Growing up in Castlegar, Dallas Sauer dreamt not of playing in the NHL, but instead performing on the silver screen. The 21 year-old is currently in the third year of a three year program at Studio 58 at the Theatre Conservatory at Langara College in Vancouver.
"I didn't start sacrificing sports for it, committing to acting, until I was in grade 10," he told the Castlegar News. "In grade 4 at Kinnaird Elementary I had a teacher that had us perform dramatic scenarios in class. That was what really got me started. I remember we did improv scenes where the guys dressed up as girls and the girls as guys. She (Mrs. Walter) was my biggest inspiration."
Currently, Sauer and his classmates are performing the Broadway musical "Spring Awakening" in front of big crowds at the arts school.
"It was on Broadway in 2007 and was a big, popular hit," he said. "So our school was really lucky to get the rights to it because it's such a big show and our school doesn't have a ton of money. It's going really well. We're getting really great reviews."
The play is set in 1890s Germany and is about the coming of age of the characters. Sauer plays Moritz Stiefel, an angsty young German teen who is just beginning to learn about love and life.
"When the singing starts it becomes very contemporary," Sauer said. "We do punk rock songs and such. It's about the characters venting and getting everything out that they can't get out in society in 1890s Germany because it's so repressed."
The three week run of the play finished up on Feb. 24. Sauer will graduate in April after performing an original one man play which is compulsory for all students.
"It's been a blast," he said. "It's the most fun time I've had doing theatre in my life."
Upon graduation, Sauer will be looking at hiring a film agent and getting into movies. "I'll starting working my butt off auditioning for films and stay creating theatre with all the contacts I've made at this school."
Sauer appears in the local film The Change Agent which will be playing at the Brilliant Cultural Centre on Feb. 16 with doors opening at 6 p.m.
I haven't even seen it yet because it hasn't appeared in Vancouver, but it's supposed to be really good, says Sauer. "The director has submitted it to the Vancouver and Toronto Film Festivals."