Welcome back to the Dearing Acting Studio Kids Podcast. We promised our Youth Improv students a personal podcast to help them practice improv from home during quarantine. As the coronavirus has shaken the nation, we've been forced to move our classes online. In 13 years of operation, we've never closed our doors and we refused to give up now. Our Wednesday online Youth Improv class was a huge fail forward. Navigating different programs, and technical difficulties we fought through and had a fun class, but it was far below our expectations. 

What are our expectations?

Our guardian team at Dearing Acting Studio runs on a belief in the 10x rule. We repeat it day in and day out and the concept is simple. You give ten times the value of what the person is paying for or expecting. The key is to do this selflessly seeking nothing in return. We believe that giving is one of the most powerful things you can do in this world, so we seek ways to help every day. Even though the class technically "worked" it wasn't smooth, organized, and seemless yet, and that is what we shoot for. 

What is Yes Because?

Yes because is an improv exercise that helps with building your scene. You might have heard of the famous second city exercise, "yes and" which is what we used to teach. We've transitioned into using because for what it does to the scene. Yes because is a vertical move. What that means is it pushes the scene forward into a new direction, building off of what has already been established. Yes and is a horizontal move. This adds new information to the scene instead of building on what's right in front of you. While they are both great tools, yes because is the foundation for our program.

Teach Me How

Yes because starts with a relationship based statement to your scene partner. For example I might say, "Mom you always make me smile." The second step is agreeing to the information that your scene partner gives you. For example, you would respond by saying, "Yes I always make you smile because..." The third step is giving a logical reason for why the information is true, this is your because statement. For example, "Because we have a strong relationship." From here the exercise continues, with you repeating the latest statement and adding because! 

The team was so excited to hop on the podcast and chat this week. We will let you in on a little secret.  So, our team has an awesome chemistry (still a work in progress) that we have built to chat the way we do on our podcasts, but most of the time, we have an outline as to what topics we want to hit on. That being said, we thrive on being able to adapt to whatever topics of conversation are drawn to our hearts. Do we want to hit our outline? Sure. But, are we free to improvise away from it when necessary? ABSOLUTELY. (Of course that deserved all caps) In fact, some of our best conversations derive from being able to audible with each other and find new discoveries from there. 

We begin this episode of the Dearing Studio Podcast- The Power of "I AM"  with discussing the statements that we often give ourselves without truly questioning them. We also touch on the imposter syndrome and how easy it is to preach advice to others that you may be unwilling to swallow a dosage of. 

NEW SKILL! PUBLIC SPEAKING

Shea took on a new challenge this week as she gave her first official public speech. Her topic was on kindness! So, she obviously wore her "be kind" shirt. Speaking in front of a crowd is one of the struggles that many students have coming into the Dearing Acting Studio. Subsequently, this is why scripted work and improvisation are excellent tools for improving public speaking skills. Check out this cool article about public speaking and why we are so fearful of it. It is an exciting time for the Dearing Team as we have added speaking engagements to our services. Want more info on this? Check out our page here.  

TAKING STUDENTS NEXT LEVEL: LEEANN DEARING 

The Dearing Acting Studio was blessed with a guest youth teacher this week! OG instructor and rockstar improvisor, Leeann Dearing (A founder of Dearing Acting Studio) was able to shake it up with our youth actors this week and give them a whole new perspective on improvisation. Teaching kids the "why's" and "how's" of improv is no easy feat, but Leeann was able to create a high-level-learning atmosphere - while having way too much fun, of course. 

Check out our other Dearing Studio Podcasts and subscribe! Happy listening. :) 

Welcome back to the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast! Today our Guardian team had three loaded topics that we reviewed. Masterclass, Goal Rocks, and Teaching to the Person. Let's dive in and unpack these topics as we head into March.

Masterclass Intensive Scene Study 

Our Masterclass scene study intensive is one of the highest levels of mastery training offered at the Dearing Studio. Within a four day period, students perform various scenes from award winning plays receive critique by master coach and studio director, Matthew Dearing. Each scene performs twice over the course of the 4 days, with a day in between to rehearse and apply critique from day one. Matt chose to model this intensive after training with the highly coveted acting coach, Larry Moss. 

