VAVRO ŠROBÁR A VZNIK SLOVENSKÉHO NÁRODNÉHO DIVADLA

The author follows institutional steps which preceded the beginning of the first Slovak professional art institution – the Slovak National Theatre (1920). Having done research into primary sources, he revises some surviving legends surrounding the beginning of the Slovak National Theatre, a result of the Czechoslovakist perception of development in the 20th century and a cult regarding Ján Borodáč as the first Slovak theatre professional. The author focuses especially on particular activities of Vavro Šrobár, a minister fully empowered to govern Slovakia (and at the same time Minister of Health of the Czechoslovak Republic), which resulted in his decision to engage Bedřich (Friederich) Jeřábek’s theatre company in Bratislava, where it operated under the name of the Slovak National Theatre. Activities related to the beginning of the professional theatre are followed against the backdrop of turbulent developments in 1918–1920.