Anna Catharina Materna (née von der Lühe) (1731â€"1757) was a Danish
actor and playwright. She belonged to the first pioneer-troupe of
actors at the Royal Danish Theatre, and later became one of the first
female playwrights to have her plays performed there.Materna was the
child of the noble but poor Lieutenant Friedrich Siegfried Johann Hans
von der Lühe (1705â€"50) and Mechtilde Siegfriede Jullern (d. 1763),
and joined the theatre in 1748 when it advertised for female actors,
which were in short supply for the newly opened national stage in
Copenhagen. It was unusual, and considered a great shame, for a member
of nobility to perform on stage, and she took the stage name Materna
to hide her identity.Anna Catharina Materna was not in reality
considered to have much talent as an actor, but she knew how to
portray a noblewoman, and was considered perfect for this on the
stage, and she became a primadonna of the theatre in such parts, used
much as a stage-ornament, and sometimes considered the first to
interpret the soubrette role on the Danish stage. She was also the
subject of many rumors and intrigues among her colleagues, especially
from her great rival Anna Dorothea Lund. She was also regarded and
talked about as a courtesan, and had a long list of lovers; in 1753,
she was offered an allowance to become a kept woman, negotiations
being handled by her mother, and in the same year, she retired from
the stage. In her farewell letter to Ludvig Holberg, which she sent to
him when she left the theatre, she said that her colleagues had never
let a moment pass which they did not take to embarrass her; she also
wrote about them; "I Know I have been more of a burden for them than
an asset", but she also thanked Holberg; "For the always towards me
directed kindness", and tells him, that: "I have you to thank for a
great deal of my happiness, a memory which will always remain with
me." The same year, Holberg wrote a code of behaviour for the theatre
and lectured those who mistreated their colleagues.
actor and playwright. She belonged to the first pioneer-troupe of
actors at the Royal Danish Theatre, and later became one of the first
female playwrights to have her plays performed there.Materna was the
child of the noble but poor Lieutenant Friedrich Siegfried Johann Hans
von der Lühe (1705â€"50) and Mechtilde Siegfriede Jullern (d. 1763),
and joined the theatre in 1748 when it advertised for female actors,
which were in short supply for the newly opened national stage in
Copenhagen. It was unusual, and considered a great shame, for a member
of nobility to perform on stage, and she took the stage name Materna
to hide her identity.Anna Catharina Materna was not in reality
considered to have much talent as an actor, but she knew how to
portray a noblewoman, and was considered perfect for this on the
stage, and she became a primadonna of the theatre in such parts, used
much as a stage-ornament, and sometimes considered the first to
interpret the soubrette role on the Danish stage. She was also the
subject of many rumors and intrigues among her colleagues, especially
from her great rival Anna Dorothea Lund. She was also regarded and
talked about as a courtesan, and had a long list of lovers; in 1753,
she was offered an allowance to become a kept woman, negotiations
being handled by her mother, and in the same year, she retired from
the stage. In her farewell letter to Ludvig Holberg, which she sent to
him when she left the theatre, she said that her colleagues had never
let a moment pass which they did not take to embarrass her; she also
wrote about them; "I Know I have been more of a burden for them than
an asset", but she also thanked Holberg; "For the always towards me
directed kindness", and tells him, that: "I have you to thank for a
great deal of my happiness, a memory which will always remain with
me." The same year, Holberg wrote a code of behaviour for the theatre
and lectured those who mistreated their colleagues.
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