach den dialogen.
Freitag, 10. Juli 2009
10. Juli 2009
Seit heute haben wir eine neue Mitwohnerin - Rica.
beim stück nichts neues. :)
wir hatten nicht so gute plätze.
Ansonsten - seit heute is Roberta da. Sie ist Billys persönliche assistentin. die chancen ihn nach dem stück zu sehen - fotos oder ähnliches - gehen gegen null. sie passt ab sofort auf billy auf. kein wunder, leider.
beim stück nichts neues. :)
wir hatten nicht so gute plätze.
Ansonsten - seit heute is Roberta da. Sie ist Billys persönliche assistentin. die chancen ihn nach dem stück zu sehen - fotos oder ähnliches - gehen gegen null. sie passt ab sofort auf billy auf. kein wunder, leider.
10. Juli 2009 - Chicago Sun Times
July 10, 2009
BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic
At 56, William L. Petersen is still a ruggedly handsome actor continually in search of big artistic challenges. Considered one of the "elder statesman" of Chicago theater (though he might cringe at the description), he forged his career here, went on to fame and fortune in Hollywood (including a nine-year stint as Dr. Gil Grissom in the CBS drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"), and recently returned "home" to work on the stages he knows and loves best.
With one acclaimed performance already under his belt (in Conor McPherson's "A Dublin Carol," seen this past winter at Steppenwolf Theatre), he is about to open in Scottish-born playwright David Harrower's "Blackbird," which receives its Chicago premiere Monday at Victory Gardens Theater. And he's already booked for next spring, too, when he'll play the blind, rambunctious Hamm in Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" at Steppenwolf.
» Click to enlarge image William L. Petersen (right) plays Ray and Mattie Hawkinson is Una, in Victory Gardens Theater's Chicago premiere of "Blackbird."
'BLACKBIRD'Opens Monday, and runs through Aug. 9
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln
Tickets: $30-$58
Phone: (773) 871-3000
Petersen's "Blackbird" co-star, Mattie Hawkinson, is a soft-spoken but bristlingly smart beauty with a lightly freckled porcelain complexion, reddish hair and an understated aura of confidence. At 28 she is younger than Petersen's real-life daughter (who already has made him a grandfather). Born in Bellingham, Washington, she admits to having been "pretty precocious" -- performing in community theater (along with her family) from early on, and then, during high school, sitting in on the college classes her mother was taking to earn a degree in theater. She headed here to attend Northwestern University. Since graduating she has appeared at Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Apple Tree and, most recently, the Goodman Theatre where she memorably played the fetching, pot-smoking, 16-year-old daughter of a Cambridge professor in Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll."
When we chatted recently, Petersen and Hawkinson were still in rehearsal mode for Harrower's "Blackbird" -- a highly poetic, darkly disturbing play that is known to take a toll on the two actors who move through its harrowing 80 minutes of psychological exorcism. The pair still hasn't quite figured out the necessary pre-show decorum ("We go to our separate dressing rooms, but should we even chat casually?," Hawkinson wonders aloud). And they have no idea how things will change onstage once an audience arrives to observe their characters -- Ray and Una -- who are locked in a ferociously private and upending act of confrontation concerning a calamitous period from their past.
Harrower wrote "Blackbird" (the British term for "jailbird") after reading news accounts of an American veteran of the first Gulf War who made contact via the Internet with a 12-year-old girl in London and eventually arranged to meet her. He heavily altered the story so that the two initially meet when she is 12 and he is the 40-year-old neighbor on her family's street who is invited to a barbecue in their backyard. Now, 15 years after the fact -- and after he has served a three-year prison term for statutory rape and subsequently returned to work -- she finally gets a chance as an adult to confront him.
"This is a play that is bigger than just the two people in it," said Petersen, who noted that he and director Dennis Zackek were looking for a play when "Blackbird" was suggested by Michael Billington, the British theater critic. "It's about love, about lies, about a person's ability to deal with his or her own psychology. It's not just about passing judgment or seeking revenge. It's also about men -- about certain guys who are never able to deal with girls in their adolescence, and who later, because even at 40 they still haven't figured things out, want something back from women they missed in their adolescence.
"In a way it's like that play I did early in my career here, 'In the Belly of the Beast,' about Jack Abbott, the guy who committed murder after he was released from prison," Petersen continued. "This story is about child sexual abuse. And like prison life, it's not something we like talking about much, but we should, especially now that the Internet has made contact so easy and so dangerous."
