Betty Nansen

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Betty Nansen

Betty Nansen (born March 19, 1873 in Copenhagen , † March 15, 1943 there ) was a Danish actress , theater director and director .

Life

She came from an old theater family with whom she traveled through Denmark as a child. At the age of 19 she made her debut at the Copenhagen Casino Theater. Further stations were the Royal Theater , the Dagmar- and the Folketeatret . She was noticed early on in contemporary virtuoso roles, for example as Marguerite Gautier in the stage version of Die Kamelliendame . Probably under the influence of her then husband Peter Nansen , with whom she had been married since 1896, she increasingly turned to the classical and the modern, especially Scandinavian repertoire.

After participating in several Danish silent films, she went to the USA in 1915, where she made five films in the same year. With that she ended her film career. In 1917 she took over the Alexandra Theater in Frederiksberg , which she directed for around 25 years. She gave the theater her name, ran the business, staged and played the leading female roles. In addition, she repeatedly went on tours. In the first years the works of the Scandinavian playwrights Henrik Ibsen , August Strindberg and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson determined the repertoire. Since the late 1920s, current socio-critical plays gained in importance, as did the works of young Scandinavian authors such as Kaj Munk . A number of foreign authors were first introduced to the Danish public by Nansen, including Karel Čapek , Maurice Maeterlinck , Luigi Pirandello , Eugene O'Neill and George Bernard Shaw .

As an actor and director, she reinterpreted the roles of women, so that Nansen was not only seen in the theater as the personification of a new image of women. Her fame and commitment led to the unsuccessful attempt to persuade her to take over the management of the Royal Theater. Rather, with commercial skill and artistic flair, she succeeded in making her own theater the leading stage in the country.

literature

  • Wolfgang Beck: Nansen, Betty . In: Manfred Brauneck, Wolfgang Beck (ed.): Theater Lexikon 2. Actors and directors, stage managers, dramaturges and stage designers . Rowohlt's encyclopedia published by Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag. Reinbek near Hamburg, August 2007, ISBN 978-3-499-55650-0 , p. 516 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Nansen, Betty
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish actress, theater director and director
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1943
Place of death Copenhagen