Josefine Ottesen (English site)

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Curriculum Vitae






Prizes and grants etc.

Travel grant from the Authors Foundation, 1985

Travel grant from the Augustine Foundation, 1986
”The Feather and the Rose” receives the Ministry of Culture's Children's Book Prize, 1987
Working grant from the National Art Foundation, 1997
Working grant from the Danish Dramatists Society, 1997
Personal invitation to the literature festival in Caen, France, "Les Boreáles de Normandie", November 1998
Working grants from the State Literature Council, 1999 and 2000
Working Grant from the Authors Foundation, 2000

Working Grant from the State Literature Council, 2003
Working Grant from the Authors Foundation, 2004
The Local Councils' School Library Association's Author Prize, 2004 - for "The Warrior" trilogy.
"The Warrior" trilogy is accepted on to the list of honour for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award (IBBY), September 2004
"The Lord of the Dragons" easy-reading serial receives the Childrens' Librarians' Culture Prize, November 2004
My collected works nominated for IBBY´s Hans Christian Andersen Award 2006

"The Whisper of Demons" receives the Bookshop Assistants' Childrens' Book Prize, 2005
"The Whisper of Demons" receives Danish Radio's Orla Prize, 2006

"Golak", vol. 1 of the dystopic trilogy, The Dead Lands, receives the Ministry of Culture's Children's Book Prize, 2008
Nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2010
Nominated for Danish Radio's Orla Prize for "Golak", vol.1 of The Dead Lands trilogy.
Nominated for the newspaper Weekendavisen's reader prize for "Genfødt" (Reborn), vol.2 of The Dead Lands trilogy.



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Education
Acting experience

Directing experience
Experience as teacher/animator
Dramatic works
Other work



Education

Educated as an actor at Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre, California 1981
Extended director course at "British Theatre Association", London, 1986-87
B.A. in Dramaturgy , Århus Universitet 1997 including one year studying child and youth culture at the Centre for Cultural Research at Odense University (now South Denmark University), Denmark..
In addition, a large number of shorter courses in nearly every area of theatre craft, as well as actor, director and dramatist.



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Acting experience

Baggårdteatret (The Backyard Theatre), Svendborg 1977-78
Verdens Lilleste Cirkus Variete Theater (The World's Smallest Circus Variety Theatre) 1981-88
Commissions for B og U (Children and Youth), Danish Radio 1982-83
A few advertising films produced by MM Film.




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Directing Experience

During the period 1985-86, I directed the following performance for the theatre group Gadesjakket (The Street Bunch), Odense, Denmark:
"For enden af Regnbuen"
("At the End of the Rainbow")
"Hvordan elefantungen fik sin snabel"
("How the Baby Elephant got his Trunk")
"Kong Midas har æselører"
("King Midas has Donkey Ears")
"Nya-nya Bulembu"
"Springende mus"
("Jumping Mice")
"Tågedronningens hjerte"
("The Fog Queen's Heart")
"Jeg vil hjem"
("I want to go home")
"Thor og Tjalfe"
"Tommelise" ("Thumbelina")

In 1988, I directed "Da farverne forsvandt" ("When the colours disappeared") and "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde" for Fair Play, Holbæk, Denmark.

In connection with my work with the children's and youth theatre "Fuld fart frem" ("Full Speed Ahead"), I set up a series of performances during 1989-93. All the pieces were written in collaboration with the children and the young people:
"Mens vi venter på desserten"
("While we wait for pudding")
"Aser og jætter" (about the Nordic Gods and their enemies) - with economic support from the Danish Ministry of Culture and from the Danish Dramatist Society's fund for new drama in amateur dramatics.
"Brænd Borgen" ("Burn down the Castle") - with economic support from the Danish Cultural Foundation.



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Experience as teacher/animator

Leader and director of children's and youth group "Fuld fart frem" ("Full Speed Ahead")
in Svendborg, Denmark 1989-93.
Taught at Drama Institute, Århus, Denmark 1990.
Artistic director, director and dramatist on project "Theatrical Art in School", supported by the Danish Cultural Foundation 1995.
Innumerable workshops with children and amateurs of all ages.
Originator of the project "Fantasy Bus" in Odense district, Denmark, supported by the Danish Cultural Foundation, 1996.
Drama teacher at the Free Teacher Training School, Ollerup, Denmark 1991-96.
Taught at Odense Theatre's Acting School in 1987,1997 and 1999.
Taught at Department for Children's and Youth Culture at Odense University 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000.
Instigator of, and employed for 3 months at, a writing workshop known as The Blue Dragon at Byskolen, a Svendborg school. The project was supported by the Ministry of Culture.








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Dramatic Works

Theatrical productions:
"For enden af Regnbuen"
("At the End of the Rainbow"), 1985
"Kong Midas har æselører"
("King Midas has Donkey Ears"), 1986
"Hvordan elefantungen fik sin snabel"
("How the Baby Elephant got his Trunk"), 1987
"Da farverne forsvandt" ("When the colours disappeared"), 1988
"Nya-nya Bulembu", 1988
"Springende mus" ("Jumping Mice"), 1988
"På den grønne gren" ("On the green branch"), 1988
"Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde", 1988
"Tågedronningens hjerte"
("The Fog Queen's Heart"), 1992
"Thor og Tjalfe", 1996
"Tommelise", ("Thumbelina")1996
"Fjeren og Rosen" ("The Feather and the Rose"), 1996
"Jordens Sang" ("Song of the Earth"), 2000
"Egils Saga", 2001 TV and Film:

Co-author on the TV versions for Danish Radio in 1982-83 of:
"Store Claus og Lille Claus" ("Big Claus and Little Claus")
"Kejserens nye klæder" ("The Emperor's New Clothes")
"Hyrdinden og Skorstenfejeren" ("The Shepherdess and the Chimney-Sweep")
"Østen for Solen og vesten for Månen" ("East of the Sun and West of the Moon")
"Esben Dragedræber" ("Esben the Dragon Slayer")

Author of short-film manuscript:
"Den lille ridder" ("The Little Knight"), produced by Zentropa, 1997.

Radio:
Reworked my novel "Fjeren og Rosen" for radio narration, 1988

Multimedia:
"Cha-ka-kas Tårn" ("Cha-ka-ka's Tower"), an interactive narration, produced by mousehouse for Appell, 1995
"Professor Pi på Penta" - an educational CD-rom in mathematics, produced by Synkron, Århus, Denmark, 1998-99




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Other work

Member of the Ministry of Culture's Advisory Panel for Children's and Youth Culture, 1985-94

Lecturer to educators, librarians and school-teachers etc on producing art for children and on children's own cultural expression.




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