For Hawkinson, who has an eight-page monologue at one point in the play, a principal attraction of "Blackbird" was "the phenomenal writing," and the complex way Harrower plays with time as he "puts the middle of the story in the beginning and the beginning at the end, with many well-placed surprises along the way."
"It's got a sort of [Harold] Pinter-like quality about it," Petersen added.
"I saw the New York production of this play with Jeff Daniels as Ray, and Alsion Pill, who I know, as Una," said Hawkinson, who moved to Brooklyn a couple of years ago but has ended up "living out of a suitcase" because her work has taken her to many regional theaters and also back here. "So when I heard Victory Gardens was planning to do it I called up Dennis [Zacek]. He still made me audition, but he said 'Mattie, I really want you to be good,' so I was very nervous. In fact, I came super-prepared, with about half the play already memorized.
"What was great was that I sensed immediately that Dennis would really honor the complexity of this work.I didn't want Una to be a weepy victim, or to have the whole thing feel like some salacious after-school special, which can be the pitfalls."
As for being a bit intimidated by Petersen, she smiled and recalled: "Dennis handled us beautifully in the early rehearsals, and I think we became comfortable quite quickly."
And after all, she recently had a small film role as an art gallery assistant in "Everybody's Fine," playing opposite Robert DeNiro.
"And I want to get her out to L.A. for a 'CSI' episode," Petersen chimed in.
BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic
At 56, William L. Petersen is still a ruggedly handsome actor continually in search of big artistic challenges. Considered one of the "elder statesman" of Chicago theater (though he might cringe at the description), he forged his career here, went on to fame and fortune in Hollywood (including a nine-year stint as Dr. Gil Grissom in the CBS drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"), and recently returned "home" to work on the stages he knows and loves best.
With one acclaimed performance already under his belt (in Conor McPherson's "A Dublin Carol," seen this past winter at Steppenwolf Theatre), he is about to open in Scottish-born playwright David Harrower's "Blackbird," which receives its Chicago premiere Monday at Victory Gardens Theater. And he's already booked for next spring, too, when he'll play the blind, rambunctious Hamm in Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" at Steppenwolf.
» Click to enlarge image William L. Petersen (right) plays Ray and Mattie Hawkinson is Una, in Victory Gardens Theater's Chicago premiere of "Blackbird."
'BLACKBIRD'Opens Monday, and runs through Aug. 9
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln
Tickets: $30-$58
Phone: (773) 871-3000
Petersen's "Blackbird" co-star, Mattie Hawkinson, is a soft-spoken but bristlingly smart beauty with a lightly freckled porcelain complexion, reddish hair and an understated aura of confidence. At 28 she is younger than Petersen's real-life daughter (who already has made him a grandfather). Born in Bellingham, Washington, she admits to having been "pretty precocious" -- performing in community theater (along with her family) from early on, and then, during high school, sitting in on the college classes her mother was taking to earn a degree in theater. She headed here to attend Northwestern University. Since graduating she has appeared at Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Apple Tree and, most recently, the Goodman Theatre where she memorably played the fetching, pot-smoking, 16-year-old daughter of a Cambridge professor in Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll."
When we chatted recently, Petersen and Hawkinson were still in rehearsal mode for Harrower's "Blackbird" -- a highly poetic, darkly disturbing play that is known to take a toll on the two actors who move through its harrowing 80 minutes of psychological exorcism. The pair still hasn't quite figured out the necessary pre-show decorum ("We go to our separate dressing rooms, but should we even chat casually?," Hawkinson wonders aloud). And they have no idea how things will change onstage once an audience arrives to observe their characters -- Ray and Una -- who are locked in a ferociously private and upending act of confrontation concerning a calamitous period from their past.
Harrower wrote "Blackbird" (the British term for "jailbird") after reading news accounts of an American veteran of the first Gulf War who made contact via the Internet with a 12-year-old girl in London and eventually arranged to meet her. He heavily altered the story so that the two initially meet when she is 12 and he is the 40-year-old neighbor on her family's street who is invited to a barbecue in their backyard. Now, 15 years after the fact -- and after he has served a three-year prison term for statutory rape and subsequently returned to work -- she finally gets a chance as an adult to confront him.
