William Petersen in "Red" ?

Nun ja, es ist nicht in VG. Aber Dennis Zacek, sein Mentor, hört dort zu Seasonende auf. Ich denke trotzdem nicht, dass er es macht. Aber man weiß ja nie.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/3702742-421/red-is-coming-to-town--and-were-weighing-in-on-possible-casting.html

Die Unfallgeschichte

Interessant. niemand findet es merkwürdig, dass die frau ihn im restaurant angesprochen hat. es ist ein relativ teures restaurant, very dark. you will never get so fast outside. ich denke, dass sie auf dem weg nach draußen waren und er deshalb helfen konnte. wir waren nebenan und haben nicht gehört oder gesehen.
und dann die hosen. warum reiten die leuten darauf rum ? wir haben john m. gesehen. er war sehr merkwürdig gekleidet. hose und darüber ein lnges hemd über die knie. dann normale hosen und socken. vielleicht hat man sie verwechselt ? vielleicht waren das die Caprihosen ? who knows ?

Wir waren dort

Funny. Wir waren im Restaurant gegenüber und haben uns gefragt was die Autos und die lichter bedeuten. schließlich waren wir fertig mit dem essen und sind zur bushaltestelle gegangen. inzwischen standen 2 oder 3 busse dort. Allerdings haben wir keine schauspieler gesehen. falls die story stimmt.:)


Actors to rescue: The 'CSI' guy
Comments
April 17, 2010
BY MICHAEL SNEED Sun-Times Columnist
A tale of two great actors, the human factor, and a humdinger twist.

Case in point: An incident at Trattoria Gianni in Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre district Wednesday night involving actors William "CSI" Petersen and John Malkovich.

• The scene: A young woman in a red hat quietly walks into the Trattoria bar for a nightcap and spots a table occupied by Petersen, who's appearing in Steppenwolf's "Endgame," and Malkovich, a Petersen pal who is a leading member of the august Steppenwolf ensemble.

• The script: The petite blond walks over to the table and tells the men, "I am a huge fan," thanks them for chatting with her, says good night, leaves the restaurant, crosses the street, where a cab hailed by her husband is waiting, and gets hit by a car.

• The upshot: Petersen, dressed in capri pants and sandals, runs to her side, gets down on his knees, puts her little red hat under her head to comfort her and whispers to her until paramedics arrive. Malkovich, who has been watching streetside with the rest of the cast, gets in the ambulance to comfort her. "He felt this could have been his daughter, who is about the young woman's age," said a Sneed source.

• The backshot: The woman, Courtney Boho Marincsin, suffered a leg injury and was rushed to Illinois Masonic Hospital. "The driver of the car stopped and got out to help, but it was Petersen who dashed headlong into the street to really help and calm her," the source said. "One of her red heels was smashed on the street."

• More backshot: "She was darling and very respectful and really sweet," said Trattoria owner Gianni Delisi. "She wasn't a total stranger to us. But we didn't know her name. It was so sad because she had been so excited to meet [Petersen and Malkovich], who are great guys. And then she heads outside and quickly gets hit by a car."

• The kicker: Marincsin is a personal injury attorney who works for the prestigious Clifford Law Firm, run by legal eagle Robert A. Clifford.

Skokie - Teil 2

Eigentlich wollten wir ja nicht nochmal nach Skokie, aber Carol hat uns gefahren und so waren wir beim Reading von "The Outgoing Tide" von Bruce Graham. mit John Mahoney und Deana Dunagan und Thomas J.Cox. Es war wirklich super. Sehr emotional und toll gemacht. Ich bin begeistert.

zu ein paar Fragen:
Billy war in schwarz auf der Party.
Gina war dort mit ihrer Mutter. keine Martha Lavey.
ich konnte nicht mit ihm sprechen, aber ich habe gehört, dass der CSI-Film ist noch immer aktuell ist.

heute ist die erste Vorstellung nach der Premiere.

Vorher gehen wir mit Marcie zur Matisse-Ausstellung. Also sollte ich langsam fertig werden.

Old Article/Dennis Zacek & Billy mentioned

Deutsch and english
Kurier (Österreich) vom 2006-12-17, Seite 32

Der Mentor

Ein Angebot von Dennis Zacek

Wenn William Petersen von der Heimkehr nach Chicago spricht, dann sind damit automatisch so renom mierte Theater wie das Steppenwolf oder das Victory Gardens/Biograph Theater verbunden. Vor allem das für Welturaufführungen bekannte Victory Gardens liegt dem Schauspieler am Herzen; dort leitet sein ältester Freund Dennis Zacek die Produktion, der ihm sein erstes Engagement, seine erste "equity card", eine Art Gewerkschafts-Pass, gegeben hatte. "Wir haben ein Stück über Dillinger inszeniert", erinnert sich Zacek, "Bill hatte mich in einem Burger King angesprochen, wollte wissen, wie man Schauspieler wird." Zwischen dem leidenschaftlichen jungen Mann und seinem Mentor entwickelte sich eine lebenslange Freundschaft - als das neu übernommene Biograph renoviert werden musste, war Petersen mit einer großzügigen Spende sofort zur Stelle. "Wir brauchten Falltüren, die wegen des Grundwassers zu teuer waren. Als Bill davon hörte, sagte er nur: Wenn der Mann Falltüren will, kriegt er Falltüren."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++


