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The 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.

Photograph credit to Mel - Thanks!


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In 1978 @ The Victory Gardens Theater. Billy's first Actor's Equity production was the play 'Dillinger'.
This year he is set to return in July to perform on stage in the play

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. D.C. He went on be one of the top talents of Chicago's Off-Loop theater scene

Why is the play called Blackbird?


Extracts Taken from the Victory Gardens Magazine credit Koerty


'Blackbird'
Blackbird information @ Wikipedia

If anyone is interested in purchasing the whole play in book format here is a link to some @ Amazon.com

Single tickets are $20-$48, and go on sale March 31, 2009.
However, only subscribers to Victory Gardens' 2008/09 season are guaranteed the best seats to Blackbird,
and can purchase additional single tickets to the production before they go on sale to the general public.
For subscription information or to inquire about single tickets, call 773.871.3000, or visit VictoryGardens.org

January 2009

Blackbird was originally commissioned in 2005 by the Edinburgh International Festival,
Blackbird was the surprise winner of the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award,
Britain's equivalent to the Tony's, besting stiff competition including Frost/Nixon

Blackbird premiered in the U.S. in April 2007 at New York's Manhattan Theater Club,
directed by Broadway veteran Joe Mantello, starring Alison Pill and Jeff Daniels.

"Blackbird is one of the most poetic, visceral new plays to hit the scene in years,"
said Victory Gardens Artistic Director Dennis Zacek. "Certainly Ray is an ideal role for Bill to flex his theatrical acting chops,
and to reintroduce to local audiences the magnetic presence that he demonstrated so ably in his early days on Chicago's stages,
playing morally questionable characters in In the Belly of the Beast,
The Night of the Iguana, and Flyovers ten years ago here at Victory Gardens."
Source Broadwayworld.com


February 13th - Ticket sales for Blackbird



If you are a V-News subscriber (@ the Victory Gardens website) you will be able to purchase tickets before the general public on February 17th.
You will receive information via the V-News eblast on how to purchase tickets early. You can subscribe to the V-News eblast c/o the Victory Gardens website.
Tickets on sale to the general public are available earlier than mentioned previously, they are now on sale March 1st.Tickets are expected to sell out very quickly so it might be worth your while subscribing to the newsletter.
Source billypetersen.com


27th February - Paybill News

Chicago favorite Mattie Hawkinson will play Una, the troubled young woman who confronts a man from her past, played by "CSI" star William Petersen,
in the Victory Gardens Theater Chicago premiere of David Harrower's Blackbird.

According to VGT, "Blackbird brings to mind Petersen's earliest work on Chicago's stages playing morally damaged characters in n 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 Laurence Olivier Award (besting Frost/Nixon and Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll).
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 Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater is known for producing works of its 14-member Playwrights Ensemble,
as well as contemporary plays (such as Blackbird, from Scottish writer Harrower) from outside the group.

Victory Gardens Latest

“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; and Sunday at 3 pm.
Previews are $30 - $37. Press opening is Monday, July 13 at 7:30 pm (sold out!)
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 $37 - $48. Added matinees are Wednesday, July 29 and August 5 at 2 pm.
No evening performance Tuesday, July 14 or July 28. Source - Press release - credit billypetersen.com


Watch this space!



Blackbird Pre-performance Stills
(June 2009)

Beckett's absurd comic masterpiece follows Hamm, a blind man unable to stand,
and his servant Clov, who is unable to sit,
as they pass their days in a tiny house by the sea - if the sea still exists.
Pestered by Hamm's parents, they move through their daily rituals, awaiting the end of everything.
A powerful all-ensemble cast anchors this profound exploration of the stories we construct to make sense of our lives.

Brand New Images released by the theater for Billy's play



Dennis Zacek directs William L. Petersen in Blackbird & William L. Petersen and Mattie Hawkinson star in Blackbird





Source Victory Gardens Theater

Official Victory Gardens Press Release

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.



"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


17th June - Rehersals have officially started!
Blackbird by David Harrower and starring William Petersen and Mattie Hawkinson began rehearsals this past week.
The actors are on stage for the full 90 minutes without intermission and are going through an emotional play!


Blackbird @ Facebook

A few months ago, I called my colleague Michael Billington- Chief Critic of The Guardian to ask him for suggestions of a play that would be suitable for Billy Petersen. Michael gave me a list of possibilities among which was Blackbird by David Harrower. He found it to be a first rate drama but added that it might also be controversial. Billy and I thought long and hard before selecting Mr. Harrower’s script-winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play.It seems to me that one of the responsibilities of an artist is to raise the difficult questions and not necessarily provide us with the answers. Mr. Harrower does just that- Can one separate love from **********? Is consensual sex possible with a minor? Should we recognize that children now reach maturity much earlier? Blackbird is about a recollection of what, by any legal definition, was sexual abuse. “Abuse” however is woefully inadequate to describe the experiences of the characters.
All in all, Blackbird is as Ben Brantly wrote in The New York Times,” Theater at its most elemental: one man, one woman, one set, and a head-to-head confrontation, about events long past, that occurs in real time.” “Other works of fiction have, of course, entered on the relationship between an under age girl and a grown man: Vladimir Nabakov’s novel Lolita and more recently Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, How I Learned to Drive. What makes Blackbird different is how little reflective distance it allows you.” “The characters of Blackbird Una and Ray have read deep in the psychological literature of sexual abuse and it doesn’t begin to encompass what they experience. The miracle of Blackbird is that it does.”




Blackbird offers an open rehearsal June 25th at 6pm.
Go behind the scenes before the play opens.
See moments from the play, at a mid-point in rehearsals, and talk with the artists.
**Blackbird features Adult Content - mature audiences only. Limited seating, so please RSVP to events@victorygardens.org

Metromix - Chicago July 3rd

Most open rehearsals attract a smattering of theater fans and insiders.
When the Victory Gardens opened up a few minutes of rehearsal for its upcoming production of David Harrower's "Blackbird,"
a couple of hundred people were waiting at the door.

