OVERVIEW PAGE
You do not have to be an artist to benefit from a Creative Life Practice
What is OTOA Creative Life Practice ?
OTOA Creative Life Practice (CLP)™ is the practice of creating your life using the creative process. CLP offers the principles for creative, personal & professional actualization, and transformation, with practical benefits and applications.
All workshops are led by
OTOA Founder & Master Teacher,
Gia Forakis
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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
The aim of OTOA CLP is to enrich our lives by reinvigorating our capacity for possibility and strengthening our encounters with aliveness and joy.
OTOA CLP workshops offer participants an understanding of where they stand in relationship to their individual potential for the creation of their life as an ongoing practice.
The CLP curriculum is built upon an investigation of the SIX ASPECTS OF CREATIVITY™ as applied through the One-Thought-One-Action (OTOA)™ technique of incremental thought and action.
The SIX ASPECTS OF CREATIVITY are the tools and principles for creative actualization, manifestation and transformation.
"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." - 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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WHAT TO EXPECT FROM AN OTOA CLP
Seminar, Class, Intensive or Workshop?
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 chart our path through life”
- Gia Forakis
The 6 Aspects of Creativity™
Gratitude / Generosity
Nature / Purpose
Observation / Receptivity
Vision / Quest
Technique / Discipline
Time / Space
The 6 Aspects of Creativity are the tools we employ in the process of every one of our project, and all aspects of our life.
The 6 Aspects of Creativity are built around the core principle of Connection
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
***VIDEO: Sharahn LaRue
Actor & Writer
Thank You Sharahn!
OTOA CLP Curriculum Formats
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.
THE OTOA CLP 6-WEEK CLASS
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 in any format -not as text, a hard copy, nor as digital media. I make this information available to OTOA CLP workshop participants and private OTOA CLP coaching clients for their personal use only.
~ My gratitude for your understanding
Gia explains the origins of OTOA Creative Life Practice...
How did OTOA grow from a Performance Technique into a curriculum for Creative Life Practice?
During the last 16-18 years that I have been continuing to develop, teach , and practice One-Thought-One-Action (OTOA) as a performance technique, along the way it became clear to me that the same OTOA-principles that bring clarity and enrichment to the staged event are equally as meaningful when applied to individual growth.
By applying these same principles that I was teaching in OTOA Performance Technique & Training, and using the same skills necessary to prepare the dramaturgy and direction of a theater project, to to the daily practice in my own life, I discovered personal, professional, and creative benefits with wide ranging results.
Essentially, what I was doing was creating my life as if it were any other art, theater, or creative project. And it was through studying my own process, that I saw the benefits of how I could bring the tools used in all creative goals, and the principles of OTOA's incremental thought and action into a wider range of application that would benefit both artists and NON-artists alike.
It was with this intention that I developed the curriculum of OTOA Creative Life Practice (CLP).
What OTOA Creative Life Practice offers is an approach for untangling professional, personal or creative roadblocks. It offers a set of tools and principles for clarifying goals & objectives while also creating the practice of your . OTOA CLP expands our vision & our realms of possibility. It’s a fundamental support system designed to chart a more unified and fulfilling path forward in every field and for any endeavor
- Gia Forakis,
OTOA Founder & Master Teacher
Brooklyn, 2018