David Nail began his career in theatre arts after one year of engineering school in rural Texas. Although doing well in his classes, David was drawn to the stage more often than the study hall or library; he finished his year and returned home to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. David auditioned and was admitted to the Performing Artists' Musical Theatre Conservatory in Dallas, Texas. Working hard to polish his acting, singing and dancing over two very challenging years, David graduated in the summer of 1997 and quickly started working as an actor. The first couple of years David was busy enough with acting in Industrials and doing character work for a local entertainment agency, but the idea of moving to New York or L.A. was far from his mind.
David returned to school at Texas Wesleyan University and earned a B.F.A. in Theatre Directing. After graduation, David appeared in a handful of productions while concentrating most of his efforts behind the scenes in the director's chair. David directed 16 productions over five years, all the while working on his scenic design and sound design skills. In addition to his work in the theatre, David worked for a well known lighting company in Dallas, Texas for nine years before partnering with some colleagues to open Switch Lighting Group; over ten years, he designed lights for over a thousand special events which were attended by hundreds of celebrities and major corporations. After Switch Lighting Group was up and running, David left the company and his ownership rights to his friends and packed up and moved to Washington in the summer of 2007 to be near his family and take a well deserved break.
David jumped right in to Puget Sound theatre by designing the lights for West of Brooklyn Theatre's "Lightning in a Bottle" which premiered at Theatre Off Jackson and worked with his church (Church of Living Water; Olympia, Wa) to perform in their annual murder mystery, "Bon Voyage: High Risk on the High Seas." Soon after, David was "discovered" by director/producer Scot Whitney of Harlequin Productions, in Olympia Washington, and was cast as Dubbah Morrison in the West Coast Premier of Israel Horovitz's new play Sins of the Mother. In August 2009, David reprised his role in Sins in the New England premier, directed by the playwright, Israel Horovitz at Gloucester Stage.
In 2009, David also appeared on stage in the Lucky Eagle Casino's Murder Mystery, "Without a Hitch," which was co-produced by Harlequin Productions and Generations, a new musical by Daniel Perrin, produced by Cedar Park Church in Bothell, Wa.
David's stage roles include Sam Byck in Steven Sondheim's Assassins, Larry in Patrick Marber's Closer, Vince in Tape by Stephen Belber, Ken in Neil Simon's Rumors, Edmund in O'neil's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Willum in Larry Shue's The Nerd, Parsons in George Orwell's 1984, Captain Andy in the classic musical Showboat, Carlo in A Day in Hollywood; A Night in the Ukraine, Jon in Grand Night for Singing (a musical revue of Richard Rogers' and Oscar Hammerstein's lessor known works) and Lem from the same duo's State Fair. David has also appeared in multiple chidren's shows including Cereal Box Submarine, Tales from Cyberworld, New School Blue's and Tales of Dragons; all written and produced by Mountain View College's theatre arts program. David was also invited back to MVC as an alumnus to direct Randy Clower's Curse of the Fly; a musical spoof of the 1958 motion picture The Fly. David has also appeared onstage in mulitple industrial theatre productions for some very well known companies, a few dozen other live theatre productions, several Dance Gala's as a rhythm tap choreographer and dancer and has taught acting by directing actors from various backgrounds and talent levels in live theatre productions big and small.
He is extremely happy to call Washington State his home and is looking forward to the day when his dream of owning and operating a live theatre and cafe can be fullfilled. In the mean time, David is looking to start collecting actors, singers, dancers, directors, designers, painters, musicians and all the like who share the same passion for the arts as he.
