The Definition of Positivity, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

The Definition of Positivity: Pack Your Bags the Night Before, Start Over When the Ground Moves, and Ask What If It Was Possible

Danielle Parker, a high school teacher and a student here since 2018, came on the morning after an online masterclass feeling five steps back. What positivity actually is: the decision you make the night before, starting your affirmations over when the world changes, the coffee shop that beat a giant by doubling down on its drive-through, the question that invented the teacher cam, and how to journal wins and losses so you can find your own way out of a rut.

Stuck in a Rut? Start Over, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

Stuck in a Rut? Start Over: New Affirmations, Wins and Losses in the Journal, and 120% No Matter the Format

by Matthew Dearing

Danielle did the self-growth workshop, kept the journal, said the affirmations, and still felt like she was spinning her wheels, and she’d walked into the first online masterclass half-prepared because it wasn’t the real thing. What I told her: you took five steps back and you’re still ten ahead of everyone who bailed. Now start over, on purpose.

The Traffic Stop, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

The Traffic Stop: An Improvised Radio Play With a Motorcycle, a Police Umbrella and a Dog Named Annie

by Matthew Dearing

Brian runs an improv troupe and admitted he has no idea how to start a show. So we started one. Jason Jackson, Brian and me, no plan: two college buddies on a new motorcycle, an officer with a government-issued umbrella, rain, parking tickets, and a police dog in training. Twelve minutes, all made up.

Path to Finding Your Character, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

Path to Finding Your Character: The 50 Questions Are Only the Start, Write the Short Stories, and Inside Out Then Outside In

by Matthew Dearing

Ariella asked how you become your character when the 50 questions give you facts you don’t know what to do with. Why the questions are a starting point and never the finish, how to take one question and write the short story under it, finding the key to a line, why every fight needs context, inside out then outside in with an animal, and how I built a backstory that let me love a man who shot his father.

Stop Lying to Yourself, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

Stop Lying to Yourself: Grounding, Mustard, and the Power of I Don’t Know

by Matthew Dearing

An episode of Mornings with Matt on the lie actors tell with their eyebrows and the lies the rest of us tell with our phones. Why a character starts with the shoes, what ‘putting mustard on it’ means, and the Epictetus line that comes down to three words.

Online Courses, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

Online Courses: An Improvised Play With a Lonely Horse, a Search Warrant and a Ten Percent Royalty

by Matthew Dearing

The title came from Joey’s search history. Jason Jackson, Joey and I made up the rest: Chip, who feeds the horse late; Megan, who is always right; Seymour, a talking horse who wants a female acquaintance and a house to live in; two strays with a Marlboro saddle; and Deputy Officer McGee with a warrant about square footage. How a play finds its ending in a word from the first minute.

When Your Family Says Get a Real Job, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

When Your Family Says Get a Real Job: How an Actor Answers, and How Hard to Work

by Matthew Dearing

Amanda grew up in Indonesia, is signed with an agency, trains with us, and can’t tell her family she’s an actor without hearing get a real job. What I told her: stop putting yourself in the pain, answer the question in three words, and then work like you’re in med school, because that’s where the confidence comes from.

Work Is Our Passion, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

Work Is Our Passion: Teaching From Your Strengths, Ask About Values First, and Learning the Skill Nobody Assigned You

by Matthew Dearing

Shea and Joey ran the podcast without me. A four-year-old who lapped Shea in character work, why a teacher never has to be better than the student, the light bulb moment that makes the hours worth it, a conversation with a student about choosing people by their values, why Joey films every class like a movie, and how Shea taught herself to run our website because she asked what she could do.

Little Mark's Biodome, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

Little Mark’s Biodome: An Improvised Scene About a Fourth-Grade Science Project That Gets Out of Hand

by Matthew Dearing

No suggestion, no plan, sixteen minutes. Joey is Uncle Joey, I’m Little Mark, and the science project on the table has popsicle-stick trees, an ant colony in paper clothes, a graveyard with named headstones, a prison, and one detail Uncle Joey really should not have explained. How a scene builds itself when two people agree with everything.

Momentum, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

Momentum: The Result You Get Today Came From Something You Did Six Months Ago in the Dark

by Matthew Dearing

Joey put a chart on the table: podcast numbers up, up, up, then down. What we decided to do about it, the outdoor table I stripped and stained for two weeks in 110 degrees, the difference between honest and petty, and why we overuse the word love.

Creating Consistent Content, an episode of the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast

Creating Consistent Content: Find Your Why, Treat Acting Like a Business, and the Seven-Day Media Fast

by Matthew Dearing

A coaching call with Tyler Weeks, a coach and actor who had more time than ever and was spending it on video games and TikTok. Why more free time made him less consistent, the one question that gets you out of bed, treating acting like a startup, my non-negotiables, why you post before it feels good enough, and the seven-day media fast I sent him on.