Spring Theatre

Scotty and Hannah talk to Aaron Dearth and Dan Beckman about how to get kids involced in theater in the Triad.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What are our warm up exercises.We're with theater people this morning. I
feel like we should do something.But welcome to Carolina Cares. It's Skytty
and Hannah. We're jumping right in. I'm so excited for today. Well,
we had a chance to talk withthese folks before, but they were
in a car somewhere across this greatcountry of ours, and we were in

(00:22):
our studio, so we weren't physicallytogether. They were traveling the country singing
patriotic songs. That's one of thethings I remember. We want to welcome
the founder and director of Spring Theater. That's right, but it's theater with
an R E, not an er. That's right the English way. It's
Aaron Dearth and Dan Beckman, artisticdirector again from Spring Theater. Welcome,

(00:46):
Hey, thanks for having us.Happy to be here. Well, we're
happy to see your smiling faces today. And I don't know if we should
get right into the relationship part ofthis, because what if they've broken up
by now? I don't know.I hope not. I like them too
much. You were a couple before. It's still a couple. Yeah,
but it's on the docket for threepm. Okay, So the longer this
interview is the longer our relationship willlast. Okay, make it sure.

(01:07):
And so I think the key formaking relationships solid is to travel the country
together and sing patriotic songs. Isthat what I'm understanding? Yeah, I
think that's either the best way toensure you stay together or swiftly break you
up. Before we get into whatyou're doing, now, let's talk a
little bit about that show. Whatwas the what was the reaction across the

(01:30):
country, and remind us what thatshow was all about. Yeah, So
we actually toured a show called Lettersfrom Home. I had founded it back
in twenty ten, and we didshows for veterans all over the country.
And when we talked to y'all,we were actually on our fifty States tour,
so we were performing in every singlestate of the country from January till
May. And we did it andit was a blast. And that drive
to Hawaii was the toughest part,right, Yeah, really, I went

(01:52):
through a lot of vehicles. Iremember that. But yeah, so you're
back, You're back home. Thisis home for you, right Aaron?
Yeah? Absolutely? And Dan nowtoo, he just got his license in
North Carolina, so it's official I'mproud of you. Thank you. Should
we be concerned that you're on theroads with us now or well, considering
you should have been more concerned beforebecause I was refusing to renew my license

(02:14):
which was expired for some time.You think that was a joke, but
it's so annoying. You gotta gothe DMV and wait in line. Well,
what are you focused on now thatyou're back home? You're settling in
I know that, Aaron, you'rethe as I mentioned, founder of Spring
Theater. Is that where your focusis going right now? Absolutely? We
have a youth theater that I foundit in twenty eleven and we have been

(02:36):
really working on that since we gotback. Yeah. Spring is a youth
oriented theater. We do a lotof shows in the community that involve kids
and get them involved in theater,and some of them are brand new,
some of them are veterans. Wealso do youth centric shows where the kids
get to act with adults, whichwe find is very helpful for the kids
to learn from the adults and alsoturns out we can be reminded of some

(02:57):
things as adults from the kids thatwe and forget in the hustle of bustle
of a nine to five. Sotheater is so important. I'm a theater
kid. I don't know if youknew that about me, Scottie. And
it's so often that's the first programthat gets cut from schools or there's no
creative outlet for kids like me.And I'm gonna lump you two in this
category who have no athletic ability whatsoever. Look those of you listening. Dan's

(03:19):
very tall and everyone's always asking himif he can play basketball or pole vault
and can you do either? No? Never we go. So it's so
great that you're giving this opportunity tokids all around the triad to channel their
inner thespian absolutely, you know.And what's great is, like I genuinely
think that theater does so much foreveryone, whether you want to do it

(03:40):
for a living down the road orwhether you just want to get more confidence.
We've had kids that have been scaredto like talk in front of their
class, and they'll come and they'lldo a show with us, and then
they'll leave and they'll be like thelife of the party, the class clown.
They'll be the ones that are alwaysraising their hands. So it does
so much for everyone. Of allages. Honestly, it's also a great
way to kind of learn to collaborate, because theater is kind of the ultimate

(04:03):
collaborative art form, and I reallythink it helps you to think in ways
that aren't just you know, thetunnel vision of what am I doing at
this moment, and start thinking aboutwhat everyone around you is doing and how
the whole, the whole piece ofsociety comes together. You know, you
know, I think that's a reallyimportant point you bring up. I have
a son who well I have videoof him having stage fright. We had

(04:26):
put him up to something and hewas fine. You never know how kids
are going to react, and thenthey're put on that in that situation and
he literally just froze, couldn't thinkof words, sentence weren't coming out,
and he couldn't even understand it.We got him involved in a program and
then now he's a he was afeatured vocalist and he's got involved in drama
at school. It really did changehim in his confidence. A lot of

(04:49):
kids. I think a lot ofpeople work with kids and they see them
struggle in the first rehearsal or maybethe first meeting or something, and then
they kind of are like, oh, they can't do that, so we're
going to make it easier. Butthat's just never the case. Kids can
do anything that you tell them to. I mean genuinely, I've not met
a kid that they don't get iton on the first time. It's like,

