Utilia Lenkiewitz
Encyclopedia
Utilia Lenkiewitz (1711 – September 23, 1770) was a Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 actress, one of the very first of her profession from Denmark, and a member of the pioneer-troupe of the Royal Danish Theatre
Royal Danish Theatre
The Royal Danish Theatre 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 serving as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the...

.

Early life and career

Born the child of the painter Karel van Mander, she was a part of one of the two native theatre troupes created when public theatrical activity became legal in Denmark in 1746, following a ban. The organist Carl August Thielo
Carl August Thielo
Carl August Thielo was a Danish composer.-External links:...

 was the first to be given a theatre privilege, and he opened a theatre at Store Kongensgade in 1747; the same year, Julius Henrik von Qvoten opened one which played in both Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

 and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, and Lenkiewitz is believed to have been a part of the Qvoten-troupe. The actors from the troupes of these temporary theatres were then employed as staff when the Royal Danish Theatre was opened in 1748, with Thielo as director.

Together with the other members of these troupes, Lenkiewitz belonged to Denmark's first wave of 'native' actors, and together with her female colleagues of 1747, such as Anna Dorothea Lund (d.1759, "The greatest soubrette
Soubrette
A soubrette is a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".-Theater:...

 Denmark has even seen") and Caroline Thielo
Caroline Thielo
Caroline Amalie Thielo was a Danish actress, one of her country's first professional native female actors, and said to be the first actress ever employed at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen...

 she was also her country's first professional actress; during the 18th century, the theatre of Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 was short of actresses because of the bad reputation of the profession; in 1753, there were only five in employment in Denmark.

She was a very versatile actor; because of the shortage, she was given all sorts of parts and was very well used up until her death. As she was the eldest of the actresses, she was also given many supporting parts as elder females in plays, which were numerous; in 1752, she was recognized for her great professionalism and usefulness. Her colleagues admired her versatility and concentration, and the audience loved her comical talent. She was highly recommended for her way of identifying herself with the part, and it was said that she became the part she played from the moment she entered the stage until she left it.

Among her most notable parts were Magdelone in Maskeraden, and Donna Olympia in Don Ranudo; she played firm old women, peasant wives, gossiping old women but also young girls such as Béline in Den indbildt syge, by Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

. The profession of acting was despised in this age, especially for women, but she herself became respected as an artist. Her last ever parts were the leading roles of Flaminia in Den coquette Enke, and Duraminte in Hver Mands Ven, in the 1769–70 season. She died of tuberculosis before the theatre opened again after the summer break of 1770. She used to say: "Nature is what makes people laugh."

Personal life

She was married to the Polish actor Adam Lenkiewitz (1723–1783) from 1749 until her death. He was 12 years her junior, and she had met him in the Qvoten-troupe, but they had no children. Her husband could not speak Danish well enough to be an actor at the Royal Theatre, but he didbecome an administrator in the theatre.
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