Blackbird - Press release

WILLIAM PETERSEN AND MATTIE HAWKINSON STAR IN CHICAGO PREMIERE OF BLACKBIRD, JULY 3-AUGUST 9 AT THE VICTORY GARDENS BIOGRAPH

Chicago, May 6, 2009 – Victory Gardens Theater’s Chicago premiere of Blackbird starring William L. Petersen and Mattie Hawkinson promises to be one of the most anticipated theater events of the summer.

Tickets are now on sale for British playwright David Harrower’s searing two-person drama about the destructive cycle of desire and illicit love. Victory Gardens Artistic Director Dennis Zacek directs Blackbird, winner of the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award, Britain’s equivalent of the Tony.

Previews start July 3, press opening is July 13, and performances run through August 9 at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. Tickets are $30-$58. Call the Victory Gardens box office, 773.871.3000, or purchase tickets online at victorygardens.org.

With Blackbird, Petersen, former star of CBS-TV's CSI, returns to the theater where he first earned his Equity card to tackle a role that echoes his earliest work on Chicago's stages playing morally damaged characters in In the Belly of the Beast, The Night of the Iguana, and Flyovers.

British vernacular for "jailbird," Blackbird is a real-time account of the awkward reunion of Ray and Una, 15 years after a passionate affair when he was 40 and she was a minor. Ray is confronted with his past when Una arrives unannounced at his workplace. Guilt, rage and raw emotions run high as they recollect their forbidden relationship. In the end, Blackbird has a devastating effect that will leave audiences stunned.

Commissioned in 2005 by the Edinburgh International Festival, Blackbird was the surprise winner of the 2007 Olivier Award, beating stiff competition like Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll and Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon. Blackbird premiered in the U.S. in April 2007 at Manhattan Theater Club, directed by Broadway veteran Joe Mantello, starring Alison Pill and Jeff Daniels. The reviews were stellar:

"The gifted David Harrower's intense Blackbird promises to be the most powerful drama of the season...masterly, mesmerizing...extraordinary...a miracle." - The New York Times

"Four stars! This haunting, powerful, incendiary work is the sort of daring theater far too absent from our stages these days." - The New York Post

"A fascinating and unnerving ninety-minute cat and mouse tale of revenge and sexual intrigue, with genuine theatricality and undeniable shock value." - Associated Press

Full performance schedule

Previews of Blackbird are July 3-12, 2009: Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; Sunday at 3 pm. Press opening is Monday, July 13 at 7:30 pm (sold out!) Previews are $30 - $48. Regular performances are July 15 through August 9: Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 pm; Friday at 8 pm; Saturday at 5 pm and 8:30 pm; Sunday at 3 pm. Performances are $39 - $58. Added matinees are Wednesday, July 29 and August 5 at 2 pm. No evening performance Tuesday, July 14 or July 28.

The Victory Gardens Biograph Theater is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. For tickets and information, call the Victory Gardens box office - 773.871.3000 - or visit victorygardens.org.

Parking: $11 valet parking is available for all performances. Discounted parking is available one block south at Children's Memorial Hospital for all shows except weekday matinees (no overnights). Metered and street parking is available, but mind the Neighborhood parking restrictions.

Dining: Go to victorygardens.org/boxoffice for a list of Victory Gardens dining partners. Each is within walking distance of the Biograph, and all offer a special discount to patrons who present a Victory Gardens ticket stub (day of show only.)

Public transit: By CTA train, take the Red, Purple and Brown lines to the Fullerton stop. Walk east on Fullerton to Lincoln, then north 1/2 block to the theater. The #8 Halsted, #11 Lincoln, #37 Sedgwick/Ogden, and #74 Fullerton CTA buses all stop at the corner of Fullerton and Halsted, 1/2 block south of the theater. See transitchicago.com for times and routes.

Group discounts: Gather a group of 15 or more to take advantage of discounted group rates - perfect for book clubs, corporate nights out, universities, residence groups, fundraisers and family gatherings. Call Shannon O'Neill, (773) 549-5788 ext. 2131, for group information.

10 @ $20: Victory Gardens has 10 seats on sale for every performance of Blackbird for only $20. "10 @ $20" tickets can be purchased in advance, not just day-of. Limit 4 per customer. Subject to availability. Not valid with other discount offers. Phone sales only.

