Page 475 [475]
OCR
DAGMAR KROCANOVÁ exchange between a stage and an auditorium. On the part of the "stage", there was no tradition of professional theatre and no theatre professionals in Slovakia. Slovaks only had a tradition of amateur theatre in the 19" century but this was developed in towns other than Bratislava. Besides, as previously mentioned, the troupe ofthe Slovak National Iheatre consisted of Czech actors combined with several Slovak actors who either had some experience from amateur theatres or studied acting at the State Conservatory in Prague." On the part of the audience, the feeble theatre tradition in Slovakia was also related to sociological factors. Slovakia lacked an aristocracy and bourgeoisie, and it did not undergo the processes of urbanization and modernization in the 19" century. Instead of the situation in which nations develop a theatre tradition and eventually found national theatres, in the Slovak case, theatre was established as an institution that was also supposed to contribute to nation-building. Ihe Slovak National Theatre was thus burdened with a double task: political/ideological on one side, and artistic/aesthetic on the other side. 1he story of the Slovak National Iheatre, however, was mostly related to Bratislava. Iheatre in Bratislava was originally either in German or Hungarian. Establishing the Slovak National Iheatre in the town was a step towards a forced emergence of the national culture combined with the forced Slovakisation of a city. In the 1920s, a separate Propagation troupe of the Slovak National Theatre, established in 1921 and called Mars among its members, held performances in other Slovak places. Another Czech company, known as a Rural troupe of the Slovak National Theatre and directed by Otokar Novak, also travelled in Slovakia. In 1932, a separate Slovak troupe of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava was founded. Between 1932 and 1939, two troupes — a Czech anda Slovak one — performed in the theatre. The Czech troupe was dissolved in 1939. In other Slovak towns, such as Kosice, Trnava, and Nitra, entrepreneurs took up theatre activities throughout the entire interwar period but these only lasted a few years. Regular theatres were only established in Nitra, Presov and Martin in the late 1930s and early 1940s; the development of theatre culture in this period coincided with the cultural policy of the autonomous Slovak Republic. Speaking of the relation between theatre and national identity developing in history, we can also mention that a conservatory was founded in Bratislava in 1919 but university education for theatre professionals only became possible in 1949 (after the Communist coup d’état) when the Academy of Performing Arts was established in Bratislava. The evolution of theatre is connected, of course, with the concept of space, including its concrete form. The Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava took over the premises of the Municipal Theatre, built in 1886 and designed ® Among the pioneers of Slovak acting were Andrej Bagar, Jozef Kello and Gaspar Arbet, who had experience from amateur theatre, and Jozef Boroda¢, Orszaghova-Borodaéova and also Hana Stykova who studied in Prague. * 474 +
