‘CSI" star William Petersen is looking for more time off from the hit crime show so he can appear in stage plays next year. Petersen, who sources say is under contract with "CSI" through 2008, hopes to star in a Chicago-produced play sometime next year. He’s already managed to work in some time off the show this season to appear in a play in Rhode Island. To do the stage show, he’ll be absent from two episodes of "CSI," and he appears to be pushing for the same kind of deal next year. "We’re going to do a play as soon as we can get enough time to make it worth everyone’s while," Petersen told the Chicago Tribune of talks he’s had with Dennis Zacek, the artistic director of the famed Victory Gardens Theater, the company that gave Petersen his big break. Zacek says, "I’m trying to have something custom-made for him, but it’s in the making. It’s not finished. "I’m not sure this means we won’t see him in any more movies or in any more TV stuff, but I do think there’s a hunger to get back to the demands and the purity and the risks of live theater." "There may be stuff I do [on ‘CSI’] next year," Petersen says. "I just know that I want to do a play in Chicago next year." Petersen has a history of aggravating CBS brass with comments about leaving "CSI," and has ripped the network for twice spinning off the crime drama.
NY Post
After yesterday’s numbers he might just get his wish.
