Olaf Mørch Hansson (28 July 1856 – 22 February 1912) was a Norwegian actor and

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

, journalist and newspaper editor. He was married to

Thora Hansson Thora Hansson (December 2, 1848 – September 11, 1917) was a Norwegian actress and theatre director. She made her stage début at Christiania Theater in 1871, and worked at this theatre until 1899. Thora Hanssom was the first actress to por ...

from 1880 to 1896, and then to Agnethe Schibsted-Hansson from 1896 to 1912.

Biography

Olaf Mørch Hansson was born in

Eiker Eiker is a traditional district in the county of Buskerud, Norway. History Eiker consists of the municipalities of Nedre Eiker and Øvre Eiker. The area is located in the southern part of Buskerud county. Eiker is an agricultural area with a lo ...

(now

Øvre Eiker Øvre Eiker is a municipality in the traditional and electoral district Buskerud in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Eiker. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hokksund. The old municipal ...

), in

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Ha ...

county, Norway. After a year at Drammen scholars school and one year at Trondheim Technical Learning Institution he had finished his schooling. He made his stage debut in 1877 at

Den Nationale Scene Den Nationale Scene ( en, National Theater) is the largest theatre in Bergen, Norway. Den Nationale Scene is also one of the oldest permanent theatres in Norway. History Opened under the name '' Det Norske Theater'' in 1850, the theatre has root ...

in Bergen. He worked at

Christiania Theater Hotel Christiania Teater – is a historic Oslo city hotel and landmark built in 1918, known primarily for the notability of its theater inside the hotel and recently its unique hotel design by Annemone Wille Waage. The 102-unit hotel is locate ...

from 1878 to 1883, and edited the newspaper '' Norske Intelligensseddeler'' from 1883 to 1886. He served as theatre director of Den Nationale Scene for two periods, from 1895 to 1899, and from 1908 to 1909. From 1886 to 1893, he was an actor and director at the Christiania Theater, then head of the Carl Johan Theater for two years. Periodically, he played in Olaus Olsen's theatre company and visited with his wife at the Centralteatret and Fahlstrøm Theater operated by Johan Peter Broust Fahlstrøm (1867–1938).''Johan Fahlstrøm'' (Store norske leksikon)
/ref> As an actor and director, he contributed greatly to shaping the modern Norwegian theater. Hansson was a promoter of naturalism on the stage. He created the acceptance of colloquially as the stage language and built a very realistic and lifelike appearance in his stage settings. Besides his journalistic activities, Olaf Hansson wrote two plays, ''Repræsentanten fra Kongsvinger'' and (along with Bjorn Bjornson) ''Moppy and Poppy''. He wrote his autobiography ''Oplevelser og Humoresker'' in 1912.

References

1856 births 1912 deaths People from Øvre Eiker Norwegian male stage actors Norwegian theatre directors Norwegian newspaper editors 19th-century Norwegian male actors {{norway-actor-stub