The Actor and the Target

It's about time there was a modern equivalent of Stanislavsky. This is it - written by the founding director of the new Royal Shakespeare Company Academy Declan Donnellan's Acting Unrestrained is set to become a classic in its field. Simply and directly written, it outlines the eight 'blocks' an actor is likely to encounter, offering clear instructions as to how to overcome them. Each blockage is expressed in a similar way: 'I don't know what I'm doing', 'I don't know what I want', 'I don't know who I am' etc. The problem, Donnellan says, is that in worrying about the 'self', the actor loses touch with the character. For instance, the actress playing Juliet does not need to find within herself the ability to love her Romeo: she needs simply to see Romeo through Juliet's eyes. This loss of self-consciousness is achieved by the used of targets or objectives outside the self which the actor strives to fulfil - and in that striving, concern with self drops away. Clearly and systematically laid out and full of firm and unambiguous precepts, this book will become a bible for actors in the 21st century.