Though some dreams of making it big may seem far-fetched, and therefore lost before a child grows up, senior Ben Hollenbeck is pursuing his aspiration to act adulthood.

“I got into acting in my sophomore year. I had kind of always been interested in it, and I decided to try it after I stopped doing band,” Hollenbeck said.

The draw to acting was immediate for Hollenbeck, and once he got into it, he had no wish to stop. Everything about the art of theater appealed to Hollenbeck when he got the opportunity to step out of his own shoes and into anyone else’s.

“[My] favorite part of acting [is], not to give a mom answer, but pretty much everything. Going up on stage, being in the space. Just being able to work in a realistic environment all of the time where people treat you like a professional, it’s honestly amazing,” Hollenbeck said.

Of course, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies when you have to show convincing emotions, no matter how fake. While some of Hollenbeck’s roles might initially seem bland, he has to look a little closer to decipher who he’s really trying to be.

“Roles can be difficult if the character isn’t as clear as they first seem. You can take a look at a character from one angle, and they might appear to be simple, and just this flat boring character; but you have to look at it from all perspectives to be able to get an idea of who the character actually is if you’re going to play them well,” Hollenbeck said.

Hollenbeck’s most recent role is an intense, abusive father in the award winning one-act.

“The role; it can be taken in a really harsh and depressing tone, because it is a harsh and depressing play, there’s no beating around the bush there. But, and don’t take this the wrong way, it’s probably one of the most fun roles I’ve ever had because there’s a lot of improvisation I have to do and a lot of stage combat. The stage combat scene that we set up is actually pretty good. It’s pretty terrifying,” Hollenbeck said. “Playing that kind of character, it’s one of those things where if you think about it too much, it becomes very depressing, which is why I try and live in the moment as that character, and then when I step offstage I’m like, ‘Alright, done with him, just pull back’.”

When looking towards the future, Hollenbeck is taking an unconventional approach to the college then career path.

“This isn’t because of the whole Trump election thing, I’ve been planning this since seventh grade. I plan on taking a gap year and then going through the whole process of getting a permanent residency [in Canada] What that’ll do is basically let me go to college for the same cost as a Canadian citizen, which is really cheap. Even if I do that, I’ll still be able to come back and do [more] college here. It’s just something that can widen my horizons at the cost of one [lost] year,” Hollenbeck said.

Hollenbeck won’t be off the grid in some random maple syrup town though; instead, he’ll be continuing to perfect his skills as an actor.

I’ll probably be doing a bunch of acting stuff up there because the town that I’m moving to is a very Shakespeare-oriented place,” Hollenbeck said.

With a rough idea of what he wants to do, Hollenbeck is a step ahead of many American teenagers, but he will still have to experience the unknown as he attempts to succeed in a difficult career.

“Right now I kind of just want to learn the craft, but I also want to learn the business. I don’t honestly know enough about the business to say that I have a definite plan… but we’ll see where it goes,” Hollenbeck. “It’s not going to be easy, no artist’s life ever really is.”