Hanna Rovina was an Israeli actress, admired for her regal appearance and impressive voice. Also, Rovina was known as the "First Lady of Hebrew Theatre".
Background
Hanna Rovina was born on September 15, 1888, in Berezino, Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Berezino, Minsk region, Belarus). She was a daughter of David Rubin, a timber merchant, and Sarah-Rivka Rubin. Hanna had one sister, Rahel, and a brother, Zvi.
Education
Hanna completed her studies at the Russian municipal school. After working for two years as a nursemaid, she went to Warsaw to study at the Hebrew seminary for teachers and kindergarten teachers, directed by Yehiel Halperin, graduating from it summa cum laude.
Career
Having finished her studies, Hanna was employed to teach at the Warsaw seminary’s kindergarten. In Warsaw, she first met Nahum Zemach. Two years after, on the outbreak of World War I, Rovina returned home for a short while and from there set off for Baku, where she had been offered a position as a kindergarten teacher.
In spring of 1917, she arrived in Moscow and began her acting career at the "Hebrew Stage Theatre" of Nahum Zemach. She joined Habima theatre just as it was being launched, and participated in its first production, a play by Yevgeny Vakhtangov. She became famous for her role as Leah'le, the young bride who is possessed by a demon in The Dybbuk by S. Ansky. Rovina toured Europe and the United States with Habimah and reprised her role in The Dybbuk in every revival of the play until 1957.
Rovina quit Habima in 1925 and moved to Eretz Yisrael, where her work in the theater established her reputation as Israel’s leading actress. She became pregnant and after her husband, Moshe Halevi, denied paternity, she divorced him and returned to Moscow soon after. Three years later, in 1928, Rovina returned to Habima and together with the other actors of the theatre immigrated to Mandate Palestine.
Rovina's range of performances spanned Hebrew productions, Shakespeare, and classical plays. Memorable roles by Rovina also include several mothers, as in the mother of the Messiah in Pinsky’s The Eternal Jew; the title role of Brecht’s Mother Courage; and Jocasta in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Her last role, which she performed only ten times, was the queen-mother in Shakespeare’s Richard III, directed by David Levin.
Even in the final decades of her life, Hanna refused to give up the stage, fighting for her right to be given a part. In the course of six decades, she played scores of parts, including queens and mothers larger than life, which suited and embodied her public persona.
Rovina was never an actress who was “absorbed” into the dramatic character, but rather an actress who harnessed the part to explore an aspect of her own stage personality. In all her parts she gave expression to her strong individuality.
Hanna's career as an actress caused a rift with the world of her family. Because of his orthodoxy, her father never saw her perform.
Quotes from others about the person
"Even when she was eighty-seven, in Eddy King, she had the same stance and the same glory, that nobody else possessed." - Nissim Aloni, a dramatist and director
“She is the most wonderful character in the production. An outstanding graphic sketch, without any colorful adornments, only economical use of modes of expression. In her acting: clarity, crystal transparency and the voice of the heart.” - M. Zagorski
“The wonderful gifts of actress Rovina stand out in an exceptional manner … only a very talented and wide-awake actress could act as precisely and subtly as she does. To mingle two voices as one in the way she does is a miracle of technical maturity.” - A. Kugel
Connections
Rovina's first and only marriage was to Moshe Halevi, an actor and member of the Habimah collective. In 1924 Halevi left Habimah and went to Erez Israel, founding there the Ohel (later became the Theater of Erez Israel Laborers). Rovina remained in Moscow. In the summer of 1925, more than half a year after their separation, she visited him in Erez Israel and asked him to acknowledge paternity of the child she was bearing. Halevi refused and divorced her. Rovina then terminated her pregnancy and returned to Moscow.
Later Hanna had relationships with Ari Vershaber and Chaim Weizmann.
During her mid-forties, Rovina met the bohemian poet Alexander Penn, however, the couple never married. Their daughter Ilana was born on February 10, 1934. Penn and Rovina separated and Ilana hardly knew her father.