Acting with Prana

Acting is a craft that involves full use of your breath, mind, body, voice and soul. Yoga is a practice that fully involves the same. Both disciplines are about relationships- your relationship to yourself, and your relationships with others.
Daily yoga practice can include the yoga of relationships. Making your relationships holistic- of the mind, voice and body. Noticing what your voice and presence does to others, and what their presence does to you. Noticing when your clarity of focus and intention while communicating with someone stays true. Just like you notice how physical your yoga practice changes from day to day.

This is a workshop for both actors and anyone who works with the public. It is for anyone who needs to work on broadening personality, cultivating a sense of humor, expanding communication range, sharing nascent ideas, and sharpening self presentation and group facilitation skills.
Acting with Prana is a three hour exhilarating, fun, thoughtful, hands on, and on your feet workshop. Session includes:

· 30 minute physical, vocal, and breath based warm-up
· Basic introduction to theatrical improvisational skills (Don’t worry! Your improvisational skills do not need to be at all adept to enjoy or benefit from this workshop. Shy is absolutely okay.)
· Turning parts of your presence on and off.
· Chakra and energetic based acting exercises
· Examine how staying in the moment and being aware of the moment are two halves of the same thing, and how both acting and yoga are direct practices of this idea.
· Communication with Body Image and Body Language
· Personality Yoga techniques
· If time permits and members of the group desire, we can look at audition material, logline pitches, manager pep talks or company pitches and apply ‘Acting with Prana’ techniques.

You will probably sweat, and you will definitely laugh. Come with an open heart, mind, body and voice! We will have a lot of fun, share a lot of observations, and go as deep as the group desires.

Jen Bloom has been teaching acting, creative movement, communication, meditation and yoga for ten years. She has extensive hybrid teaching experience in theatre schools, mental health centers, yoga studios, outdoor education and corporate teambuilding. Currently, she is the Creative Director of Om the Road, LLC, a multi-media yoga company, and has a private practice in therapeutic yoga. A cancer survivor (three years remission!), Jen is fascinated with communication as a direct reflection of physical, mental and spiritual health. Jen has an MFA in Acting and Directing from Trinity Repertory Theatre, and is a certified yoga teacher from the Nosara Yoga Institute of Costa Rica.

ACTING WITH PRANA WORKSHOP
with Jen Swain

Now booking for the fall and Summer. Email yogablooms@mac.com for more information

Jen Swain has a unique talent for listening and hearing, whether it be the voice of life’s lessons for herself, the concerns and needs of others, or the whisperings of creative fairies that are inaudible to most of us. I know her as a friend, classmate, director and actor, and have always been awed by her talent, enthusiasm, humor, and openness to everything and everyone the world throws her way. One of her great strengths is her ability to communicate with all kinds of people in a clear, compassionate, and encouraging manner, offering support and, most importantly, enabling people to find their own strength. L.A. is lucky to have her!
Sandy York, NY actor