T. W. Robertson (9 January, 1829 – 3 February, 1871) was an English theatre director and dramatist.
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Fun Facts about T. W. Robertson:
1. Thomas William Robertson was born in Newark-upon-Trent, Nottinghamshire to a family whose roots and career are grounded in British theatre.
2. William Shaftoe Robertson, his father, abandoned his occupation as a lawyer to become an actor and theatre manager of the Lincoln Circuit Company. His mother was a Danish born actress named Margharetta Elisabetta. Several of the kids were also in the theatre, Including Margaret, who became the famous Shakespearean actress and an important theatre manager, Madge Kendal.
3. Mr. Robertson was schooled until the age of 15 when he joined the family business, the theatre, full time. He not only acted, but worked in all aspects of the show including painting scener, writing songs, scrips and even as stage manager.
4. While he tried to act, he was not a good actor and earned a living by writing articles translating, or adapting, plays to English and writing his own plays while living in London.
5. Society, T. W. Robertson’s 1865 play found success and made the playwright one to be reckoned with. The play was put on at the Prince of Wales’s theatre in London. The play was very successful and ran for 150 performances – a big deal at the time, making a lot of money. Over the next 20 years it would be revived several times playing about 500 more times.
6. He wrote for Prince of Wales’s theatre in London and he wrote five more plays the next five years for it to be produced.
7. Mr. Robertson wrote other plays for various theatres, and adapted many plays from other languages as well. However, few, if any, made any lasting impression.
8. One of T. W. Robertson’s achievements was to make sure he got payment per performance, a practice that became a standard after his death. He is especially renowned for create an illusion of reality in the British theatre (naturalism).
9. T. W. Robertson influenced many important theatrical persona, he oven made it into being a character himself. In the 1896 play, Trelawny of the Wells, written by Arthur Wing Pinero, the young playwright Tom Wrench la a very loving portrait of Mr. Robertson.
10. T. W. Robertson suffered from heart disease most of his life and passed away at the height of his fame, at age 42.
Books by T. W. Robertson from Amazon.com*
Zohar — Man of la Book
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Sources:
T. W. Robertson | Wikipedia
