Actors' Odyssey, Costa Rica

The Actor’s Odyssey, founded by Jenna Davi and Hugh O'Gorman, is an exclusive, week-long, transformational immersion, strategically set in awe-inspiring, energetically vibrant, nature destinations around the world.

The goal of each immersion is to liberate your creativity and increase your artistic potential by identifying barriers to growth, known as interference. Our program is designed to move you beyond what you think you are capable of achieving, by reconnecting you to a renewed, refined and deeper relationship to your artistic self. The Actors' Odyssey teaches you how to unleash the power of your intuition, your imagination and the untapped artistic excellence living in your creative subconscious, so you can play freely as an actor, an artist or a citizen of life.

“It’s not that we don’t know what to do, it’s that we don’t do what we know.” - Hugh O’Gorman

Each immersion is curated to help you identify your own personal interference, negative habits and thinking patterns, and other impediments to your creativity - the blocks that keep you from accessing your own excellence in performance. By removing you from your day-to-day existence, Actors' Odyssey immersions help you become conscious of, and disconnected from, negative patterns on the emotional, intellectual and physical plains, in order to make significant changes in your life on the spiritual plain.

“The chakras can be used as an energetic roadmap to living to your highest potential by realigning you to your most empowered self.” - Jenna Davi

The Actors' Odyssey then teaches you how to rewire habitual mental patterns, align your authentic artistic self, and respond to performance pressure from a place of conscious response rather than impulsive reaction. Our via negativa programing helps you unblock and reconnect to your intuitive power, releasing your fullest potential.

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” - Viktor Frankl

Each ensemble is comprised of carefully chosen (hand-selected), supportive creatives who are looking to move their work forward, reclaim joy, and seek life’s next odyssey.

Actors' Odyssey immersions are offered at stunningly beautiful, energetically vibrant retreat sites located in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Greece, California and beyond.

The Actors' Odyssey is for any human looking to move their work forward, reclaim joy and liberate their creativity.

You will be fully immersed during the Actors' Odyssey so expect full days filled with workshops, movement, group activities and free time to process and enjoy your surroundings.

Your days will be split between a morning and afternoon session. Sessions are about 3hrs each and you will get over 30hrs of transformational teachings.

Between your classes you are encouraged to immerse yourself in nature by explore your surroundings. There will be daily group activities such as waterfall hikes, beach bonfires, local excursions and more.

We will enjoy delicious meals together, a favorite being dinner where we share our favorite parts of the day, laugh and play games into the night. Often times we head to the pool to take a dip under the stars. You will go to bed happily exhausted and wake up excited for the day ahead!

Sample Schedule

Schedules and activities change depending on the location. Here is a sample schedule from our Costa Rica location:

6a: Light breakfast prepared for those who like to rise early.

7:30a -10a: Morning session with Hugh (Focus: Overcoming fear, accessing a sense of beauty and ease).

10a: Full breakfast.

12p: Waterfall hike and viewpoint with Jenna. Packed lunch provided.

3p: 2nd Chakra exploration followed by Sunset Restorative Yoga (Focus: finding your flow, your positive and negative influences, setting boundaries).

6:30p: 3 Course Dinner followed by evening games and pool time.

9p: Fall asleep to the magical jungle symphony.

Hugh has been working in the human potential space for over four decades across a diverse body of articulation: first as a Division 1 athlete, then as a professional actor in television, film and theatre, as a trainer of actors, performance coach, and author - all at the highest levels of the profession.

Hugh’s areas of expertise include:

• Human Potential Development

• Free Play

• Liberating Creativity

• The Mental Game of Performance

• Konstantin Stanislavski’s “Active Analysis” -

  • Cognitive Analysis

  • Physical Analysis

• The Michael Chekhov Acting technique

• Mindfulness movement

• Meditation for Performers

• Imagination Development

• Audition Preparation

• Performance Coaching

• Acting for the Camera

• Scene Study

• Playing Shakespeare

• Laughter!

Jenna specializes in the Chakras and transformational experiences. She is the creator of the Chakra Codes, a system of self-realization and self-development using one’s unique chakra coding. She has traveled the world teaching the Chakra Codes, breath work, meditation, Chakra psychology, and energetic movement. Through her teachings her students have received a deeper perspective of themselves, revealing their unique coding and purpose, understanding their own energetic system and what that means for them, accessing creativity, and guiding them in experiencing higher levels of awareness.  In her spare time, she writes literature and music, pursues acting and music careers, and is happily addicted to surfing.

Human existence is nothing less than a miracle. Our bodies are literally composed of stardust. Accordingly, the history of the universe lies within each one of us. The human body is a learning machine. Like no other species we are designed to learn, grow, and like the universe itself, expand.

Embodied Learning is both a praxis and philosophy that rejects the cartesian notion that the natures of mind and body are different from one another. It holds the belief that “I am my body”, rather than “I have a body”. The “I” and the “me” work together as one, preferring unity over division.