The Mentor

Dennis Zacek's offer

When William Petersen talks about coming home to Chicago, he automatically refers to such reputable theaters as the "Steppenwolf" or the "Victory Gardens/Biograph Theater". Especially the Victory Gardens Theater, which is famous for its world premieres, is dear to the actor's heart. His oldest friend, Dennis Zacek, who was the first to hire him giving him his first "equity card", some sort of actor's guild card, is the leading producer there. "We staged a p lay about Dillinger", Zacek remembers, "Bill talked to me when we were eating at Burger King, he wanted to know how to become an actor." A life-long friendship developed between the passionate young man and his tutor - when the Biograph had to be renovated right after new owners took over, Petersen immediately helped with a generous donation. “We needed trap doors, which were too expensive because of the ground water. When Bill got the news, he just said: 'If the man wants trap doors, trap doors are what he will get.'"

Deutscher Artikel in TV direkt

Ein deutscher Artikel über amerikanische Serien. Ein wenig CSI ist enthalten

http://www.grissomandsara.de/direkt/index.htm

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Montag

Soweit nichts neues.
Wer etwas über billys sicht auf das Stück lesen will, hier Time Out Chicago

http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/theater/75993/william-petersen-in-blackbird-interview

Chicago, 25. Juni 2009

Wie versprochen meine Meldung aus Chicago. Der Flug war lang und anstrengend. aber das wetter und unser hotel super. präsidental suite. wir hatten ein angebot von hotel.com genutzt, aber das ist echt wahnsinn. fílm folgt später.

aber wahrscheinlich interssiert das niemanden, oder ?
ihr wollt wissen, ob wir billy gesehen haben. haben wir. 12 minuten des stücks haben er und matti gespielt, dann gab es eine frage und antwort für 30 minuten. er hat seine idee der rolle erläutert, der regisseur dennis zacek as er sich vorstellt. sie sehen es eindeutig als liebesgeschichte. billy was funny. i love him smiling and joking.
dann war eine art empfang in der lobby, wo billy fragen beantwortet ht, fotos und autogramme gab. alles part of the job. ok, ich war wieder ein stiller beobachter, aber trotzdem. ein toller erster tag. ich versuche mal zwei bilder zu laden. aber das internet ist recht langsam.
die bilder müssen nicht unbedingt woanders auftauchen. Bitte fragen, wenn ihr sie woanders posten wollt.

TV Highlights

Die neue Ausgabe hat CSI (Billy und Marg) on the cover. Und eine Porträt von Billy über mehrere Seiten.

Sarah Siddons Awards Gala

On June1, 2009, the Sarah Siddons Society held an Awards Gala at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Water Tower Place in Chicago. The evening honored two remarkable actors for their distinguished achievements. William Petersen was honored with the 2008-09 Sarah Siddons Award as Chicago's Actor for All Seasons. Hollis Resnik was the recipient of a Chicago's Leading Lady Award for her performance in Northlight Theatre's production of Grey Gardens.

Chicago likes to think of him as one of its own, but William Petersen has received world-wide fame for his riveting performances and character portrayals. From his early days in Chicago theatre to his award-winning performances on stage and in television and movies, Petersen has received great critical acclaim, along with a legion of adoring fans. For nine seasons, Petersen starred as Dr. Gil Grissom in the CBS hit show, "CSI, Crime Scene Investigation." Recently, he left the show to return to the stage. It was Chicago's good fortune to see him in the Steppenwolf producton of A Dublin Carol. This summer of 2009, Petersen will return to Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater, the theater where he earned his first Equity card, to star in the play, Blackbird, directed by his friend, Dennis Zacek. The Sarah Siddons Society is proud to honor the distinguished William Petersen with the Sarah Siddons Award.

SAG

Billy und SAG

http://membershipfirst.blogspot.com/2009/06/support-membership-first.html



SAG members ratify new pact
Two-year TV/theatrical contract approved by 78% of the vote
By Jay A. Fernandez

June 9, 2009, 09:36 PM ET

Updated: June 9, 2009, 11:31 PM ET


The people have finally spoken. Or rather, shouted.

The membership of SAG officially ratified its proposed new two-year TV/theatrical contract Tuesday by a margin of 78% to 22%. SAG members had been working under the terms of the previous contract since June 30 as negotiations stopped and started during the past year.

