NEW
VISIONS, NEW MISSIONS, NEW HORIZONS
Dear Friends & Colleagues,
Dear Friends & Colleagues,
We’ve been on a journey…
8 years that I have been leading OTOA Workshops as Founder & Master teacher, and over the last 5 years that I have been running Gia Forakis & Company (GF&CO) as Artistic Director of a theater production company, it’s become very clear that the same OTOA principles that bring clarity and enrichment to the staged event are just as meaningful when applied to individual and collective activities that take place off of the stage.
As a result, this year we will take the first steps towards transforming GF&CO’s identity from being known as a Theater Production Company into being more solidly identified as a Studio-Lab for the OTOA technique.
Since 2011, and the founding of GF&CO, again
and again I would find myself brought up short when the only way forward was to
“walk the OTOA walk”: one (incremental) thought and one (component of) action at
a time! Because, whether I was in the role of OTOA teacher, stage
director, artistic director, or creative human being, a daily OTOA practice
became essential.
This journey of reflections, discovery, and confrontation, has led to a revitalizing new perspective, a dynamic new vision and a series of exhilarating new changes within GF&CO and OTOA, where our focus will be to link these two entities more directly into a studio-lab with a wider range of offerings.
This journey of reflections, discovery, and confrontation, has led to a revitalizing new perspective, a dynamic new vision and a series of exhilarating new changes within GF&CO and OTOA, where our focus will be to link these two entities more directly into a studio-lab with a wider range of offerings.
Where GF&CO began as a forum for engaging audiences with new avenues of theatre-making through the exploratory lens and innovative technique of OTOA, we now see it as a platform for engaging the public in a larger array of OTOA forums and practices.
Where OTOA began as a technique for enriching the tools and techniques of performers and directors for a more physically engaged mode of story-telling, we now see an expanding variety of OTOA workshops, labs, salons and studio-projects, with a broader scope of OTOA applications.
In these ways we see a more vital way to serve our community (and to expand our network) by sharing what we think is one of our most valuable commodities: the OTOA technique.
GF&CO members, past and present, have found the
principles of OTOA to be fundamental tools for enhancing their craft as well as
a versatile perspective for: maintaining longevity in their field, pragmatic
administrative application, untangling professional, personal or artistic
road-blocks, and as basic support for the daily discipline of a creative
practice in any field and for every enterprise.
And now we are developing workshops (such as the one listed above in May) where I will be bringing these beneficial OTOA principles into a curriculum of Creative LIfe Practice.
OTOA's practice of incremental thought and action is the preliminary step that manages all our goals, no matter what the project --big or small, quotidian or visionary.
OTOA has been the central operating principle behind GF&CO, artistically and administratively, since its inception. And in an age where multi-tasking challenges our depth of attention and the enrichment of our connections, we see that OTOA is the best “product” we have to offer to the public and to one another."
- Gia Forakis, Greenpoint Brooklyn, NY, March, 2016
And now we are developing workshops (such as the one listed above in May) where I will be bringing these beneficial OTOA principles into a curriculum of Creative LIfe Practice.
OTOA's practice of incremental thought and action is the preliminary step that manages all our goals, no matter what the project --big or small, quotidian or visionary.
OTOA has been the central operating principle behind GF&CO, artistically and administratively, since its inception. And in an age where multi-tasking challenges our depth of attention and the enrichment of our connections, we see that OTOA is the best “product” we have to offer to the public and to one another."
- Gia Forakis, Greenpoint Brooklyn, NY, March, 2016
OTOA CREATIVE LIFE PRACTICE
WORKSHOP
MAY 6-8*
New York City
Suited to Creative Thinkers in Every Field
Offering the Practice & Principles
for Creative & Personal Transformation
*This workshop will conclude early on May 8th for Mother's Day
Full Price: $200
Early Bird Discount: $100
Early Bird price is available through APRIL 22nd, 2016
The aim of OTOA Creative Life Practice (CLP)™ is to address how we shape our lives by introducing tools that support a creative life practice, and bring us in sync with a more unified sense of self. Utilizing the principles of OTOA, we will identify and investigate a 6 Point System for Creative Influence & Transformation.
OTOA PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUE
& TRAINING WORKSHOP
JUNE 10-12
New York City
Suited to Performers, Directors,
Choreographers, Singers, Dancers & Public Speakers
Open to New & Returning Participants
Full Price: $200
Early Bird Discount: $100
Early Bird price is available through MAY 27, 2016
Attending an OTOA Performance Technique & Training (PT&T) Workshop offers Performers a clear approach towards a more specific, physically engaged, moment-to-moment life on stage; Directors the tools for crafting a dynamic, visually engaging and detailed form of storytelling; Public Speakers, the tools to liberate your motivations for a more detailed, engaging and dynamic presence.
OTOA LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP
THE YALE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
YALE UNIVERSITY
APRIL 16
New Haven, CT
& TRAINING WORKSHOP
JUNE 10-12
New York City
Suited to Performers, Directors,
Choreographers, Singers, Dancers & Public Speakers
Open to New & Returning Participants
Full Price: $200
Early Bird Discount: $100
Early Bird price is available through MAY 27, 2016
Attending an OTOA Performance Technique & Training (PT&T) Workshop offers Performers a clear approach towards a more specific, physically engaged, moment-to-moment life on stage; Directors the tools for crafting a dynamic, visually engaging and detailed form of storytelling; Public Speakers, the tools to liberate your motivations for a more detailed, engaging and dynamic presence.
OTOA LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP
THE YALE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
YALE UNIVERSITY
APRIL 16
New Haven, CT
Gia Forakis will appear
as a Guest Speaker for the
The Yale Leadership Conference, at Yale
University
leading an introductory
workshop in
OTOA Creative Life Practice (CLP)
to
a group of over 50 students
OTOA VERMONT RESIDENCY
AUG 14 - 20
Vermont
CHECK WEBSITE FOR VERMONT DETAILS
FOR INFORMATION & REGISTRATION
Click "WORKSHOP" tab, select "SCHEDULE" and follow prompts to workshop you are interested in...
All photos ©.2016, Gia Forakis
