Orloff, Ida

(Ida Margaretha Weissbeck, 1889-1945)

   Actress. Orloff began her career in 1905 playing a small role in Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box), in which Adele Sandrock and playwright Frank Wedekind himself were performing. Otto Brahm saw the production and immediately engaged Orloff as a member of his company at the Lessing Theater in Berlin, where she played a series of important roles, including Hannele in Gerhart Hauptmann's Hanneies Himmelfahrt (Hannele's Assumption) and Hedwig in Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck. Hauptmann was so taken with her that he wrote Und Plppa tanzt! (And Pippa Dances!) for her in 1905. Orloff played the title role in the world premiere, which Brahm staged in early 1906. In 1910 she joined Vienna's Burgtheater company and remained there until 1918. In 1933 she emigrated to England, staying until 1939, when she returned to Berlin and performed mature roles in numerous Hauptmann productions, most notably Frau Fielitz in Der rote Hahn (The Red Rooster) at the Rose Theater in Berlin.