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The Actor and the Target
By Declan Donnellan
Nick Hern Books
£10.99
287 pages
Dateline: 20th November, 2005
The life of an actor is not all fame and applause. As we are so often
reminded, the average actor spends far more of his or her working life
"resting" than appearing on stage.
If there is one thing and that might be even worse than unemployment,
it is that terrible state of being a "blocked". Both Lord
Olivier and Daniel Day-Lewis reached the point where they were almost
unable to walk out onto a stage to ply their profession.
In sporting parlance, this is known as "the yips". It finished
the golfing career of Peter Alliss and in retrospect, may have done
him a favour, turning a good golfer into our finest golfing commentator.
It has afflicted other sportsmen such as the English spinner Phil Edmonds
who lost the ability to run in half-a-dozen paces prior to bowling a
cricket ball.
In this reissued book, Declan Donnellan, best known for his work with
Cheek By Jowl, addresses the stage problems both of a total block and
much more minor blocks that may make acting difficult. In many ways,
The Actor and the Target is more a manual of directed psychology
than it is a book on pure acting technique.
The book was first written in Russian and, indeed, Donnellan's alter
ego or everywoman actress is called Irina. She is taken through her
paces using Romeo and Juliet as the primary model but with references
to many other plays, generally by Shakespeare.
Donnellan is a firm believer in a simple theory that actors should
not look into themselves but always address their actions to a "target".
Therefore, Irina should not think either of her own opinions and actions
or those of Juliet. What she has to do, if she is to give the best performance
possible, is look at the world and everything in it through Juliet's
eyes and react to each and every stimulus as the young girl would.
He manages to apply this in every situation, including a final chapter
in which he analyses Shakespearean verse in a way that might prove most
useful to young actors.
Donnellan also elaborates on his theme, in particular introducing the
concept of stakes which, the higher they are, the more they will impact
on the nature of the target and the way in which an actor must perform.
These stakes become particularly important when added to another important
part of the theory, that of duality. Any action or thought must, according
to Donnellan, have an equal and opposite equivalent so that at any point,
Juliet must choose, or understand that there is a choice available,
generally between a good outcome and a bad one.
This acting manual could become a bedside book for many young actors
who will be taken up by the philosophy and psychology expounded by a
master director. They will also learn a great deal about the way in
which Declan Donnellan works and, in particular, if he directs a version
of Romeo and Juliet, his Juliet will be well-advised to study
it at length!
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