The Serbian National Theatre

From the first days, the Serbian National Theatre actors were also the cultural missionaries that made an impact to the cultural identity and conscience of the nation. In the theater, which was, in the early years of its existence was most often on tours, has grown into a group of great actors: Dimitrije Ruzic, Dear Spasic, Laza Telecki, Misa Dimitrijevic, Ilija Stanojevic, Dimitrije Spasic, Jefta Dušanović and, among them an extraordinary man, a wizard who could accomplish everything on the scene, the greatest artist of the Serb theater - Pera Dobrinović. In 1981, when the new building of the SNP was built, Pera Dobrinović statue was erected (sculptor Milanko Mandic). It was the first monument to an actor in the former Yugoslavia. 

• After visiting Belgrade in 1868, Prince Mihajlo, thrilled with the  actors from Novi Sad, calls Jovan Djordjevic to establish a permanent theater in Serbia. Accepting the invitation as a challenge and an honor, administration took half of the ensemble and brought them along, and seven years after the Serbian National Theatre  in the National Theatre in Belgrade was founded. In the post-war period, Serbian National Theatre held its glory.

 • Today, the Serbian National Theatre Drama Ensemble is a group of exceptional actors who performed the world's greatest parts of classical and modern, foreign and domestic authors.

Address: 
Pozorišni trg 1
Novi Sad
Serbia
45° 15' 18.2052" N, 19° 50' 36.6036" E
RS
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English
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Biography: 

Jovan Djordjevic was born in Senta, a town on the bank of the Tisa river in the region which eventually became Serbian Vojvodina, on 13 November 1826 (Julian Calendar) to merchant Filip and Ana Djordjevic. Jovan was baptized on 17 November of that year in the Serbian Orthodox Church of Archangel Michael, officiated by Very Reverend Georgije-Djuka Popovic, one of the most erudite clerics of his day in that region of Potisje, and author of Put u raj (The Road to Heaven), a book in praise of moral principles. The acting bug bit hard when he first appeared as a teenager in Hungarian and Serbian amateur theatricals in his hometown of Senta. He started his schooling in Senta, Novi Sad, Segedin, Temisvar, and Pest, where he was a Tekelijanum scholar (having received a stipend from the Sava Tekelija Endowment). Throughout high school (gymnasium) and university he pursued his chosen career as a professional actor and manager, appearing in hundreds of plays he himself organized in which he received a reputation of high versatility and originality. The 1848 Revolution interrupted his university education and he left Pest for Sombor where Grand Zupan Isidor Nikolić Dzaver (1806–1862) of Bačka first appointed him secretary of the town's municipal court house, and then a position of judicial clerk at Lugos. In 1852 he was appointed professor of a high school in Novi Sad. There Djordjevic came to loggerheads with the school's administrators, who were against Vuk Karadžic's language reforms, and left his teaching post to become secretary of the Matica Srpska and editor of the learned society's magazine Letopis Matice Srpske in 1857. Two years later (1859), Danilo Medakovic appointed Djordjevic to position of co-editor (with Djordje Popovic) of Srpski Dnevnik. He eventually relinguished his position to Svetozar Miletic in 1861 and joined Dr. Jovan Andrejevic Joles on their long, overdue project – the construction of the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad. With the new theatre Djordjevic showed his interest in Serbian drama through the productions of plays by Djordje Maletic, Jovan Sterija Popovic, Matija Ban, Joakim Vujic, and others. In 1868 he founded the Serbian National Theatre in Belgrade, where he offered increasingly elaborate contemporary productions of Serbian and foreign playwrights and dramatists, like Stevan Sremac, Milorad Popovic Sapcanin, Milovan Glisic, Svetislav Vulovic, Kosta Trifkovic, Branislav Nusic, Imre Madách, József Katona, György Bessenyei, Schiller, Henrik Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, Émile Augier, Jules Sandeau, Eugène Marin Labiche, Victorien Sardou, Ivan Turgenev, Gogol, Maksim Gorky and other greats.

Belgrade at the time had a competing theatre, the Theatre on Djumruk, where Jovan Sterija Popovic first produced his play "Death of Stephen Uros III Decanski of Serbia" in 1841. Djordjevic also established the prestigious Academy of Dramatic Art first at the Serbian National Theatre before the school eventually moved to its present location, now accredited by the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Dramatic Arts. The teaching staff at its inception was composed of Jovan Djordjevic and Aleksa Bacvanski, an international actor who also went by the name of Sandor Varhidi. Today it is regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in Eastern Europe, and one of the oldest drama schools in the Balkans, having been founded in 1870.

