Maria Kristina Franck was a Swedishactress and drama teacher. She was a member of the pioneer generation of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, and belonged to the first stars of the theater. She has been referred to as her country's first native dramatic tragedienne. She was the principal of the theatre schoolDramatens elevskola in 1819-23. During her last years on stage, she was known under her name as married, Ruckman.
Life
Maria Franck was the daughter of a bricklayer journeyman, Johan Franck, and Brita Lundström. In 1784, she was enrolled as a student of the Royal Swedish Opera. Her mentors where Marie Louise Marcadet and Monvel, members of the French theatre. Monvel where reportedly impressed by her talent and she was trained as an actress exclusively for speaking drama and not as a singer of opera.
Career
In 1788, Maria Franck was contracted as a "First actress" of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which was founded that year. She was as such also a member of the actors board of directors, which managed the theater until 1803. Maria Franck achieved great success foremost as a tragedienne, and as such, she has been referred to as the most important link between her mentor, the tragedinne Marie Louise Marcadet, and the famous tragedienne of the 19th-century Swedish theater, Sara Torsslow. She did occasionally play comedy as well, and one of her most acclaimed roles was as Mrs Dorsan in Den svartsjuka hustrun by Desforges. She also performed an occasional minor singing part at the opera, as the staff of the Royal theaters was formally available for both stages. She is known to have made occasional tours in the country. During the regency government years of Gustav IV Adolf, she had rose to become one of the most valuable members of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which is illustrated by the fact that her income from the theater belonged to the elite of the actresses there. Franck enjoyed great respect as an artist, and the theater director G F Åkerhjelm respectfully noted her "enlightened and experienced judgement" as well as her "excellent ability and her well deserved fame". She reportedly acted with a deep feeling and intensity, and a control over her mimic, which was never melodramatic. Her career lasted longer than most actors of her generation: most of her generation of actors retired after the 1809-10 season, while she remained until 1818. During her last years on the stage, she was criticized for being to melodramatic in her way of acting; she acted in accordance with the French school, which had by then became unfashionable. In 1818, she retired with a full pension. Maria Franck had, in parallel with her acting career, given lessons in declamation, and in 1819, the year following her retirement from the stage, she was engaged as the principal of the acting schoolDramatens elevskola, a position she kept until 1823. She is known as the mentor of Sara Torsslow and Charlotta Eriksson. In 1808, at the age of thirty-nine, Maria Franck married the eleven years younger engraverJohan Gustav Ruckman. Some encyclopedias therefore list her as Kristina Ruckman, as this was her name during the last ten years of her career. She became the mother of the painter Maria Ruckman. In contrast to most actors of her generation, which often had financial problems, Maria Franck was reportedly well off during her retirement, although this may have been in part because of her husband, who was a successful engraver.
Roles
Among her parts were "One of the pleasures" in Armide by Gluck, Maria in Gustaf Adolf och Ebba Brahe by Gustav III, Flattery in Alcides inträde i världen by Haeffner, Theodora in De gamla friarna by Dalayrac, Antiope in Renaud by Haeffner, Sabina in Den förmente prinsen , Madame de Veronne in Ambroise, Gertrud in Den Schweiziska familjen and the abbess in Nunnorna. Her most noted performances was Thilda in Oden, Celestina and the Abess in Korsfararne by Kotzebue, and the leading parts in Virginia by Paykull, Johanna af Montfaucon by Kotzebue and Mrs Dorsan in Den svartsjuka hustrun ; the latest one was considered to be her greatest triumph.