Embodied Learning is the process of learning from the whole body’s intelligence, the sacral, corporeal and subconscious knowledge that has been passed down through millions of years of evolution as well as our own individual lived experiences. It focuses on listening to the entirety of our physical intelligence, not simply the cerebral. Its aim is to develop an acute ability to listen to corporeal, as well as the cognitive, building a relationship of faith between our sense of self and our body, intuition, imagination, as well as all subconscious forms of intelligence, including the autonomic nervous system’s components: the sympathetic, the parasympathetic and the enteric units. This relationship of faith in turn builds self confidence.

The word confidence itself comes from the latin, con fides, meaning “with faith”, in this context faith in self. Embodied Learning helps develop a practice and way of moving through world that builds self-confidence by listening to the totality of our human instrument.

According to research from the Nielsen Company, the average U.S. adult spends around 11 hours each day listening to, watching, reading, or interacting with media.

Although the internet and social media has brought a lot of opportunities and growth for the modern day world, for the human and the spirit, it has become distracting, stressful on our nervous system and can even disrupt our mental health.

We ask that when you embark on the Actors' Odyssey, you do not spend time on your screen but instead engage with the nature around you and the ensemble of incredible artists you are immersed with so you can rebalance your autonomic nervous system ,focus on your own personal growth and artistic development and feel more human than you have in a long time.

The Actors' Odyssey is not intended as a substitute for therapy. Attendees have reported that the AO experience is “life changing” and “transformational”, an important addition to their creative and professional endeavors, as well as personal growth.

No, Actors' Odyssey immersions are open to everyone, all adventurous souls who desire liberation in the arenas of creativity, innovation and human potential.

Many past participants have reported significant cathartic and psychosomatic breakthroughs throughout the journey. Actors, artists, therapists, thought leaders, educators and corporate creatives have used what they learned from the Actors' Odyssey in their own practice as well.

We do our best to accommodate all walks of life but contact us directly and tell us a little more about yourself so we can determine which immersion may be best for you as each location and terrain are different from the other.

Yes, you can of course come! We want to make it clear that even though you will be practicing yoga and exploring the chakra system during your classes with Jenna, we are not practicing a religion.

You can view yoga as an exercise to expand your physical limitations and work towards more mobility and flexibility. The breath-work and meditation we practice is to help calm your mind to help with clarity and rebalancing your nervous system, and the chakras are used as a way to explore archetypes, your psychology and different themes in your life from an energetic perspective.

These practices have helped our participants with a deeper sense of self, a new found peace of mind and realignment to their purpose and can benefit anyone, whether they label themselves as spiritual, agnostic or religious.

Not yet…! ;) Just kidding! But in all seriousness…

Due to the nature of this work, you will feel incredibly bonded to your new tribe. From laughing hysterically during dinner games to sharing intimate conversations about life and philosophy under the stars, to exposing vulnerable parts of yourself during the work, your AO mates will witness your huge breakthroughs and be there to support you, as you will do the same for them. This shared experience nurtures deep friendships and connections. The bonds that are created are truly special but no… this is not a cult!

This is not for you if:

• You are looking for a Hilton experience

• You do not want to step away from the computer or internet for a week

• You don’t want to get dirty (some destinations are in the jungle… you will get dirty!)

• You are set in your artistic ways and have no interest in being open to other creative explorations

• You have no interest incorporating mindfulness or personal growth while you dive deep into creative work

Our destinations are truly spectacular and are strategically chosen due to their energetic potency. There is a palpable “energetic shift” when stepping foot on the ground by all who attend. These geological energy points inspire and transform the human in ways we cannot explain in words or know exactly how it does this. Because of this, we believe that those who attend the Actors' Odyssey have been called, by the destination itself, to be there for a reason.

First of all - Congratulations! We support you 100%

If you book a gig:

Travel insurance is required to join. Make sure your insurance covers reimbursement of flights and activities for cancellation for any reason. Please read through the cancellation policy to better understand the details and what refunds you would be eligible for the Actors' Odyssey.

Auditions:

You can of course make your video audition or submission. Please be aware that wifi in the jungle usually works fine but may not be reliable. It is not uncommon to have no internet for a few hours out of the day, especially if there has been a recent tropical storm. Also, please note that your audition or video submission may take place during classes which you will then have to miss. They will not be repeated but you can always ask your immersion mates to fill you in!

If you plan to have more than 2 auditions or other work that will keep you online and not fully present during the immersion, then we kindly tell you that this immersion may not be best for you at this time.

Payment Policy / Refunds

• There is a $500 non-refundable deposit upon registration.

• 25% of balance is due by Oct 1st, 2023

• 50% of your balance is due by March 1st, 2024

• Remaining balance is due by May 1st, 2024

• Credit Card, Paypal, bank transfer and/or other services fees will apply when applicable

• Custom payment plan available. Inquire to set up your plan that works best for you

Cancellation/Withdrawal:

AFTER March 1st, 2024 - 50% of current funds paid refunded, minus $500 deposit

AFTER May 1st, 2024 - No refunds

Transferring your $500 non-refundable deposit:

Cancelling 30+ days prior to the immersion, you will be able to use your $500 non-refundable deposit towards a future retreat for up to 1 year. Under 30 days your deposit is not transferable.