Biography of Deirdre O’Connell by Mary Moynihan

Deidre O’Connell (1939-2001) was an actor, teacher, director and founder of the Dublin Stanislavski Acting Studio, 1963 to 2001, and founding member and Artistic Director of Dublin Focus Theatre, 1967-2001.

Deirdre was born Eleanora Deirdre O’Connell to Irish immigrant parents on June 16, 1939 in the South Bronx district of New York City.  She was one of five siblings and her father was from Sligo and her mother from Banteer in County Cork. After finishing school, Deirdre won a scholarship to attend night classes and study at Erwin Piscator’s New York Dramatic Workshop. While performing there she was spotted by Lee Strasberg who invited her to join the famous Actor’s Studio where she discovered the Stanislavski system, which was to become her lifelong passion. The Stanislavski system is  one of the main systems of actor training in the Western world and was developed by the Russian Theatre practitioner, actor and director Constantin Stanislavski (1863-1938), who co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre.

Deirdre became a lifelong member of the Actor’s Studio where she trained alongside actors such as Marilyn Monroe and Marlin Brando. Deirdre was destined for a brilliant acting career but, as she said herself, she had a vision to come to Ireland, to train Irish actors and directors.

She arrived in Ireland in  1963 aged 23 and set up the Stanislavski Acting Studio to train actors and directors in the Stanislavski System. This led to the founding of the Focus Theatre four years later with artists including Sabina Coyne Higgins, Tom Hickey, Joan Bergin, Mary-Elizabeth Burke Kennedy and Declan Burke Kennedy, amongst others.

Over the next 45 years, from 1967 to its closure in 2012, the Focus Theatre and Stanislavski Studio produced over 300 plays by internationally-renowned playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen, Lillian Hellman, Doris Lessing, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Marguerite Duras, Athol Fugard and Samuel Beckett, as well as training many well-known Irish actors, directors and writers.  Artists who trained there included Tom Hickey, Tim McDonnell, Olwen Fouéré, Sabina Coyne Higgins, Margaret Toomey, Mary Moynihan, Joan Bergin, Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy, Gabriel Byrne, Maeve Leonard, Michelle Manahan and Ann Russell. President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins once said that Deirdre O’Connell was “the single greatest influence in Irish Theatre since the 60s”.[1]

Deirdre O’Connell worked as Artistic Director, manager and fundraiser of the Focus Theatre and Stanislavski Studio from 1967 until her death in 2001 as well as acting in most of the major productions presented. The Evening Press saw Focus as “one of the most exciting theatrical ventures we have had in Dublin’’ and The Irish Times said “Dublin Focus Theatre is performing a great service to the city and country by its integrity, dedication and the excellence of its actors’’.[2]

Deirdre O’Connell died suddenly at her home in Dartmouth Square in Dublin on June 10, 2001 “four years after Focus Theatre celebrated ‘Thirty Years of Magic’ ’’.[3] Deirdre’s funeral service was held in Whitehall Church on the northside of Dublin where, 36 years earlier, Deirdre had married Luke Kelly of the Dubliners. Following a service attended by several hundred people Deirdre was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.  Deirdre was an extraordinary human being and artist and she was mourned and missed by many friends and associates both personally and professionally.

Deirdre had a unique and enduring connection to Dublin city and made a significant contribution to the arts and to Dublin city through her work with Focus Theatre and the Stanislavski Studio.

[1] Donovan, Kathy, The Irish Times Weekend Arts, July 25, 1992 ‘Memories in the Focus’.

[2] Burke-Kennedy, Declan, Booklet Dublin Focus Theatre incorporating the Stanislavski studio, article on The Focus Theatre by Declan Burke-Kennedy, p. 8

[3] www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/140_FocusTheatre.pdf, p.6