Daryl Kinaschuk (deco dawson) was on his way to becoming a playwright and director before he ever set foot in a U of M classroom. The university experience, though, gave him the opportunities to make connections and build on those attributes.

A third-year Education student majoring in theatre, dawson already has 13 plays, five short films and a Blizzard award to his credit.

A Black Hole Theatre production of his 1998 Fringe Festival show, A Silent Act, prompted film and theatre prof George Toles to invite Winnipeg auteur Guy Maddin to check out the young talent. Maddin liked the play (an exploration of the silent film genre) enough to urge dawson to sign up for one of the filmmaker's U of M film courses.

Maddin's course and encouragement helped dawson to dive into film. As a result, not only did dawson win the prize for the best student/amateur film at the February, 1999 Blizzard awards, for a short film entitled Film (luster), he was also nominated in the professional competition for best editing. The Blizzards are the annual awards of the growing Manitoba film industry. Characteristically, after experimenting with film, dawson jumped in completely and now has five films to his credit, and has entered some of his works for possible inclusion in the Toronto Film Festival.