OUR CLASSES

Breathwork for Actors

The actor's greatest instrument is not their voice or their body. It is their inner life.

Professional acting demands extraordinary emotional, physical, and imaginative availability. Whether working on stage, in front of the camera, or in rehearsal, actors are repeatedly asked to enter complex emotional territory. The nervous system does not distinguish between imagined experience and lived experience. Powerful creative work often leaves a lasting imprint on both the body and the mind.

How does an actor recover?

How do you sustain demanding performances without becoming depleted?

How do you develop a relationship with your inner life that supports both your artistry and your well-being?

Breathwork for Actors is a seven-week course designed to help actors better understand, regulate, and care for the instrument through intentional breathing, nervous system regulation, and embodied awareness.

Training the Instrument

Breath is one of the most direct pathways to the nervous system.

Throughout the course, students learn how intentional breathwork can release accumulated tension, increase emotional availability, strengthen body awareness, and cultivate the trust necessary for courageous artistic work.

Rather than approaching breathwork as wellness alone, this class explores breathing as an essential component of the actor's creative process—supporting greater presence, imagination, emotional flexibility, and resilience.

A Personalized Journey

The course begins with an introduction to the three-part active breathwork practice that serves as the foundation for the program.

During the first session, students also collaborate in identifying the themes that will shape the remaining six weeks. This allows each class to respond directly to the needs of the artists in the room while maintaining a structured progression throughout the course.

Each subsequent session deepens the practice through guided breathwork, reflection, and embodied exploration.

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

“I was placed in the intense reigns of Charlie Sandlan. I became a better artist, actor, friend, sibling and daughter because of the studio. Even now, I crave the studio every day. What I learned is present in my work every day. I truly believe in everything they stand for.”

Jes Macallan

“Maggie taught me that I could control my work, my acting, and to throw all of the bullshit out that I had in my head about ‘what I should be doing’ and to just listen and respond honestly, in the moment. She gave me a craft. She is, quite simply put, THE BEST.”

Leslie Bibb

“Maggie Flanigan taught me the true meaning of artistry, passion, and professionalism. I am certain that I continue to work as an actress because of my training with Maggie. At every audition and every performance, her guiding voice is with me. It is a gift beyond measure.”

Andrea Anders

VIEW MORE TESTIMONIALS

ACTING STUDIO NEW YORK NY

The Maggie Flanigan Studio is the leading acting studio in New York City where professional actors train for long careers. The acting programs at the drama school are based on the Meisner Technique and the work of Sanford Meisner. The two year acting program includes acting classes, movement classes, voice and speech for actors, commercial acting classes, on camera classes, cold reading, monologue, playwriting, script analysis and the Meisner Summer Intensive.

Call to Schedule an Interview

(917) 794-3878

Expanding Emotional Freedom

The three-part active breathwork practice is designed to help release stored stress, physical tension, and emotional holding patterns that can limit creative expression.

As students develop a consistent practice, they cultivate:

Greater emotional flexibility
Increased body awareness
Improved nervous system regulation
Deeper trust in intuition and imagination
Greater resilience before, during, and after demanding creative work
A stronger connection to the artistic process

The goal is not to manufacture emotion, but to create an instrument that is open, responsive, and capable of meeting the demands of truthful acting.

Sustaining a Creative Life

Artistic excellence requires more than talent. It requires learning how to care for the instrument over the course of a lifetime.

Breathwork for Actors offers practical tools that support not only performance, but the longevity of an actor's creative life.

Students leave with a deeper understanding of themselves, a greater capacity for emotional presence, and a sustainable practice that strengthens both their artistry and their humanity.

CONTACT

Address:

147 W 25th St 5th Floor
New York, NY 10001

Phone:

(917) 794-3878
(332) 262-7852
(917) 768-3852
(917) 606-0982

Email:

studio@maggieflaniganstudio.com

LATEST POSTS

KATIE HEALY

Katie was the co-founder and Artistic Director of a NYC based theater company, Ruddy Productions, that specialized in new works and in championing immersive talent. As a practitioner, Katie has studied under Reiki Master Kari Buzewski, Breathwork facilitators David Elliott and Erin Telford and is currently studying in more somatic, embodiment work.