Later, Djordjevic became professor of general history at Belgrade's Grande École. In 1893 he served for a short time as Serbia's Minister of Culture under the Jovan Avakumovic Administration, and Alexander I of Serbia's tutor. He wrote poetry and translated and adapted many plays for the theatre. He compiled and prepared a Latin-Serbian, Serbian-Latin Dictionary, which he had worked on from 1882 to 1886. His best work is a theatrical allegory Marko's Sword and the text (lyrics) to the hymn Boze pravde, with music by Davorin Jenko.

He died in Belgrade on 9 April 1900.

Category: 
Personal information: 
Jovan Djordjevic was a Serbian writer. He is the founder and director of the National Theatre in Belgrade, manager of the Serbian National Theatre (1863-1868), professor of history and the Minister of Education. He wrote the Serbian national anthem.
Date of birth: 
Saturday, November 25, 1826
Place of birth and location: 
Senta
Serbia
45° 55' 33.6468" N, 20° 4' 41.1384" E
RS
Date of death: 
Sunday, April 22, 1900
Place of death and location : 
Beograd
Serbia
44° 47' 11.6448" N, 20° 26' 56.1192" E
RS
Gender: 
Мушки
Делокруг рада: 
Year of birth: 
1826
Country of Birth: 
Serbia
Title: 
The day before Christmass
Description: 
This play is presented on 2nd of August 1871 for the first time.
Place of origin of the cult. artefact: 
Novi Sad
Copyright: 
Serbian National Theatre
Identifier: 
I 1164
Садржај: 
Fabula takes place in Novi Sad.
Printing place: 
Novi Sad
Place of publication: 
Novi Sad
Type of language of cultural artefact: 
Slavic
Material: 
Paper
Formats of digital document: 
Image
Period: 
Movie and theatre
Title: 
Comedy play in one theatrical action with songs.
Description: 
The Spite was created by dr Jovan Andrejevic as a look up to R. Benediks, with music by A. Maksimovic.
Place of origin of the cult. artefact: 
Novi Sad
History: 
This play was shown on 7th of January 1863. for the first time. In Novi Sad. But the whole play was completed on 1868 with songs and defined roles.
Signature: 
I 1343/2
Copyright: 
Serbian National Theatre
Edition: 
Serbian National Theatre
Printing: 
Bookstore of M. Popovic brothers
Printing place: 
Novi Sad
Place of publication: 
Novi Sad
Type of language of cultural artefact: 
Slavic
Material: 
Paper
Type of cultural artefact: 
Book
Formats of digital document: 
Image
Year of creation: 
1860
Period: 
Movie and theatre
Title: 
The choosy Bride-to-Be
Description: 
Stage play from Kosta Trifkovic.
Place of origin of the cult. artefact: 
Novi Sad
Identifier: 
I 1164
Садржај: 
The choosy Bride-to-Be is a comedy that consists of three acts and three elements. First, author describes a normal, calm and silent life with no conflicts. After a crucial event one of the caracters changes behavior and enters in conflict with people from his surrounding. The third element is returning to a state from the beginning of the comedy. Main caracters have so many different personalities and attributes - confusion; impostor that gets a main caracter confused; reasoner that turns a main caracter to reality; and other active and passive observers that affect the whole drama.
Printing place: 
Novi Sad
Place of publication: 
Novi Sad
Type of language of cultural artefact: 
Slavic
Material: 
Paper
Type of cultural artefact: 
Book
Formats of digital document: 
Image
Period: 
Movie and theatre
Title: 
Love letter
Description: 
Love letter represents humorous play in one theatrical action.
Place of origin of the cult. artefact: 
Novi Sad
Copyright: 
Serbian National Theatre
Edition: 
The ninth volume
Identifier: 
I 1854/1
Printing: 
Serbian National Cooperative Printing
Printing place: 
Novi Sad
Publisher: 
Serbian National Theatre
Place of publication: 
Novi Sad
Type of language of cultural artefact: 
Slavic
Material: 
Paper
Type of cultural artefact: 
Book
Formats of digital document: 
Image
Year of creation: 
1874
Period: 
Movie and theatre

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