History of Stanislavski Acting Ireland
Stanislavski Acting Ireland
The Stanislavski Studio Dublin is the leading training provider for Stanislavski Acting in Ireland. Founded in 1963 the company encompasses the Stanislavski Acting Studio, the Stanislavski Theatre Company, and Directions Out Theatre Touring Company which tours theatre shows around Ireland as well as internationally.
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A History of Stanislavski Acting Ireland
The Stanislavski Studio Dublin was founded in April 1963 by Irish American actor Deirdre O Connell. She was a star pupil at the Lee Strasberg Studio in New York. Classmates included Marilyn Monroe and tutors included Arthur Millar. On starting the Studio in Dublin O Connell went back to Stanislavski's original principles. Constantin Stanislavski (1863 to 1938) pioneered a new approach to acting with the creation of the inner life within the actor to create a theatre of depth and experience for the audience.
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Deirdre O'Connell, Founder of Stanislavski Studio Dublin
In 2001 Michael D. Higgins said:
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''what I recall from opening night of Focus productions is a powerful sense, not only of a period and place but of a set of lives, relationships, conflicts and dramas having been created on stage.
The fact that what happened on stage was based on technique lifted the achievement of The Focus Theatre and contributions of Deirdre O Connell beyond any individual or occasional brilliance. A new approach to theatre was being launched, A theory and practice based on the work of Konstantin Stanislavski was being made available to Irish Theatre.'' (Stanislavski in Ireland edited by S.D Burch & Brian McAvera)
Stanislavski Acting Ireland and The Focus Theatre
The Stanislavski Studio revolutionised theatre in Ireland from the 1960s onwards. The Studio became incorporated into the Focus Theatre which was founded in 1967 by O'Connell and her husband Luke Kelly of The Dubliners. Founding members of The Focus and the Stanislavski Studio included Mary Elizabeth Burke Kennedy, Sabina Coyne (now Ireland’s First Lady), Declan Burke Kennedy, Michael Campion, Tom Hickey and Tim McDonnell. The Acting Studio was at the centre of the acting company's work.
The Focus went on to produce more than 400 productions in its 50 Year history including record-breaking runs of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House and Proof by David Auburn. The Focus also introduced Irish audiences for the first time to the work of Samuel Beckett including Play and Happy Days and Sam Shepard's Buried Child as well as work of new writers such as Gianna Carbunariu, Vassily Sigarev, Malachy McKenna, Conall Quinn, Elizabeth Moynihan and Brian McAvera. New plays by established writers were introduced into the Irish cannon such as The Hen Night Epiphany by Jimmy Murphy.
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L-R: Tom Hickey, Tim McDonnell, Sabina Coyne Higgins.
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Front: Declan Burke Kennedy. IMAGE by Fergus Bourke
Stanislavski Acting Ireland: Influence on Contemporary Performance
Many of Ireland’s leading stage, film and television stars began their careers with the Stanislavski Studio including artists such as Gabriel Byrne, Olwen Fouere, Roger Doyle, Joan Bergin, Brendan Coyle, Johnny Murphy, Rebecca Schull, Donna Nicolaison, Tara Breathnach, Gerdine McAlinden and Michael Bates.
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In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mary Elizabeth Burke Kennedy pioneered the use of mask and mythology in performance with the Stanislavski Studio Actors in productions of her own play Legends, her adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and her production of Lorca's The Love's of Don Perlimplin. The mask experiment was revived in 2008 with European Partners Pantakin Commedia dell’Arte, Venice when they ran workshops in Dublin with the Focus Theatre. Also, Joe Devlin worked as full-time Stanislavski advisors on Pantakin’s award-winning production of L’Ultima Casa at the Biennale, Venice.
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Tim Mc Donnell won the O.B.I.E Award in New York for his performance of Diary of a Madman directed by Deirdre O Connell. Tim went on to run the Stanislavski Studio from 2001 until he retired in 2008. Deirdre O Connell died in 2001. Michael D. Higgin's said of her that she was the ''single greatest influence on Irish Theatre since the 1960s". Her legacy lives on.
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​The Loves of Don Perlimplin by Lorca. L to R Frank Mc Donald & Joan Sheehy. Photo by Fergus Bourke.
Stanislavski Acting Ireland 2002-present day
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'Mother Teresa is Dead by Helen Edmundson. L to R Catherine Byrne and Elizabeth Moynihan. Installation Design by Anne-Marie Woods. Photo by Alex McCullagh.'
Joe Devlin took over as Artistic Director of the Focus Theatre in 2002 and has run the Stanislavski Studio since 2008. After a research visit to Russia in 2004 where he viewed the experimental nature of new productions at the Moscow Art Theatre, Devlin ran an experimental performance Lab for three years. It was set up to explore other acting techniques including voice and movement. He integrated his findings into the studio teaching practices. This new approach allowed for a widening of the naturalistic work of the Focus to include a more multi-disciplined work into the programme including physical theatre, installation-based (Mother Teresa is Dead by Helen Edmundson. Design by Anne-Marie Woods) and site-specific work as well as the utilization of new media. The company went on to win The Writers Guild of Great Britain Award the Encouragement of New Work with its work on Picasso’s Women and Francis & Frances by Brian McAvera.
Devlin also curated a photographic and art exhibition 'Transformations' at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2013 to mark 50 Years of The Focus Theatre and the Stanislavski Acting Studio in Ireland. Four books have been published on the Studio and the work of the Focus including Stanislavski in Ireland edited by Burch and McAvera; Breaking Boundaries – An Anthology of Play edited by Burch; Transformations an Exhibition of Images by Devlin & Price and Five Decades in Focus – A Photographic History of Stanislavski Theatre in Ireland by Devlin, Horgan and McAvera.
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In it's time the Stanislavski based acting company won many acting nominations and awards including Irish Times and Fringe Festival awards. The Focus won the Spiegeltent Award for the Fallen Angels Cabaret two years running in 2004 and 2005. O Connell's archive is now at the National Library of Ireland and a documentary of her life and work 'Hold the Passion' premiered at the Cork Film Festival in 2008. '
Since The Focus Theatre folded in 2013 Devlin has continued running the Stanislavski Studio (now in it's 60th year) and produced Stanislavski-based productions. The most recent production was Terrorism by The Presnyakov Brothers. The work of the Stanislavski Studio Actors in the 2020s now has a much broader brief including experimental productions with Directions Out Theatre Company such as In Search of Mr B and Dave at Large by Brian McAvera, along with site-specific productions Life in the Village - Art Collaborations and generic-specific Blooms Day Live events.
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The pioneering work started by O Connell and the original studio actors in the 1960s has been built upon by the current ensemble. The special nature of the Stanislavski training at the Studio (now in The Robert Emmet Development Centre on Usher's Quay in Dublin Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons) informs all of the production work. As a result, we continue to grow, evolve and thrill new audiences in the 21st Century on tour in urban communities and around the island of Ireland.
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-Joe Devlin, Director, Stanislavski Studio Dublin, January 2023.