The founders of theater in Macedonia are considered to be Jordan Hadzi Konstantinov – The Giant, a playwright, revivalist and teacher, Vojdan Chernodrinski, a playwright, actor and director, as well as the actors Petre Prličko and Dimče Trajkovski. They, with their traveling troupes and groups, performed theater in the open air, in cafes, in municipal buildings and various improvised spaces. The most common plays were comedies that entertained the audience, as well as short briefs, sketches and dramatizations of novels and stories. The performances were simple and poor in setting, but significant for their creative activity, repertoire in the Macedonian language and with Macedonian issues, and through that for the process of liberation of the people and the country.

The first professional/institutional theater on the territory of Macedonia was the National Theater – Skopje, established in 1913 by the renowned Serbian comedian Branislav Nušić. It was formed in the so-called Turkish Theater, also called Ada Cafe, built in 1906, which Nušić adapted in 1913 into the first Skopje theater, and opened on December 27 of the same year. Unfortunately, after only forty days, the theater burned to the ground.

After the fire, Nušić built the so-called Theater Arena, built in just three months. That clumsy building served the people of Skopje from May 1914 to July 15, 1915, when the city administration decided to demolish it, believing that the Old Theater would be occupied by the beginning of the season, but the military events at that time prevented this plan. Although without a proper building, proper working conditions and a small acting ensemble, the Theater worked very actively. The staged performances, with very rare exceptions, were performed in Serbian, the official language of the then state, that is, until 1940. Propaganda plays, plays with singing and shooting, light comedies were staged – in order to satisfy the interest/taste of the wider audience, and plays based on works by foreign authors were also staged/played. In January 1919, Nušić moved the ensemble into the "Zrinski" cafe, because Skopje, at that time devastated by the war, did not have an appropriate theater space. In the summer of the same year, the second Arena was built (again by Nušić and again in three months). It was a new time: the theater was organizationally and technically modernized; its repertoire was focused on populist, entertaining, propagandistic and banal plays; quality guest directors from Serbia were hired; a small ballet and opera ensemble was formed; a children's stage and guest performances/tours throughout Macedonia began. Works from Serbian dramatic literature are performed, as well as works from foreign literature (classical and realistic plays), a repertoire that is not adapted to the needs and tastes of the people.

On October 16, 1927, in Skopje, the new building of the renamed National Theatre King Alexander I was officially opened. This theatre was actively operating until 1941. Its most successful period was between 1935 and 1941, when it was managed by Velimir Živoinović-Masuka, a writer, poet, playwright, established theatre reviewer and proven theatre creator. It was precisely the era of Živoinović, and of the playwright Slobodan Jovanović, that saw the development of Macedonian folk drama/dramaturgy and the staging of all the key plays from the so-called “second folk wave” – Pečalbari by Anton Panov (1936), Čorbadži Teodos by Vasil Iljoski (1937), Parite se otepuvča (1937) and Antica by Risto Krle (1940).

With the change of government/politics, there was also a change in the politics and activities of the theaters. The theater in Skopje fell under Bulgarian administration and was renamed the National Theater – Skopje. It operated from 1941 to 1944, and the language of speech/performance was Bulgarian. Plays by Bulgarian authors were performed. The repertoire aimed to strengthen Bulgarian politics and national consciousness, as well as its aesthetic criteria. The performances were staged by Bulgarian directors, set designers and costume designers.

In the period between 1941 and 1944, a group of Macedonian actors, directors and artists worked within the framework of the Partisan Theatre. Some of them were Petre Prličko, Ilija Džuvalekovski, Ilija Milčin, Toma Vladimirski, Vasilije Popović-Cico and others. Basically, the theatre was propagandistic and political and was based on presenting a program consisting of recitals, improvisations and sketches, which developed into one-act plays. The topics that were most often dealt with were directly related to that time – partisan or educational. Taking into account the conditions and military circumstances in which they worked, the one-act plays were presented on improvised constructions in any empty space, with simple decor, most often just tables and chairs.

Having behind them the tradition of traveling and municipal theaters and theaters in other languages, through amateur city theaters that began their activity immediately after the liberation, in Macedonia in the mid-1940s the first professional theaters in the Macedonian language began to be founded. After the liberation, the already established Macedonian theater actors continued to actively engage in theater. They settled in various municipal buildings and institutions, organized the preparation of drama performances, traveled throughout Macedonia and developed and renewed theater life to a new level, with the primary center in Skopje. In this way, they laid the foundations of the newly established Macedonian National Theater in Skopje, thus beginning a new era. It operated in the only theater building in the city at that time, which was built on the initiative of Branislav Nušić – on the left bank of the Vardar. The establishment of the Macedonian National Theater was on January 31, 1945, by the Presidium of ASNOM, with decision no. 581/45, officially starting this stage and art house. Dimitar Kosarov was appointed director, and Ilija Milchin was secretary-dramatist. The first play premiered on April 3, 1945: the play "Platon Krechet" by Aleksandar Kornejchuk, directed by Dimitar Kosarov, and translated by Blaze Koneski. 

The Macedonian National Theatre, after its formation and further existence/creation, has gone through various periods: the creation and nurturing of the ensemble and the audience, of creators who will participate in shaping the performances, maintaining the repertoire. It is creating its own place on the map of Macedonia, on the map of former Yugoslavia and beyond. In terms of the repertoire, that is, the works that are staged, it has also gone through periods that are important for its maturation: a phase of re/discovery of Macedonian authors and dramaturgy – Anton Panov, Risto Krle, Vasil Iljoski and others; a phase of staging works from Russian and classical works; a phase of works from American contemporary authors; nurturing and promoting the new domestic author, a phase of social and realistic themes, psychological and poetic dramas, contemporary and post-modernist dramas/works.