Declan Donnellan

Declan Donnellan and his partner Nick Ormerod founded the company Cheek By Jowl. They tend to productions at the Barbican. He has directed ballet, musicals and straight theatre, he works in Russian and English.

In pairs we discussed what we thought the blocks are within a rehearsal process. We thought possible options were:

• Lack of confidence, with yourself and your character decisions
• Lines, "I don’t know what I'm saying"
• Lack of knowledge of your character, "I don’t know who I'm meant to be"

Declan's actors blocks:

• I don’t know what I'm doing
• 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 what I should feel
• I don’t know what I'm saying
• I don’t know what I'm playing

These blocks help the actors to realise the problems

In partners we had to explain in detail our journeys to school yesterday. We all noticed that when our partner was describing something that had happened, eg what they had for breakfast, they looked away. The eye is looking for that memory, you're looking for the target. Declan believed that the actor can never know what they are doing until they know what they're relating it to.

Targets are like more detailed objectives. Some examples of targets are:

• I search for the moon
• I reassure myself
• I open the window
• I step onto the balcony
• I remember my family

Targets need to be clear to make the moment realistic, you have to believe in the target to make it realistic. You need to externalize what you're saying and take it out of yourself. The targets are what your character wants to achieve from the scene, what they have set out to do.

In partners we had devised a scene including a double take. Doing this made the targets clearer. The audience can see your targets changing, doing the scene your target changes, what you think you see changes throughout the scene.

This would be very useful to get deeper into my character and how they think.

Declan