TRAVERSE CITY -- The playwright, Arthur Miller, once said "The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life."
But for former Traverse City resident Nick Demos, now a theater producer in New York, success in the theater was no accident.
After graduating from Traverse City Central in 1989, Demos headed to Western Michigan University. One year later he auditioned for the national tour of "The Pajama Game," He was cast and spent the next year touring with the show.
"At the end of that tour I made the decision to move to New York and not go back to school," Demos said.
It was a wise choice for the 36-year-old Demos, who has been gainfully employed ever since.
In the six years following "The Pajama Game," he worked as an actor, performing in New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Milan.
At 25, he decided to change directions.
"I decided I wanted to start directing and choreographing, so that is when I started my 'second' career as a director," Demos said.
That second career lead him to the Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City where he was hired as a guest director and choreographer, eventually moving up to artistic director as the theater itself grew.
Demos is now transitioning into what could be called his "third" career as he puts on the producer's hat and leads his new company, Demos Bizar Entertainment.
"I think (producing) was a natural progression," he said. "It sort of sums up all of my experiences in the theater. I am what they call an 'artistic producer.' I am very hands-on."
His company has already produced a show called "Make Me a Song" on London's West End and off-Broadway, as well as the national tour of "The Drowsy Chaperone." This fall they will be producing "Vanities" on Broadway.
Even with all of his successes, he hasn't forgotten where he came from.
"I credit [the Old Town Playhouse] and the Dance Center with my entire career," he said. "If I had not had the amazing mentors like Phil Murphy, Ede Myer, Betty Kuhn and several others in TC, I would never have had this career. The encouragement of my talent and the nurturing of it was everything."
He said that Traverse City afforded him opportunities he might not have had elsewhere.
"I worked in all aspects of the theater before I even left TC," he said. "I had been an actor, a stagehand, I had painted scenery [and] I had choreographed entire musicals."
So, is this the life he expected back in the days when he was a high school student choreographing shows at the Old Town Playhouse?
"Yes and no," he said. "I think I always said, 'I just wanted to work ... to have a life in the theater' and that is exactly what I have done.
Looking down the road, he said there's any number of possibilities for where he might be 10 years from now. While he doesn't see himself performing, he's leaving that door open.
"But if I have learned anything over the years, never say never ... to just about anything."
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