"This is a play that is bigger than just the two people in it," said Petersen, who noted that he and director Dennis Zackek were looking for a play when "Blackbird" was suggested by Michael Billington, the British theater critic. "It's about love, about lies, about a person's ability to deal with his or her own psychology. It's not just about passing judgment or seeking revenge. It's also about men -- about certain guys who are never able to deal with girls in their adolescence, and who later, because even at 40 they still haven't figured things out, want something back from women they missed in their adolescence.
"In a way it's like that play I did early in my career here, 'In the Belly of the Beast,' about Jack Abbott, the guy who committed murder after he was released from prison," Petersen continued. "This story is about child sexual abuse. And like prison life, it's not something we like talking about much, but we should, especially now that the Internet has made contact so easy and so dangerous."
For Hawkinson, who has an eight-page monologue at one point in the play, a principal attraction of "Blackbird" was "the phenomenal writing," and the complex way Harrower plays with time as he "puts the middle of the story in the beginning and the beginning at the end, with many well-placed surprises along the way."
"It's got a sort of [Harold] Pinter-like quality about it," Petersen added.
"I saw the New York production of this play with Jeff Daniels as Ray, and Alsion Pill, who I know, as Una," said Hawkinson, who moved to Brooklyn a couple of years ago but has ended up "living out of a suitcase" because her work has taken her to many regional theaters and also back here. "So when I heard Victory Gardens was planning to do it I called up Dennis [Zacek]. He still made me audition, but he said 'Mattie, I really want you to be good,' so I was very nervous. In fact, I came super-prepared, with about half the play already memorized.
"What was great was that I sensed immediately that Dennis would really honor the complexity of this work.I didn't want Una to be a weepy victim, or to have the whole thing feel like some salacious after-school special, which can be the pitfalls."
As for being a bit intimidated by Petersen, she smiled and recalled: "Dennis handled us beautifully in the early rehearsals, and I think we became comfortable quite quickly."
And after all, she recently had a small film role as an art gallery assistant in "Everybody's Fine," playing opposite Robert DeNiro.
"And I want to get her out to L.A. for a 'CSI' episode," Petersen chimed in.
Donnerstag, 9. Juli 2009
9. Juli 2009
Heute ging während einer wirklich wichtigen szene ein handy an. ganz toll, so hat man das wort cock nicht verstanden. die frau hat ewig gebraucht um es auszumachen. aus der tasche nehmen - noch lauter.
es war vom iming her nicht so gut wie gestern. die kußszene war ok. :)
Leider hatten wir wieder keine gelegenheit ein foto zu machen. es waren irgendwelche freunde da. aber er hat das blaue hemd aus der gsr-szene angehabt. Nice !
aber wir haben matties autogramm bekommen. ich hoffe, dass sie gute kritiken bekommt. sie ist einfach toll.
es war vom iming her nicht so gut wie gestern. die kußszene war ok. :)
Leider hatten wir wieder keine gelegenheit ein foto zu machen. es waren irgendwelche freunde da. aber er hat das blaue hemd aus der gsr-szene angehabt. Nice !
aber wir haben matties autogramm bekommen. ich hoffe, dass sie gute kritiken bekommt. sie ist einfach toll.
Mittwoch, 8. Juli 2009
Mittwoch - 8. Juli
Heute gab es die ersten richtigen standing ovations und Bravos. Zurecht. Trotz Handy-klingeln (warum kontrollieren die leute das nicht) - perfektes Timing. wir haben rechts gesessen, also sehr güntig für die kuss szene. diesmal hat alles geklappt. Übung macht den Meister !
Montag, 6. Juli 2009
Jorja Fox - A night for the Wales
May 30, 2009
A Night for the Whales, Los Angeles, CA
http://www.seashepherd.org/events/a-night-for-the-whales-may-30-2009.html
A Night for the Whales, Los Angeles, CA
http://www.seashepherd.org/events/a-night-for-the-whales-may-30-2009.html
Montag
Keine Blackbird Vorstellung !
Gestern war eine Matinee. 15 - 16.30 Uhr. Wir haben in einem Kaffee gegenüber gesessen und beoachtet, wie ein Bus ältere Leute ausgeladen hat. ein ganz anderes publikum. am tag davor saß jemand mit einer Sauerstoffanlage im publikum. sehr auffallend. und störend für die schauspieler. das timing war off.
ich habe angst, dass billy irgendwann mal hinfällt. es ist sehr gefährlich was die beiden da auf der bühne machen.
