‘CSI’ Actor William Petersen Plans A Return To Chicago Theater

As the seventh season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation opens tonight, it may mark the beginning of the end for William Petersen’s role as Gil Grissom as we now know it.

Petersen’s contract with CBS is up at the end of this season. Petersen makes no secret of the fact that he hopes to return home. “Home” for the Evanston-born actor is the Chicago stage. His career began at Chicago’s Victory Gardens.

In a move that would take his career full-circle, Petersen hopes to appear in one of Victory Garden’s 2007 productions. Petersen is currently in talks with artistic director Dennis Zacek. “We’re going to do a play as soon as we can get enough time to make it worth everyone’s while,” says Petersen. “I plan to go back to Chicago and do plays starting next year.”

Zacek is having a script custom-made for Petersen. It’s not finished yet, but Zacek hopes to have the script ready for Petersen to read when the actor attends the Victory Gardens season-opening gala on October 14.

In preparation for his return to the Chicago stage, Petersen will take a few weeks off this season to do “Dublin Carol” at Trinity Rep in Rhode Island. This will require him to miss two episodes of CSI.

CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler doesn’t want to think about what CSI will do in its eighth season or beyond if Petersen leaves or reduces his presence on the show. “CSI without Grissom? I can’t even imagine that,” says Tassler.

“There may be stuff I do [on CSI] next year. I just know I want to do a play in Chicago next year,” says Petersen. “Because at some point, that’s what I am. This is not what I am.”

To read much more about what the future holds for Petersen, visit The Chicago Tribune.

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