Douglas Peruski: Square Peg for a Big Apple

Douglas Peruski has a Theatre Arts degree from the University of Georgia, where he also studied Computer Science. That second discipline prepared him for work at NCR, who hired him soon after college.

Douglas Peruski spent three years as a systems analyst with NCR. By then, he says he'd had enough, and wanted to return to his first love, the theatre. And as he does, he is working the fallback job of almost every actor, waiting tables at a Greek restaurant called Achilles.

Douglas Peruski says that he had no choice but to reconsider his direction in. "NCR was just taking over my life," he declares. "I don't make nearly as much money now, but as a waiter I have a lot more free time."

Achilles, the popular Greek restaurant that has been a Duluth mainstay since 1938, was a revelation to Douglas Peruski. He says he didn't know much about Greek food when he first began working there, and didn't like it much. But he needed work, so he took the job. Now, he says that he loves Greek food. "We have a flatbread machine that makes the most delicious flatbread," he says. "Your basic Greek flatbread, we use it for gyros – fresh out of that machine? It's to die for!"

He is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Square Peg Players, which he and Thomas Forsythe have built into a thriving acting company and one of the most popular attractions of the Duluth arts scene. But Douglas Peruski says that he and the Square Peg Players are not going to be around Duluth much longer. When the current season ends, he says, he is relocating to New York, along with Thomas and Angela Forsythe. The trio says they hope to establish Square Peg in the Big Apple.