Declan Donnellan

Donnellan is a theatre practitioner who developed on from Stanislavsky's ideas of 'objectives' and actions in theatre. Alongside Nick Ormerod, he formed a company called Cheek by Jowl in 1981. A lot of their work is performed at the Barbican Theatre. In 1989 he worked as the associate director for the royal national theatre. There he was involved in productions of Sweeney Todd and Angels in America. He also worked with the English national opera, the royal Shakespeare company and the Bolshoi ballet. He is able to work in both the Russian and English language. He wrote the book 'the actor and the target' which explores his theories and practices for acting.

He identified that there are internal blocks which can stop the actor from being able to progress in rehearsals. Some of these blocks are:

• I don't know what I'm saying
• I don't know what I want
• I don't know who I am
• I don't know where I am
• I don't know how I should move
• I don't know how I should feel
• I don't know what I'm playing 

These blocks are internal. Donnellan believed they should then create 'targets' which identify an external objective, because you also identify who or what you are doing your objective to. I thought about how I could apply external targets to my lines in 13, here are some examples:

'Ruby, you should be careful' -  I warn Ruby
'What are you' - I question Ruby
'Do you want one of these' - I offer John
'It's your bedtime' - I instruct Ruby

The idea of using targets as opposed to objectives is that it externalizes your objective. Whatever you do or saying you are doing to someone or something else. In order for this to work you must be able to visualize it. Donnellan developed the idea of seeing what you say.  This is because it is what we as humans naturally do. If you start telling someone a story about your day you are likely to visualize it. This is because we emotionally connect with it and that is also how we remember it. By creating a target it helps you to visualize everything you are doing or saying onstage.