A KID'S FIRST 'L' SOLO LEADS TO A LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE CITY

Chicago Tribune, William Petersen interview by Norma Libman, July 5, 1992

I was born and raised in Evanston. I remember the first time I was able to come into the city on the 'L' by myself. I was 12, and somehow or another my dad got tickets to a Bears game. I think it was 1966, and (Dick) Butkus and (Gale) Sayers were playing for the Bears. The team was terrible, but they had Sayers and Butkus, so it didn't matter.

My dad couldn't go to the game, so my nephew, who was 10, came in from the western suburbs and stayed overnight the night before. They let me take Tommy down on the 'L,' and it was really the first time that I had been sort of footloose in the city.

We got on the Evanston 'L' and took it down to Howard Street, where we transferred. It was just one of those great days. I really felt a part of the city, for the first time. We were on the 'L' with all these Chicagoans going to the game, and all of a sudden I felt the thrill of the city-the thrill of 40,000 people doing something together. At each stop, more people would pack into that train until we were crushed up against the wall. The cars were filled with fans, everybody dressed in blue and orange.

Everyone got off at Wrigley Field. My nephew had never been to a Bears game and I'd only been to one or two. It was November, and it was cold and there was cigar smoke everywhere. And there were the Bears down there, playing Detroit, as I recall.

I remember going back home after that game and the feeling of it. We were just high. We were these little kids who had just had this major Chicago experience. I can't remember if the Bears won or lost, but it didn't matter. It was just so great, it didn't matter.

That was the first time I realized that I wanted the city. From that moment on, I was gravitating out of Evanston and into the city.

I've spent a lot of years in other places. I graduated from high school in Idaho, lived in Spain for a year and then went back to Idaho. I actually fell in love with the theater in those two places and then came back here in the early '70s because I had heard that the theater movement was starting to happen.

I started taking classes and auditioning for plays. I got in involved in the Victory Gardens Theatre in 1976 and then we started Remains Theater in 1979.

We were a group of kids who decided we wanted to put on a play, and 13 years later every one of us has a national career in the performing arts.

Chicago is a place-and it's not just true of the theater but of the entire city-where you have an opportunity to fail. People aren't going to walk away from you if you fail. And that is unique to Chicago. It is not so in New York and L.A.

We've watched the Cubs lose for 46 years. And we still go out and sit in the bleachers and watch them play baseball. Chicago is a place to take risks, a place to fail, a place to grow. It's a place where you're not judged as being unworthy. In New York and Los Angeles, if you fail, you're gone. And that's not the way a baseball team can operate, and it's not the way a theater group can operate. You have to be allowed to make mistakes. You have to be allowed to grow. And the only way you can grow is to fail, periodically. Chicago is a forgiving city.

And Chicago has done this for more than one theater group. There are 50 or 60 actors who have come out of this city, and there's a reason for that.

I lose out on a lot of work by being here, but I could never live in L.A. I'd be miserable. Being here gives me the proper perspective. And I would never give up on the theater in Chicago. I've never done professional theater, with the exception of the Stratford Festival, outside of Chicago. I won't do shows in New York if I can do them in Chicago.

This is where I grew. The audiences here trained me. I grew as an actor because the people of Chicago supported our theater. They support all the theater in Chicago and us as a group and me individually. This was my education. Everything I've learned about myself, about life, I learned here in the theater.

The actors who have made it big outside Chicago always come back to live or, at least, to work here. That's because Chicago is such a good place to live. I've lived all over the world over the last 20 years, and Chicago is the most hospitable place. It's a place where you have all of the cosmopolitan atmosphere you could want, but it's still beautiful and it's still accessible. You can walk around, you can drive around, you can get to where you've got to get.

There are great restaurants, great clubs, There's great theater and museums and sports. Housing is still relatively affordable. The transportation is wonderful. And the architecture-it's a gorgeous city. It's a place where you can still have a good quality of life. I would fight for Chicago to stay this way.

Chicago works. Look at the City Council: you've got a great cross-section of ethnicity and characters. I don't even mind the corruption. A little corruption is good for the city. There's got to be some patronage involved. I don't think anybody who's ever been involved in a family or in a community would think otherwise. And Chicago still is sensible enough to see that if that system works, then let it work. I've been in so many cities that don't work. This city works. We must cherish it.

Despite the gangs and the shootings, it's still relatively Midwestern, middle-American town. And I hope we'll be able to keep a handle on it. Most everybody here is decent. I don't know what's going to happen in the world, but given the choices of places to be, when the chaos comes, I'd just as soon be here.