Door County audiences may already be familiar with one of our stars in Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night from over two decades of performance history with Northern Sky Theater in Fish Creek where he was best known for playing Marvin in Guys on Ice (a role he performed over 2,000 times!). Although Doug has played many enjoyable roles throughout his long career, he says that he most identified with the role of Marvin. He also loved hearing the audience’s laughter as they recognized Marvin’s traits in their own family and friends. 

“Doug Mancheski you’ve seen many times doing goofus roles. This is entirely different,” said Warren Gerds (a former theatrical critic from Green Bay who has written 1,426 reviews) about Doug’s performance in Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night.

Doug’s theatrical aspirations vary as well. He has long dreamed of playing either brother in Eugene O’Neil’s Long Days Journey Into Night, widely regarded as one of the great American plays of the 20th century. The father of American Theatre, O’Neil wrote plays about regular people dealing with life’s everyday hardships. A few of his other dream roles include Tom in The Glass Menagerie, Sweeney in Sweeney Todd, and he would also like to perform Shakespeare again.

While Northern Sky Theater is where Doug has found a long-standing theatrical home, one of the most interesting venues he has played was actually in Lake Michigan. In the mid-1990s, Doug was involved with a group headed by now Broadway director Diane Paulus. They performed an immersive piece about Beethoven with local children on Lake Michigan beach in Bailey’s Harbor and yes… in the lake! Hundreds of locals attended the show and Doug reminiscences that it “was a hoot and very special.”

For someone who got his start in high school musicals and with his extensive theatre experience since then, it’s no surprise that Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night is not Doug’s first world premiere. At Northern Sky Theater, he has worked on world premiere musicals for decades. He says it’s fun to develop a new show and be the first to play the role. But what sparked his interest in Ryan’s Pub was Alec Silberblatt’s flair for dialogue. 

“It leapt off the page as being very original,” said Mancheski, “Plus the mysterious angle to the story is really riveting.”

As Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious,” and Ryan’s Pub delivers a beautifully real and mysterious tale of facing your demons. You won’t want to miss Doug Mancheski in Alec Silberblatt’s world premiere of Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night running Wednesday through Sunday through October 12, 2025.