(05:09):
it's okay, you'll get it,and then they do if you don't
dumb it down for them, ifyou like, let them rise to the
bar. If you said it,then they will rise to it, which
is something that we've seen over andover again. What do you enjoy the
most about this program? Is itwatching a kid's eyes light up? What
is I don't want to put wordsin you. I was going to say
watching the kid's eyes light up?So no, you know, I've I've

(05:33):
I grew up in the Twin Citiesin Minnesota, where there's yeah represent where
there's a company called a Children's TheaterCompany, which is the world the nation's
largest children's theater and they do showsfour kids all years around and they have
like a thirty or forty million dollarbudget. So I came from a community
that had a really high reverence andhigh standard of quality for children's theater,

(05:54):
and then I found since then thatplayed other places. Sometimes we'll kind of
write kids theater off as an opportunityto put your kid on stage. They
can sing a couple of songs,stand there, look cute. But I
really really enjoy the opportunity to pushkids to an artistic potential that's well beyond
what I think a lot of peoplebelieve is possible. And then there's a
whole artistic you know, there's liketheaters like an artistic sandbox. You get

(06:16):
to play with so many different ideasand things like that, and getting kids
involved. We've had a really fortunateexperience with behind the creative table, like
our stage managers, our designers,our crew members, our assistant stage managers
all been kids. So yeah,so it's been a really cool opportunity to
get them into positions of kind ofleadership too. And it's not just the

(06:38):
performing thought. There's something really coolwhen you see a kid not only like
he was saying, performed, butlike become a part of the tech team
and then become leadership. In fact, our director is in her early twenties.
She started with me when she wasten in susical and to watch them
grow up and get the artistic abilityto lead the next generation. It's awesome

(06:59):
and funny enough that the two stagemanagers are crew members that we brought on
that fifty States tour. We're formerSpring Kids. Oh it's a family.
So if someone's listening right now,either they're a kid and they want to
get involved, or a parents listeningand thinks this would be a great opportunity
for my son or daughter. Howdo they get involved with you? They
can go on our website Spring atTheater with an r dot org. So

(07:19):
that's spr I mg t h Ea t r dot org. And I'm
glad you mentioned that too, becausea lot of families do this together.
We have opportunities for kids and adultsto be on stage together, but we
also have opportunities where someone will beon stage, someone will be backstage,
or maybe some of the folks loveto come and build the set or work
on props. So like it's areally cool thing to do as a family,

(07:43):
or maybe you just have a coupleof people in your family that are
really into it. But there's definitelya place for everybody at Spring Theater.
That voice you're hearing is Aaron Dearth. We also have Dan Beckman with us
we're talking about Spring Theater, whichwas from the mind of Aaron and now
it is a thing. It isa place you can go and where exactly
is this theater that you use.We're based out of Winston Salem and we

(08:07):
have we have events that take placeat theaters in Winston Salem. But every
winter we also do a holiday show, which is one of our favorite things
we do. We cast it andthen around the people that come out to
perform, we write an original reviewevery different every year, and that review
than tours to retirement communities all overthe Triad, so it's a pop up

(08:28):
performance. And then what it doesis it gives kids. First of all,
it does amazing things to have young, young energy coming into these retirement
homes to perform. But also itgives kids this sort of reverence of mission
based entertainment, which is something thatwe both believe in, and they get
to kind of see firsthand what artcan do to affect people beyond just entertainment.

(08:50):
It's so cool because like when youhave the big audiences, you know,
you feel the applause and you getthe attention on you, but sometimes
going into those small places where they'reresidents can't even leave, they appreciate it
so much more and kids are changed. Then then they want to do more
service based stuff, which is justlike it gives me chills thinking about it
every single time. But the Christmasshow we do every year is one of

(09:11):
my favorite things. Let me askthis specific question because I think about growing
up as a kid, so certainthings were very intimidating to you. What
if I'm not a singer, whatif I'm scared to do that? Is
there's something for me in Spring Theater. Yeah. Usually at least once a
season we do a straight play,which is just a fancy way of saying

(09:33):
a play without music. It's anon musical. So if you're just an
actor, not just an actor,but if you are a thespian, round
and strong, you can get involvedin that. We also offer lots of
classes, courses, masterclass programs,improv comedy workshops. Wow. Yeah,
so there's something for everybody. Andthen there's also working behind the scenes.
If you're a painter, if ifyou're someone who likes to play with sound,

(09:56):
you know, there's there's stuff intheater for every creative person. And
I think also just try it.You know, if you're sitting you know,
and listening to this and thinking,oh, I kind of was thinking
that would be fun, But Idon't know if I have the courage to
do it. Just try it,And I will say, in all of
my years I've been doing this,I've never seen someone do it and not
grow like there's not been an embarrassingmoment, or even if there's been a

(10:20):
moment of stage fright or something overcoming, that will do so much for your
life and your confidence. So Ithink theaters for everyone, and I think
everyone should do it. And nowyou can't run a theater without funds.
So are you guys looking for donations? How can someone give to the theater?
I don't know a theater company onearth that isn't looking for donations.

