top of page

The ACTOR'S HEART
Accessing the Depth of your Gift

About the Course

As actors, we are our own instrument. We are the raw material. Unlike other artists, we are never separated from our instruments. We train physically, vocally, and intellectually — but an essential aspect of our craft is often overlooked. This has to do with largely invisible parts of ourselves: our awareness, our heart, and our state of mind. In this workshop, you’ll learn to cultivate and open pathways to the inner parts of your instrument.

​

This one-day intensive is for actors who want to break through to new levels of emotional availability and personal truth. Starting with a ground of mindfulness and awareness meditation, you’ll engage in a variety of transformative techniques you won’t find in other actor training. You’ll gain practical tools to help you access and release your creative energy; cultivate bodily, spatial, and energetic awareness; and work with the heightened energy of performance. You’ll also learn a powerful antidote to audition nerves and stage fright: a simple on-the-spot practice that connects you to an inner source of genuine confidence.


At its heart, this workshop is about connecting with yourself and cultivating what poet David Whyte calls a “robust vulnerability.” The deeper you go within, the more you can bring forward what’s waiting to be expressed. Come and explore — with a sense of play, an open mind, and a willingness to be surprised.​​​

About the Teacher

Parlan McGaw (AEA SAG-AFTRA) has been helping others to explore the creative interplay between acting and meditation since 2005, when he codirected the first of two weeklong retreats for actors with master teacher Michael Howard at Karme Choling Meditation Center in Vermont. He has since taught Meditation for Actors at Villanova University, the Michael Chekhov Acting Studio in New York, and the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Shantigar Foundation, and the Michael Howard Studios in New York. A meditation instructor in the Shambhala tradition, Parlan has acted with the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Old Globe Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, and other theatres in New York and regionally, and he made his film debut back in 1991 with Todd Haynes’s "Poison."

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
bottom of page