Cast biographies

William Petersen (Ray) last performed at Victory Gardens in the 1998 premiere of Jeffrey Sweet's Flyovers. He earned his Equity card in 1978 when Victory Gardens Artistic Director Dennis Zacek cast him as a relative unknown in the title role of William Norris' Dillinger. One year later, Petersen founded Remains Theater Ensemble in Chicago with a group of fellow actors, including Gary Cole and Amy Morton. He went on be one of the top talents of Chicago's Off-Loop theater scene, and became a national star in the motion picture To Live and Die in L.A. His Steppenwolf appearances include Balm in Gilead, Fool for Love, and earlier this season, Dublin Carol. In 1983, he starred as Jack Henry Abbott in In the Belly of the Beast which he performed at Chicago's Wisdom Bridge Theater, at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In 1996, Petersen made his Broadway debut in a revival of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana. He serves as executive producer on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and was nominated in 2004 for a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Gil Grissom, the lead investigator.

Mattie Hawkinson (Una) has a long list of Chicago credits including The Snow Queen, Half and Half and Hanging Fire at Victory Gardens; Rock ‘n’ Roll (Goodman), I Never Sang for My Father (Steppenwolf), A Winter's Tale, A Little Night Music, A Flea In Her Ear (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Hillbilly Antigone (Lookingglass Theatre), Vincent In Brixton (Apple Tree Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest (First Folio Theatre), The Maids (Exigent Theatre), and A Boston Marriage (Roadworks Productions, After Dark Award). Regional credits include Magnolia, The Legend of Minnie Willet (O'Neill), A Little Night Music (Centerstage), Third (Denver Center Theatre Company), and Inherit the Wind (Indiana Repertory). TV and film credits include As the World Turns, and Everybody's Fine with Robert De Niro, coming out in the fall of 2009.

The playwright

David Harrower was born in Edinburgh in 1966. He first rose to prominence with Knives in Hens, which premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 1995. He is also the author of such plays as Kill in the Old, Torture their Young (1998), Presence (2001) and Dark Earth (2003). Harrower is also a prolific adaptor whose works include versions of Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, first staged at the Young Vic in 2000; Chekhov’s Ivanov, performed at the National Theatre in 2002; and Buchner’s Woyzeck, performed at the Edinburgh Lyceum in 2002. He has also written a new version of Odon von Horvath's Tales from the Vienna Woods (2003) for the National Theatre in London. He has also translated The Girl on the Sofa (2002), a new play by Jon Fosse, presented in a joint production by the Edinburgh International Festival and the Schaubuehne, Berlin, and Purple (2002), also a Jon Fosse original play. His latest plays are an adaptation of Schiller’s Mary Stuart (2006) and a new translation of Brecht’s The Good Woman of Szechuan (2008). One of his most recent original work, 365, was presented at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2008. Blackbird was shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year Award, 2005, and won the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play.

About Victory Gardens Theater

One of Chicago's most respected Off-Loop theaters, Victory Gardens is primarily devoted to new work, and since its founding in 1974, has produced more world premiere mainstage productions than any other Chicago theater. The company emphasizes the work of Chicago writers and its own 14-member Playwrights Ensemble, a relationship that helped Victory Gardens receive the 2001 Tony Award for Regional Theatre.

Working with a $3.1 million annual budget in 2008/09, Victory Gardens continues to expand its artistic and institutional boundaries under the guidance of Artistic Director Dennis Zacek, Executive Director Jan Kallish, Associate Artistic Director Sandy Shinner, Board President Jeffrey Rappin, a dedicated staff and board, and the support of its loyal subscribers.

Victory Gardens Theater is supported by the Illinois Arts Council (IAC), a stage agency, and is partially supported by a CityArts Program 4 Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Major funders include the Wallace Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Joyce Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, USG, Ford Foundation, Kraft Foods, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Alphawood Foundation, Arie & Ida Crown Memorial, Illinois Tool Works, Prince Charitable Trusts, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Exelon Corporation, Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, Pick Fund, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Wrightwood Neighbors Association, and Boeing Company.

For complete information, visit victorygardens.org.

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