Javisko magazine is a continuation of the tradition of magazines for amateur theater and artistic performance in Slovakia. The oldest monthly was published by the Center of Slovak Volunteer Theaters under the name Slovak Volunteer (1925 – 1927), which continued as Our Theater (1928 – 1951). In the era of socialism, it was replaced by Ľudová tvorivosť (1951-1962) and the repertory monthly Naša práce (1951-1963), collective periodicals for all amateur artistic fields. In 1963, however, volunteer theater and performance were re-separated from them, and the monthly magazine Umelecké slovo, which was renamed Javisko in 1969, began to be published for them. Since then, the magazine under this name has been published until today, and as the only magazine in Slovakia, it is a systematic and professional document of thinking about volunteer theater and artistic performances.
The concept of the online platform javisko.sk
Also online, Javisko will bring news and reflections from festivals, national tours, promotion competitions and cultural events. It is an information-critical line of the magazine, which preserves reflections of fundamental events in amateur theater and artistic performances for history.
The second pillar of Javisk will continue to be insights into the world of theater science and artistic performance: into their history and theory. These will be thematic articles and studies about the individual components of a theatrical work or artistic performance, about their means of expression, about aesthetic, ethical, philosophical and axiological questions connected with a work of art, about the history (not only) of volunteer theater from various aspects, foreign trends, etc.
We will also continue to focus on methodology, extensive interviews with profile personalities (not only) of volunteer theater and artistic performance, and we will also return to reviews of new productions connecting volunteer and professional theater.
Another important point of the new concept will be topicality: lively reflections, including cultural and social commentary on important topics and issues in theatre, art, culture and society. We will follow up on the publication of new dramatic texts, we will inspire with stimulating book tips with samples. The authors of the contributions will continue to be primarily renowned Slovak and foreign theater theorists, historians and practitioners, but also volunteer enthusiasts, workers of educational centers, and educators. However, since theater is an artistic medium that reacts to socio-political events in wider contexts, the spectrum of authors will also be complemented by personalities from non-artistic life.
We conceive www.javisko.sk as a living space of communication. An important point in opening up the discussion and expanding the community of readers will be the possibility of publishing texts for members of volunteer theaters or members of the Slovak volunteer theater community. This blog section aims to cultivate thinking and writing about theater or artistic performance (especially among young theater artists) and to provide space for their "moderated" public presentation.