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"Creativity is something we employ
in the manifestation of all our endeavors." - Gia Forakis
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"Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of being.”
- John Cleese
"You could say that OTOA CLP is a course of study for creative actualization.
What I have found in my own practice is that CLP is like a light switch for Enrichment & Joy."
- Gia Forakis
OTOA Creative Life Practice is a course of study in how to create synthesis and a sustainable sense of fulfillment in our daily life practice.
The benefits include a path for enriching your life and discovering a more engaging sense of purpose.
The focus of OTOA CLP teaching is to identify the seemingly intangible and mystical characteristics that are associated with "creativity", discover our relationship with them , and learn how to apply them in our personal and professional lives so that we may bring transformation and actualization in the service of our true nature.
"Creativity is not magic. It is life lived in Connection with Your True Nature."
- Gia Forakis
OTOA CLP™ is based upon the principles of the OTOA Technique, and intended to bring a richer engagement with the present as a path for a building a more fulfilling, abundant, rewarding and worthwhile future.
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Class participation includes: individual and group exercises, writing, ritual, craft making , observation, and dialogue.
Exercises are followed by class discussion and exchange.
Some workshops, but not all, require participants to prepare a pre-class creative exercise before each session and/or on the evenings between contiguous workshop dates. It is advised that you set aside at least 20-30 minutes for these exercises.
Some physical movement may be encouraged, but nothing strenuous or beyond the capacity of the participant’s abilities or level of comfort.
“It's the caliber of our questions, followed by the dedication of our inquiry, that charts our path through life”
- Gia Forakis
Connection is the core of our most primary motivation.
" Gia's [Creative Life Practice] classes have been more helpful and enlightening than I could have even imagined, and I find myself using the tools and thoughts you shared with us, daily"
~ Karissa Lang, Artist, Healer, Brooklyn, NY
***The First Monday Series are 90-minute OTOA Creative Life Practice workshop held on the 1st Monday of every month that explore the principles for creating the practice of your life. using the creative process. CLICK HERE for registration.
The CLP Workshops provide participants with an investigation of CLP's 6 Aspects of Creativity & The Core Principle. Each class is uniquely designed to focus on building a deeper connection with one single aspect through writing, dialogue, ritual, and the principles of One-Thought-One-Action (OTOA). See our SCHEDULE PAGE
If you desire a more personal and individualized focus, such as addressing a private concern, a personal goal, a professional project, a professional roadblock, or tif you're looking for support to make comprehensive changes in one or more areas of your life. these are all good ways to make use of OTOA CLP Private Coaching, which can be tailored to address your, needs, goals, schedule and budget. You do not need to have not participated in one of the group CLP offerings, to become a Private Coaching client. See our PRIVATE COACHING PAGE
When our schedule and location doesn't match your schedule or geography: You may want to consider bringing an OTOA Creative Life Practice Seminar to your company, institution, classroom, community, business, or private gathering. This option can be tailored to address your, needs, goals, schedule and budget. Proposals for scheduling your own seminar should be submitted 4-8 weeks in advance of your intended date. To explore this option contact visit the CUSTOM WORKSHOPS page.
This workshop focuses on the life practice of the theater artists off of the stage and outside of the rehearsal room. In traditional acting classes and theater training programs, the primary and necessary focus is on the craft of the actor and the business of the performing arts. What is not often addressed is how to live a fulfilling creative life before, during, and after each project. With or without a production, the individual theater artist requires on-going enrichment of their creative life that brings a quality of fulfillment no matter what theater project they are doing and no matter what job they are doing to earn a living.
This format, which meets on one evening each week, for 4 hours, over 6 consecutive weeks, is intended for a deeper investigation into CLP's 6 Aspects for Creative Influence, through weekly creative assignments that engage the participant in an investigation and application of one Aspect of Creative Influence each week. MORE INFORMATION TO COME.
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“OTOA is for every human being that needs to get in greater touch with the 'silent' parts of themselves and be fearless to explore life to its fullest, moment to moment.”
- Tony Naumovski, Actor
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CLICK HERE Workshop Schedules & Registration Information
CLICK HERE: An Interview with Gia Forakis
In the international journal The Theatre Time
Proprietary: The Six Aspects for Creativity, Core Principle, and the OTOA CLP Mandala™ are proprietary reference tools. I kindly ask that you do not share them in any format (not as text, a hard copy, nor as digital media). I make this information available to OTOA CLP workshop participants, students, and private OTOA CLP life coaching clients for their personal use only.
Over the last 18 years, as I have been continuing to develop, teach, and practice One-Thought-One-Action (OTOA)™ as a performance technique, in the rehearsal room, class room and on the stage, along the way it became clear to me that the same principles that bring clarity and enrichment to the staged event through the practice of OTOA are equally as meaningful when applied to our individual personal, professional and creative growth off the stage.
By applying the same principles of OTOA Performance Technique & Training (PTT)™ that I was practicing as a teacher and as a stage director with performers, as well as the application of dramaturgy skills applied through the lens of OTOA in preparation for a directing project, to the practice of my daily life I discovered personal, professional, and creative benefits with wide ranging results, such as: specificity, clarity, a sense of ease and purpose, being more efficient and aligned with my goals and objectives, as well as a new sense of confidence.
By implementing the primary principle of OTOA, "identifying smaller increments of thought as smaller moments of physical action," to my daily activities I was expanding the creative process into all areas of my life. In other words, I began treating my life as if it were a creative project.
Eventually, OTOA became not only a technique I taught to performers, or practiced in the rehearsal room, for achieving specificity, a more vivid and dynamic stage presence, greater clarity of thought and action, as well as defined objectives, and increased confidence, it evolved into my own personal daily life practice where the benefits of the technique came to benefit my professional, personal and creative life.
Once it became my daily life practice, I began to observe how my own creative process was led by a system of six essential tools (or aspects) that organized and supported each project whether it was a creative project, a professional activity, or a personal event or encounter.
By combining the principles of OTOA with the clarity of these six aspects of the creative process into my own daily practice I saw how others --both artists and NON-artists alike—might benefit from the practice of applying the creative process to their lives as a creative life practice.
It was with this intention that I developed the curriculum of OTOA Creative Life Practice (CLP)™ and The 6 Aspects for Creativity™.
OTOA Creative Life Practice is the Practice of Creating our Lives Using the Creative Process.
Thank you for your interest and for embarking on the practice of creating of your life.
- Gia Forakis,
OTOA & CLP Founder & Master Teacher
Brooklyn, NY USA, 2018
UPDATED Tinos, GREECE, 2025