EN
By the beginning of 20-th century the theatre has not got the status of an independent type of an artistic activity, and unlike a writer, painter, or a composer, a theatrical artist was only a certain type of a craftsman. The situation of the Slovak histrionics was even more complicated. The Slovak revolution in past years redirected the running train of assimilation of the Slovak and their dissemination among the surrounding nations of the monarchy, but it did not succeed in concluding the process of a national emancipation by constituting the professional institution of the National Theatre, like the Czech or Hungarian nationalists did in a approximately the same time. The author of the study is interested in what is possible to gain from the sources about the first generation of the Slovak professional actors. He is stating that despite the verbally declared interest in supporting the Slovak theatre, the talented actors were penetrating into the troupe of the Slovak National Theatre drama only very slowly. It resulted from the social disbelief in the status of a professional theatrical artist, its role was played also by the ambition of the Czech entrepreneurs to perceive the theatre in Bratislava as just another Czech rural institution.