Serbian Culture Theatre among Serbs has a tradition that is more than eight centuries old. Theatre in Serbia was not created without the occasional interruption. Serbian theatre performances in the Middle Ages had a basically secular and entertaining function. They featured improvisations without written texts, and were staged in public places. The theatre, at this time, remained beyond the bounds and influence of the Orthodox Church. In the thirteenth century, church authorities forbade their congregation to attend gatherings where actors showed their performances (Library of Serbian Culture, par. 55).

The traits of staged scenes and sport festivities lived on in the Serbian fourteenth century as well. In the painting The Mocking of Christ, created between 1317 and 1318 in the monastery of Staro Nagoricino, the endowment of King Milutin, three characters in long sleeves, together with several figures with unusual instruments, are seen in the foreground. Serbian rulers, who had a friendly and diplomatic relationship with Dubrovnik, sent their music and entertainment groups for the celebrations of Saint Blasius (the patron of Dubrovnik) and artists from Zeta and Dubrovnik visited Serbia (1412 and 1413). Programs consisted of various musical, pantomime and jester's skills and exhibitions (Library of Serbian Culture, par. 19).

At the end of the fifteenth century, a convert to Islam, Ali-beg Pavlovic, who was certainly of Serbian origin, sent his theatre group to Dubrovnik. It was led by Radoje Vukosalic, a Serb, and from the letter of introduction it can be concluded that Vukosalic is the first known Serbian actor - the manager of that traveling theatre group. Turkish rule existed from the second half of the fifteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century, and it interrupted the cultural development of the Serbs. During that period only performances of religious character were staged from time to time. The only exception was Vojvodina, where a segment of the Serbian people, especially after the end of the seventeenth century, had lived in the multiethnic culture of the Habsburg Monarchy. Thus, theatre activity was under central European influence (Library of Serbian Culture,...

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The first modern Serbian play was the school drama entitled: Traedokomedija, written by: Manuil Kozacinski (1699-1755). The play was performed in Sremski Karlovci in 1734. The school drama period lasted until 1813, when amateur acting commenced. At the end of August, 1813, the first play was staged in Pest: The Nutcracker Bird by Joakim Vujic (1772-1847), created on the basis of a work by August Kotzebue. Actors-students from school drama plays were replaced by grown-up actors, three of whom were professionals (Library of Serbian Culture, par. 37).

After arriving in Serbia, Vujic founded the Prince's Serbian Theatre in Kragujevacin, which he worked as the manager, literary consultant, producer, leading actor, translator and adapter of dramatic works. Due to his theatre activity, Joakim Vujic deserved the title "the father of Serbian theatre." In 1838, the first professional theatre company among the Serbs was created in Novi Sad. It was the Travelling Amateur Theatre, which had performed in Novi Sad, Zemun and Pancevo up to 1840; then, from June, 1840 to the end of 1841, in Zagreb (under the name "The National Theatre Company"). In February of 1842 it merged with the Theatre at Djumruk (the custom's office in Belgrade, making a professional ensemble out of it. This theatre deserves credit for creating the first regular professional ensembles among South Slavs (Novi Sad, Zagreb, Belgrade) in the seventh decade of the nineteenth century (Library of Serbian Culture, par. 21).

A great playwright among Serbs was Jovan Sterija Popovic (1806-1856). After abandoning the schemes of pseudo-Classicism and national Romanticism, Popovic became the first Serbian author with the distinctive features of the Realist approach to the literary and theatre substance, as well as the basic mainstay of the repertoire of Serbian theatres from 1830 to 1870. Creating characters on the basis of living models and revealing the comic side of their nature and personality, he offered a lucid analysis of the mentality and temperament of his fellow citizens, thus making it possible for distinguished Serbian actors to give a series of convincing artistic creations, some of which became…