HISTORY OF THE DRAMA COMPANY

Since 1919, drama company has been one of the artistic companies of the theatre. The first head of the drama company was the then general director of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre Václav Jiříkovský, and with his work there is related name of the first Ostrava dramaturg Vojtěch Martínek. Impressive actors of the company were Alexandr Kantor, Táňa Hodanová or JIří Myron in its beginnings.
Drama in times of the First Republic was influenced by Karel Prox, who brought expressionistic experience to Ostrava, Oldřich Stibor, who established avant-garde Studio here in 1929 and composed expressionistic play The Machine Wreckers produced by Vladimir Kristina, or Jan Škoda, who worked with designer Jan Sládek from the very beginning. After the war there was designer Vladimír Šrámek, who created more than two hundred stage settings during his forty-year-long activity at the theatre, and who collaborated with excellent stage directors - Radim Koval, Bedřich Jansa, or Karel Brynda.
And it was Radim Koval, who improved the drama of the former State Theatre of Ostrava at the end of the 50s, which was at those times seen as one of the most respected drama ensembles. Hrubín’s Srpnová neděle (1959), Shakespeare’s Richard III (1962) with the main role played by Jiří Adamíra, Euripides’ Medea (1965) performed by Zora Rozsypalová and František Šec, or Czechoslovak opening night of O’Neil play Long Day's Journey into Night (1966) are still the most appreciated state-widely.
Ten seasons of Ostravian drama belonged to Jan Kačer, and these were related with productions played on the Chamber Scene of the State Theatre of Ostrava created at the Poppet Theatre in 1977 after the great fire of the Jiří Myron Theatre. Its operation began on November 12 with opening night of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. The ensemble was performing on the Chamber Scene until 1995. As other alternative premises used by the company served theatre club (for Moscow to the End of the Line directed by Tomáš Jirman and others in 2011), foyer of the Jiří Myron Theatre (Froth on the Daydream directed by Radovan Lipus, 1992), space behind the Jiří Myron Theatre curtain (Romance for Bugle directed by Radovan Lipus, 1992, Mein Kampf directed by Juraj Deák, 2004), and the rehearsal room at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre (e.g. Portugal by Michal Lang, 2001).  After the Revolution, the company was led by Juraj Deák and Janusz Klimsza (today’s leading drama stage director).
During the hundred-year-long existence of the drama company there were plenty of excellent persons such as Hugo Hass, Rudolf Deyl Jr., Franta Paul, Otto Šimánek, Jiří Adamíra, Libuše Havelková, Miloslav Holub, Karel Vochoč, later Jan Filip, Jitka Smutná, Apolena Veldová, Jiří Čapka or Stanislav Šárský.  Since 1997, the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre organizes festival of Ostravian drama theatres OST-RA-VAR, which was founded by directors Juraj Deák and Radovan Lipus and dramaturges Marek Pivovar and Alice Taussiková.
Currently, the artistic head of the drama company is Vojtěch Štěpánek since January 2018.