On the Question of the History of the First Professional Theatre in Slovakia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the history of the birth and formation of the first professional theater in Slovakia – the Slovak national theater, covering the period from 1918 to 1938. The author focuses on the activities of the first leaders and directors who formed the artistic image and concept of the theater, as well as the influence that various foreign directors and theater schools had on it. The author emphasizes the role of Czech theatrical figures (Bedřich Jeřabek and the troupe of his East Bohemian Theatre, Milan Zuna, Oskar Nedbal, Viktor Šulc, etc.) in the formation of drama and opera troupes of the Slovak national theater, and in their choice of repertoire and artistic language. It was extremely important for the first Slovak theater to build a repertoire in the national language, but this process was quite slow because of the small number of original Slovak dramas and high-quality translations of foreign plays. Only after the arrival in the theater in the second half of the twenties of director Václav Jiřikovský, head of the literary part of Tido J. Gaspar, and later actor and director Janko Borodač, did the Slovak repertoire began to expand significantly. The very cosmopolitan cultural environment of Bratislava, as well as the division of the dramatic troupe of the theater into Slovak and Czech (1932) caused rivalry, surprise and provocation among the directors and artists. As a result, the Slovak theatre itself was gradually formed, and the first Slovak theatrical figures became known. In the future, this allowed the young Slovak theater to join the broad context of the European avant-garde theater and ensure that its original voice was finally heard throughout the world.