SAG's national board recommended the contract to the membership for ratification April 19 by a mere 53% to 47%. Ballots went out May 19 to the 110,000 or so members in good standing.

Of those eligible to vote, 35.3% turned in ballots, a slightly higher percentage than usual. The votes were compiled and counted after Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline. The new contract went into effect at 12:01 a.m. today and expires June 30, 2011.

"This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future," interim national executive director David White said. "Preparation for the next round of negotiations begins now. Our members can expect more positive changes in the coming months as we organize new work opportunities, repair and reinvigorate our relationships with our sister unions and industry partners and continue to improve the guild's operations."

Among the terms of the new deal are a 3% wage increase and a 0.5% pension and health plan contribution increase. In its second year, the contract triggers a 3.5% wage increase.

Jurisdiction and compensation for new-media work, which sparked much of the internal and external debate, were established for the first time, as they were in the DGA, AFTRA and WGA contracts negotiated last year.

The guild will benefit from $105 million in increases and contributions in the new pact, though it meant passing up close to another $100 million in raises while the contract remained unresolved.

The vote count in the Hollywood Division was 70.7% to 29.3% in favor. In the New York Division, it was 85.7% to 14.3% in favor. And in the Regional Branch Division, the count was 89.1% to 10.9% in favor.

"The ratification vote by SAG members is good news for the entertainment industry," the AMPTP said. "This concludes a two-year negotiating process that has resulted in agreements with all major Hollywood guilds and unions. We look forward to working with SAG members, and with everyone else in our industry, to emerge from today's significant economic challenges with a strong and growing business."

Well-wishers from the DGA and AFTRA followed suit.

With SAG's contract debate decided, much of the industry -- and film production in particular -- can breathe a sigh of relief as the threat of an actors strike has been put to rest. The past 18-22 months -- since the lead-up to the WGA strike in fall 2007 -- have seen a substantial contraction in opportunities for above- and below-the-line talent in Hollywood.

The 100-day writers' walkout early in 2008, followed by the uncertainly generated by the SAG standoff, prompted studios and networks to shave production deals, trim slates, squeeze fees, experiment with the Web and shrink development in TV and film. The upshot has been a tougher environment for actors and other performers to get work.

In addition, while factions within SAG argued over its approach to the contract fight, the guild saw nearly all the current season's network pilots move to AFTRA coverage.

That internal SAG battle, raging for most of the past year, now immediately shifts its focus to fall elections, the results of which will be announced Sept. 24.

MembershipFirst, which has adamantly opposed the just-passed contract as well as a merger with sister union AFTRA, plans a fundraiser as early as tonight, hosted by William Petersen and Melissa Leo, to jump-start momentum on its campaign. The party also has hired a political consultant to help manage its message.

Unite for Strength, which formed in the summer in opposition to MembershipFirst and picked up vital SAG board seats in September, will continue to campaign for consolidation and affiliation with AFTRA. That prospect always has been controversial and has only become more so in recent weeks as a SAG board member put forth a resolution to explore "the acquisition of actors of AFTRA" and several MembershipFirst partisans won seats on AFTRA's board.

"I think it's imperative that there be a letup of that internal battle," said Adam Arkin, a national board member and U4S supporter. "I think this vote was an indication that that's part of what people are weary of, and it's incumbent upon us to find ways to start to communicate better with one another."

SAG president Alan Rosenberg, who has consistently pushed for a harder stance against the networks and studios, has not indicated whether he will run for re-election. He is in his second two-year term.

Of the new contract, Rosenberg said: "The membership has spoken and has decided to work under the terms of this contract that many of us who have been involved in these negotiations from the beginning believe to be devastatingly unsatisfactory. (Wednesday) morning I will be contacting the elected leadership of the other talent unions with the hope of beginning a series of prenegotiation summit meetings in preparation for 2011. I call upon all SAG members to begin to ready themselves for the battle ahead."

Although nobody has formally announced a candidacy for SAG president, speculation has focused on James Cromwell, Seymour Cassel and Martin Sheen. Nominating petitions for SAG national officer positions and board seats will be made available Monday.

"I do feel like the Churchill quote: 'It's the end of the beginning,' " said Ken Howard, a national board member and U4S supporter. "My hope is that this expression will also show itself in the members that get elected to the national board in the fall -- and to the new presidency -- that then we'll be able to, with this endorsement, move forward."

AFTRA, which bargained jointly with SAG until spring 2008, ratified its own TV/theatrical contract last year, and SAG and AFTRA jointly ratified new commercials contracts in May.


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i6fda8a789c0468eb7c167521c036aef5

Blackbird - erstes Bild

Dank an Wiske 2 - hier ein erstes Bild !

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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