Thomas Overskou (11 October 1798 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

– 7 November 1873 in Copenhagen) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and a titular professor in 1852. His plays are preserved in the Dramatic Collection of the

Royal Danish Library The Royal Library ( da, Det Kongelige Bibliotek) in Copenhagen is the national library of Denmark and the university library of the University of Copenhagen. It is among the largest libraries in the world and the largest in the Nordic countries ...

Life

Unlike his slightly younger contemporary

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

, Thomas Overskou was born in what was then the societal bottom, and he had to fight a hard battle to come forth in the Danish artistic scene. He was commissioned by the theatre once he had a keen understanding of the requirements for dramatic production. He was not only successful in achieving the position of stage actor in minor roles, and later theater director, but a number of his original stage plays was performed at the

Royal Danish Theatre The Royal Danish Theatre (RDT, Danish: ') is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first ser ...

. ''Capriciosa,'' as well as ''East Street and Western Street'' were some of his well-known solid successes in the Casino Theater in Copenhagen. Overskou's permanent profit happened as theater historian. His first five-act comedy ''The Danish stage in its history'' (1854–64) is a fundamental tool. Also his autobiography entitled ''Of my life and my time'' (1868), re-released with notes by Robert Neiiendam (1915–16), is worth reading. Here he tells, among other things, about Copenhagen bombardment of 1807 which he witnessed at first hand, in addition to the story of how he made a career in the theater. He died in Copenhagen. After his death, a road in the Åløkke Quarter, in central

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

, has been named after him.

Literary works

*''"Preussens og det tydske forbunds faerd imod Danmark"'' (attributed to Thomas Overskou; published in 1848 by H.J. Binh, printed by the Royal printer B. Luno in Copenhagen) *''"Preussen und der deutsche Bund gegen Dänemark"'' (attributed to Thomas Overskou; published in 1848 by C.G. Lorck in Leipzig) *''"Den Ondes Besegrare: Folk-Komedi Med Sang I Fem Akter"'' (published in 1906 by Kessinger Publishing Company)

References

;Attribution *''This article is based on the corresponding article of the Danish Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the History section.''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Overskou, Thomas 1798 births 1873 deaths Male actors from Copenhagen Danish male dramatists and playwrights Danish male stage actors 19th-century Danish male actors 19th-century Danish dramatists and playwrights 19th-century male writers