The reason? William Petersen, star of the CBS series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

Petersen's fame is also the reason tickets for the summer slot in the Victory Gardens season have been flying out the door,
attracting audience members from all across the country to see the show. Or, more accurately, to see Petersen in the show.


Harrower's "Blackbird" is, well, harrowing. It is a long way from the TV series.
The plot of the play, first seen at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2005 and then at New York's Manhattan Theater Club in 2007,
revolves around an older man and young woman discussing the fallout from an affair that took place 15 years previously,
when he was 40 and she was 12 years old.

"This is not a fun character to play," Petersen said, speaking from the condominium he owns in his home theater city.
"This is not a fun character to be. It is a tough slog emotionally.
It is not one of those plays that makes you want to greet the crowd afterwards and all go out for a beer. We're just trying to survive here."

6th July Billy & Mattie dress in rehersals









Credit Backbird @ Facebook

Link to A Video of one of the Scenes From Blackbird




Credit Sidle77

14th July 2009 Opening Night & The After show Party

Co-Stars Billy & Mattie	Gina and Billy

Artistic director Dennis Zacek, Mattie Hawkinson, Lauren Elks and William Petersen


It is "a fascinating and unnerving 90 minute cat and mouse tale of revenge and sexual intrigue,
with genuine theatricality and undeniable shock value."
I concur wholeheartedly.
The play has no intermissions during the 90 minutes and when the last heart breaking words are uttered,
you don't realize that the time has flown by!


Information credit to billypetersen.com, Image credit & exceprts to Candace Jordan

20th July - Blackbird performances extended for extra week due to overwhelming critical acclaim

Due to overwhelming critical acclaim and box office demand, Victory Gardens Theater is extending its current smash hit drama Blackbird,
starring William L. Petersen and Mattie Hawkinson, through August 16th.

Newly added performances are: Wednesday, August 12 at 7:30 pm Thursday, August 13 at 7:30 pm Friday, August 14 at 8 pm Saturday, August 15 at 5 pm and 8:30 pm Sunday, August 16 at 3 pm To purchase tickets and subscriptions, call the Victory Gardens box office, 773-871-3000, buy tickets online at victorygardens.org or stop by the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater box office, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. Box office hours are noon to 8 pm, Tuesday through Saturday; noon to 4 pm, Sunday.

Credit to Koerty & csinut - Information @ Broawayworld.com





27th July - Mattie Hawkinson (Una in 'Blackbird' Interview

ShowBiz Chicago: You had worked with Dennis before on The Snow Queen,
Half and Half, and Hanging Fire. What was it like to collaborate with him again, as well as William Petersen?

MH: The process of working on it with those two guys has been fantastic!
I really do have the best scene partner you could possibly hope for. He’s an incredibly generous actor,
and it makes my job all the easier.

To read more of the lengthy interview follow the link below!

Showbiz Chicago Interview with Mattie Hawkinson Co-Star toi Billy in 'Blackbird'
Credit billpetersen.com

29th July 2009 - Tickets now sold out!


30th July - Members reviews of Billy on Stage in Blackbird

Please Dont forget to check out all our members very own personal Blackbird reviews,
which contain images of Billy, the theater and other interesting stuff we're sure you'll enjoy browsing through.

Alice56- Blackbird Review

Wagmel - Blackbird Review

Sidle77 - Blackbird Review

SARASIDLEGRISSOM09 Review

Ana Cristiano Blackbird Review

Corinne Veldmeirjer Blackbird Review

Pennych - Blackbird Review

Sarapals - Blackbird Review

Kathie11 - Blackbird Review

My Kate - Blackbird Review

Press & Media Reviews Blackbird

Your Review for Blackbird

Blackbird the Book Members Reviews

28th August 2009 - gsrbritfan - Billy nominated for for the 2008–09 Joseph Jefferson Awards

ACTOR IN A PRINCIPAL ROLE – PLAY Maury Cooper - “Buried Child” - Shattered Globe Theatre Russell G. Jones - “Ruined” - Goodman Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club Timothy Edward Kane - “Rock ‘n’ Roll” - Goodman Theatre Larry Neumann, Jr. - “A Moon for the Misbegotten” - First Folio Theatre William L. Petersen - “Blackbird” - Victory Gardens Theater Robert Stella - “Amadeus” - Chicago Shakespeare Theater His co-star in Blackbird is also nominated; ACTRESS IN A PRINCIPAL ROLE - PLAY Mattie Hawkinson - “Blackbird” - Victory Gardens Theater

The Equity Jeff Awards will be presented October 19 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts;

Information source Time Out Chicago

Credit info - Koerty

Nominations for the 41st annual Jeff Awards, honoring excellence in professional theater in the Chicago area,
have been announced.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, on October 19.



Oct. 19 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, IL.
The 41st Annual Jeff Equity Awards ceremony welcomed a near-capacity audience, who enjoyed exciting award presentations;
performances from 11 nominated musicals and revues; video features representing nominated plays.

ACTOR IN A PRINCIPAL ROLE – PLAY (Tie)
William L. Petersen – “Blackbird” - Victory Gardens Theater
Larry Neumann, Jr. – “A Moon for the Misbegotten” - First Folio Theatre


It appears that Billy did not seem to attend this event!

Billy Has won this award before in 1996 as Winner of the Joseph Jefferson Award for
Best Actor for his portrayal of Jack Abbott in "The Belly Of The Beast".

He also received Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for The Tooth of the Crime and The Night of the Iguana.

Info source Jeffawards.org