(10:41):
Yes, we do accept donations,and we also do sponsorships for shows and
things like that. If you havea business that looks to make those kinds
of grants within the community, youcan go on our website again Spring Theater
dot org theater with an r Eand we have a sponsorship and donations page
there where you can contribute if youIf you do, we part of what

(11:01):
those contributions go towards is scholarshipping kidsinto our summer theater workshops and shows and
productions, so we don't turn peopleaway from our summer productions. If kids
want to be a part, wefind a way to get them involved.
And a lot of times those donationshelp to get those kids in the doors
and doing things they wouldn't otherwise beable to do. Also, imagine these
shows, they don't come with theirown props. They have to be created.

(11:24):
That material doesn't materialize out of nowhere, right, you'd be surprised how
much theater costs. In fact,you know, it's so funny because people
are like, oh, wow,your house sold out. You must be
swimming in money, and I'm like, we're almost swimming and break even and
is that ultimate? I mean it'sa nonprofit so kind of says it right
there, exactly. Yeah, Nowyou mentioned a dollar figure that would really

(11:48):
solve things. If someone's listening rightnow, what's the amount we're looking for?
No more than one or two hundredbillion dollars? Okay, So if
someone listening right now, if youwin that megamillion, if you want,
I can promise you the best setyou've ever seen in the youth production for
that money with your name on it, but generally individuals, what do people

(12:11):
give? In all seriousness, what'samazing is this is a community, and
we have seen a lot of ourproductions have been funded by people giving like
as little as like five or tendollars. But there's just so many people
that come and give and donate,and like, you know, when you
see those little donation jars in thelobby, I highly suggest no matter what
nonprofit it is or what organization,if you're like, my five dollars isn't

(12:35):
going to do anything, I promiseit goes such a long way. Because
if one hundred people to come toa show and they each pop five dollars
in the bucket, you know thatfunds an entire staff member for a week
sometimes And it's really really cool tosee just how like your little dollar can
go so so far. And alsoI will say, speaking for all the
theaters, but especially ours, westretch those dollars so far, so genuinely,

(12:56):
any amount of sponsorship or donation isalways is appreciated to make life theater
happen. I wish people could seeyou guys. There's so much fun.
I don't want you to leave andhere's the thing. There's a there's a
joy in your eyes when you talkabout that. You're such passionate people,
and I can only imagine as aas a kid. That takes away some

(13:16):
of that fear, just to seethe positivity that because we feel better about
ourselves just being here with you.That's why we've come here today. You're
not allowed to leave. I'm lockingthe dark. You're looking a little low,
so but that has to be partof your goal as well, right,
I mean, granted, people aregoing to learn a skill, and
they're going to have all these things, but they're also going to build confidence

(13:37):
in themselves. It feels like asI talk to you, I always say
that, and this is just myopinion, but I think that you theater.
Children's theater is the most important avenuefor theater because that's when you have
the greatest opportunity to make the mostimpact. Because it's not just the kid
at an early age learning things thatcould change the course of their life,
but changing the course of a lifeof a child has huge implications for how

(14:01):
that child will then affect the worldand the people around them for years to
come. So yeah, I mean, I think anything you do for and
with kids is really important and hasa huge potential for I mean, changing
the world. Not to be toocheesy about it, but I do believe
that. And Aaron, what's kindof your message to the community as is
this came originally from your idea.So I love what you said about positive

(14:24):
energy because I feel like there's justa lot of stress in the world.
There's a lot of people that arelike rubbing heads, There's a lot of
people that love to just genuinely,like Dan just rubbed my head the studio
audience. I just yeah, exactlygreat. We tap danced on the radio
once, but that was another storynext interview. I do think that there's

(14:46):
gonna be shadows in the world.I've I've I've always thought that there are
going to be patches of darkness.But I genuinely think that if each person,
each kid, each adult, eachradio host, each theater person shines
as bright as as they can,I do think that humanity has the ability
to outshine the shadows, and Ithink that theater is an amazing way to
do that. Because we all getin one space, we all have a

(15:09):
shared project. The kids themselves becomethis unit that is indescribable. It is
like a family. And because we'reall doing the same thing towards a common
goal, I think that genuinely justbeing positive is such an important part of
life and theater and we can alldo it. If you're sitting at home,
you can smile right now. Butyou just did it, did you

(15:30):
do? I will not be toldto schmile Well. I tell you what
a treat it is to have youguys in here, and we absolutely want
to support everything you're about. Solet's once again give out the website and
get other folks involved. Yeah,get involved www dot Spring Theater dot org.
Theater with an R. All right, and next time we'll have you

(15:52):
guys come in and teach us tomime on the radio. Aaron Dearth,
founder and executive director and Dan Beckman, artistic director. It is Spring Theater.
Let's go support him. I'm ScottyBlaisdell along with Hannah Tyler, and
this is Carolina Cares.