Retreats
5 Days in Ireland or Greece to Align Your Body, Breath & Imagination.
Now accepting applications for our April 2025 Retreat in Clonakilty, Ireland
Retreat Overview
This unique opportunity brings actors together from across the world to grow, breathe, and reflect with the guidance of instructors Benjamin Mathes and Helena Walsh. Actors from all over the world meet in either Pelion, Greece or Clonakilty, Ireland for this week-long adventure of scene study, voice and body work, awareness and presence training. Each of these idyllic villages offer their own unique sightseeing excursions and activities. Surfing, cliff walks at sunset, night kayaking in bioluminescent waters, and live music at the pub in Ireland. Morning hikes, beach tours, kayaking, massages at the villa, and all meals with a view in Greece.
Our Approach
Inspired by Fitzmaurice Voicework, Organic Intelligence, and traditional acting methodologies, the work is a journey into the alignment of the imagination, body, and breath. By exploring the subtle nuances in our rich vulnerability, your characters become more embodied and alive, and you will enjoy the present moment with greater insight and creativity.
Not Your Average Day
CLONAKILTY, IRELAND
9am: Surfing in Inchydoney Beach
11:30am: Lunch in Clonakilty
1pm - 3.30pm: Voice and Presence Work, Nervous system regulation and character integration work
3:30pm - 6pm: Presence, awareness, acting work, scene study
6pm – late: Journaling, Dinner, Pub, Cliff Walks, Night Kayaking, Live Music...
PELION, GREECE
8am: Local hike around local hike / walk around the local area of Agios Georgios into the forest and mountain
10am - 1pm: Voice and Presence Work, Nervous system regulation and character integration work
1pm - 2:30pm: Lunch
2:30pm - 5:30pm: Presence, awareness, acting work, scene study
5.30pm - late: Dinner, local hike / walk around the local area of Agios Georgios into the forest and mountain and watching the sunset together at the Amphitheatre overlooking the bay at Pelion, singing together, star gazing...
About Benjamin Mathes
As an acting instructor, Benjamin has taught or been on faculty at Auburn University, Cal State Northridge, University of San Diego, University of Lima, Peru, Catholic University of Lima, Theatre of Arts in Hollywood, UC Irvine, Arizona State University, Western Michigan University, and the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. He is a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and has served as a vocal and dialect coach for major motion pictures, network television, and theatres around the country.
Benjamin is the author of three books detailing and investigating the creative process, including bestselling book You, the Career: The Path to Artistic and Professional Alignment. A holistic, practical guide, You, the Career will challenge, excite, and ground you in yourself—your most valuable asset. His first book Thought Lozenges for Artists, is a daringly optimistic, “open-where-you-want” look into the creative process, and the second, CRASH {Unstuck Yourself}, is a guided journal designed to directly combat the blocks holding us from our creative potential.
About Helena Walsh
As European Director of The Fitzmaurice Voicework Institute, an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®, from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama at the University of London and holding a certificate in Roy Hart Training, Helena Walsh is the Artistic Director and founder of Helena Walsh Voice and Acting Studio in Temple Bar, Dublin.
As a leader who believes in bringing people from all over the world together and creating a space where they can feel empowered to have their unique voice heard, Helena has been co-director of The Fourth & Fifth International Freedom & Focus Fitzmaurice Voicework Conference in Dublin 2016 & London 2018. She also holds the role of Director of the Fitzmaurice Voicework Community in Europe.
Helena also teaches Voice at Bow Street Film School. Over the past twenty years, she has taught extensively at The Gaiety School of Acting, the National Theatre School of Ireland; Trinity College Dublin on the BA in Acting, and University College Cork on the B.A in Theatre Studies. Internationally she has taught at NYU’s overseas theatre programme for ten years consecutively; Eolia Conservatory Of Dramatic Arts, Barcelona; China at Shanghai Theatre Academy; The Accademia Dell’Arte, Tuscany, Italy; The Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and T.V. in Ljubljana, Slovenia; and UCLA, California.
Helena is currently training in Organic Intelligence in Switzerland on their Human Empowerment and Resilience Training Programme, which works on PTSD, Anxiety & Stress offering tools to help clients and students move beyond trauma, integrating it into their lives and using it as a source of empowerment. She designs well-being programmes for the corporate world and work with start ups and corporations like Google.