Gestern war eine Matinee. 15 - 16.30 Uhr. Wir haben in einem Kaffee gegenüber gesessen und beoachtet, wie ein Bus ältere Leute ausgeladen hat. ein ganz anderes publikum. am tag davor saß jemand mit einer Sauerstoffanlage im publikum. sehr auffallend. und störend für die schauspieler. das timing war off.
ich habe angst, dass billy irgendwann mal hinfällt. es ist sehr gefährlich was die beiden da auf der bühne machen.
Samstag, 4. Juli 2009
4. Juli 2009
Unabhängigkeitstag. Der erste bewölkte Tag seit eine Woche. Soweit hat wohl niemand Fragen ?
Oh, Gina war gestern in der Vorstellung. Blaues Kleid. Nicht so gestylt wie sonst. eher natürlich.
Das Theater war nicht ausverkauft und manche Zuschauer waren schockiert was passiert. Zum Glück hatte ich das schon hinter mir.
Hoffentlich tauchen keine CSI-Fangirls auf. Ich denke, dass Billy das nicht so gut finden würde. Im Moment ist das Publikum gut gemischt.
Oh, Gina war gestern in der Vorstellung. Blaues Kleid. Nicht so gestylt wie sonst. eher natürlich.
Das Theater war nicht ausverkauft und manche Zuschauer waren schockiert was passiert. Zum Glück hatte ich das schon hinter mir.
Hoffentlich tauchen keine CSI-Fangirls auf. Ich denke, dass Billy das nicht so gut finden würde. Im Moment ist das Publikum gut gemischt.
Freitag, 3. Juli 2009
Blackbird - Preview
Ich bin gerade zurück von der ersten Vorstellung. Wie gehofft, es war ein tolles erlebnis. billy ist fürs theater geboren. Ich fand das stücke nahezu perfekt. soviel besser als "Dublin Carol"
Das ganze ist eine liebesgeschichte, mit sehr direkter sprache und sehr körperbetont. und da alle fragen werden, es gibt eine heiße Kußszene, übergehend in a making out scene.
Das ganze ist eine liebesgeschichte, mit sehr direkter sprache und sehr körperbetont. und da alle fragen werden, es gibt eine heiße Kußszene, übergehend in a making out scene.
Donnerstag, 2. Juli 2009
Blackbird - Rehearsal
Ich kann nur jeden zu seinem Ticket beglückwünschen. wir haben heute die vielleicht letzten Proben gesehen und es war phantastisch. Billy war einfach toll und Mattie just great.
Beider passen gut zu einander, sind gleich stark und beeindruckend. Mattie hat einen langen Dialog und Billy sitzt nur da und dann plötlich - boom.
ich will nicht zuviel verraten, aber man vergißt manchmal das luft holen.
heute war ein pressefotograf da. vielleicht gibt es bald bilder. ich habe kurz mit ihm gesprochen. eine szene hatte ihn total überrascht. schade, aber die 2. war auch nicht schlecht.
eine kußszene plus zwischen ray und una.
ok, leute. Lasst euch das ganze nicht entgehen. Morgen ist die erste preview. später mehr darüber.
Beider passen gut zu einander, sind gleich stark und beeindruckend. Mattie hat einen langen Dialog und Billy sitzt nur da und dann plötlich - boom.
ich will nicht zuviel verraten, aber man vergißt manchmal das luft holen.
heute war ein pressefotograf da. vielleicht gibt es bald bilder. ich habe kurz mit ihm gesprochen. eine szene hatte ihn total überrascht. schade, aber die 2. war auch nicht schlecht.
eine kußszene plus zwischen ray und una.
ok, leute. Lasst euch das ganze nicht entgehen. Morgen ist die erste preview. später mehr darüber.
Mittwoch, 1. Juli 2009
Blackbird
Nur noch wenige Tage bis zur ersten Vorstellung. Wir waren heute shoppen und - wirklich war. William Peterse auf der anderen Straßenseite.
Wir wollten nicht wirlich stehenbleiben oder so, also nichts genaues. Jeans, wie immer die schwarze Mütze und ein braun-beige kariertes Holzfällerhemd an.
kein bart.
Wir wollten nicht wirlich stehenbleiben oder so, also nichts genaues. Jeans, wie immer die schwarze Mütze und ein braun-beige kariertes Holzfällerhemd an.
kein bart.
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