Each one of the Guardians team has performed in the Masterclass. We have all had transformative experiences as we have grown as performers and human beings. Each story is unique in the way that our struggles and demons  to light. Although our stories are varying, the outcome was the same for all of us... LIFE CHANGING. We believe in using acting as a vehicle for personal development and this class is a direct representation of that. 

The "Rock" Idea

We revisit our goal "rocks" as Matt explains how the idea originated from Gino Wickman's book, Traction. Wickman speaks about creating small but big goals that are concrete and attainable to hit quarterly. Of course, Matt being Matt encourages us as a team to take a mini field trip to the "mountain of beauty" as his daughter calls it. :) We all gathered different rocks and assigned them goals. We all connect with having a "physical" elements constantly present and reminding us of the goals we set. 

Teaching the Person

As a team, we typically will de-brief after each class to go over the celebrate the successes, but most importantly, discuss growth points and evaluate where we can grow as high-level coaches. Brian mentioned to us that his transformation happened when he was teaching the student instead of teaching the piece. Every student that walks through our doors is coached from where they are at. This means, their state of mind, their skill level, their work ethic, and of course, their willingness to grow and succeed. 

Thank you for listening to the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. Please like, subscribe.....and have a Dearing day! :) 

In this episode of our professional development podcast we discuss the importance of seeking new clients while you are having success. Or in other words how to "Plant While You Harvest". We're excited to have special guest Tony Calvis on the mic with Brian Sweeney, Matthew Dearing, and Joey Sweeney.

Tony Calvis and the Nextiva connection to professional development

Tony Calvis is an extremely successful human being who believes in constant growth. He works with Nextiva, one of the top business communications companies in world. Nextiva's CEO, Tomas Gorny, is a visionary in the tech industry. Nextiva has been using our Professional Development Services for years. Dearing Acting Studio has partnered in Nextiva for Corporate Training, Keynote Speech Writing, Speech Coaching, Team Building and Sales Workshops. Matthew Dearing also reflects back on the early days of Dearing Acting Studio and how we first came to meet Tony. We enjoyed going down memory lane to celebrate our growth.

Other topics include casting in phoenix, video production and mastery mindset

Tony Calvis is the creative content director at Nextiva. He is also an expert in video production and video editing. Tony was brought into the studio to check out our acting classes, theater and online acting courses in order to help us find ways to continue to grow. In this podcast we go through the importance of conflict within the work environment, having a mastery mindset, casting in phoenix, production best practices, and more. We hope you enjoy this episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Professional Development Podcast where we discuss the connection between life and acting. Please Like, Subscribe, Share and have a Dearing Day!

To see the full video of this podcast go you the episode HERE on our Youtube channel.

If you havent heard of Kyle Maynard and the unbelievable triumphs he's conquered in his life, go visit our good friend "Google" and prepare to pick your jaw up off the floor. Here's a sneak peak for you....

Kyle is known for becoming the first quadruple amputee to reach the summit of BOTH Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Aconcagua without prosthetics. (Insane, we know) He is also a best selling author, ESPY award-winning mixed martial arts athlete, and the Terminator refers to him as the "real deal".

Matt, Brian and Shea from the Dearing Team first heard Kyle speak at the 2019 NEXTCON Conference and were in awe of Kyle's demeanor and mindset. Matt being in the right place at the right time, got to speak with Kyle ahead of his opening keynote speech. After the session, the team was intoduced to Kyle and the moment was nothing short of special.

Long story short, we knew we had to have him on the Pod. (Duh.) So, 4 days and a phone call later, Kyle called in to chat!

Topics discussed with Kyle and the team include:

• Horrible mispronunciation of words
• What is "Mastery"?
• Being free in a world full of limitations and social normalities.
• Finding power in the unknown.

Happy Listening!

We love our excessive group chats as much as the next guys and gals, but....what really consitutes being left on "read"?

Aside from the comedy, we talk about what it means to tell people how you feel about them, getting fired up to WANT growth in your life, and navigating the process of growth.

Happy listening!

Topics From Todays Episode:

• Are we trendy? Can we keep up with millennial terminology?

• Who’s turn is it really to do the office coffee run?

• Why are we all so offended by the “K.” response?

• Humans aren’t mind readers. Speak up about your feelings and thoughts.

• Listen to those that want to make you better.