Doug Peruski: He'll Play Diesel

Doug Peruski says he is excited about the future. The next twelve months of his life, he says, may make or break him, and he acknowledges he is taking a huge risk. But he says that sometimes in life, you have to take risks in order to advance yourself or further your cause.

Doug Peruski says that his cause is acting and the theatre. He is one of the founders of The Square Peg Players, a popular theatre troupe based in Duluth, Georgia. He and a group of friends founded "The Squares," as they call it, five years ago. After a false start with a poorly-received production of "Never Again!," written by Squares founding member Thomas Forsythe, the group hit its stride with a string of popular plays, and in particular its popular "Improv Night."

But that is all about to change. Peruski has decided to pull up stakes and take The Square Peg Players to New York no later than next spring. At that time he will also begin rehearsals for a new production of West Side Story. He recently announced that he is realizing a lifelong dream by being cast in a New York Production of the classic musical. He has the part of Diesel, one of the members of the Jets, a street gang who do battle with another gang called the Sharks.

Before he leaves, the Square Peg Players will revive "Not Again!", a Thomas Forsythe play the troupe first staged five years ago. That first production was  a flop, and the Square Peg Players nearly did not survive it. But Doug Peruski says that this time they are going to do it right. "I know there are critics out there who are hoping it will flop this time, too – just so they can write reviews that say something like, ‘not again with this play!" But that isn't going to happen."