As part of its programme to promote international professional exchanges with the United Kingdom, the British Council is delighted to co-host the second of two online masterclasses with the internationally acclaimed theatre director, Declan Donnellan, focused on his experiences and insights in relation to directing and adapting classical theatre in our present day context. The discussion with the small group attending will be moderated by the Spanish journalist, playwright and author Arantxa Vela Buendía, who recently published “Donnellan sobre Shakespeare”, a collection of interviews undertaken over 10 years inspired by Donnellan’s relationship with Shakespeare.This masterclass, conducted in collaboration with Spanish journalist, Arantxa Vela Buendía, will provide a series of insights into Donnellan's work as a stage director.
If you’re an emerging, professional playwright and/or director in Ireland and you’d like to apply to attend, please fill in the form linked above.
Deadline to present applications: 30th June - 3:00 PM (CEST), 2:00 PM in Ireland
The selection of participants will be undertaken by a jury made up of representatives from a series of arts organisations from across Europe, including:
- Theatre Forum Ireland
- Gdański Teatr Szekspirowski (Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre), Poland
- Theater Networking Talents, Român
- Academia de las Artes Escénicas de España (Academy of Performing Arts), Spain
The selected participants will be emerging playwrights and/or directors who already have a track record in performing arts. (Participants who took part in the previous workshop with Declan Donnellan on 10th June are not eligible to apply.)
The workshop will take place on the 8th July 2020 and will last approximately one hour and will be in English.
About Declan Donnellan
Immensely versatile and hugely talented, Declan Donnellan is indisputably one of world theatre’s greatest living directors. Since founding the company Cheek by Jowl together with his partner, the designer Nick Ormerod, in 1981, Donnellan has directed over 40 ground-breaking productions for the company all across the world, performing in English, Russian and French. The company has established an international reputation for bringing ‘fresh life to the classics using intense, vivid performances like a laser of light to set the text ablaze’ (The Guardian).
As well as Shakespeare and other major British playwrights, Donnellan has directed European classics by writers including Racine, Corneille, Lessing, Ostrovski or Lope de Vega. He was made Associate Director of the Royal National Theatre in in 1989, and in the year 2000 he founded a theatre company in Moscow whose productions have included works by Shakespeare, Chekov and Pushkin.
His book, “The Actor and the Target”, originally published in Russian (2001), has since appeared in 15 languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Romanian and Mandarin.
