Hannah Rovina (1888-1980) was an actress and the First Lady of Hebrew Theatre; a laureate of the 1956 Israel Prize in the field of theatre, and a founding member of Israel’s Habima National Theatre. Rovina was born in Belarus. In 1917, she joined the then-recently-established Habima Theatre which, at the time was still operating in Moscow. In 1928, along with her theatre company, Rovina arrived in Palestine. Following the local premiere of The Dybbuk (aka Between Two Worlds) and virtually overnight, both Rovina and Habima Theatre became iconic symbols of Hebrew Theatre which was still in its infancy.
Rovina continued to act on the Habima stages practically until her dying day and has played the vast majority of female leads in the finest classical, and modern plays. Highlights of her stage credits include Portia in The Merchant of Venice (1936), Jocasta in Oedipus Rex (1952), Mother Courage in Mother Courage and her Children (1951), Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1954), Mary in Long Day’s Journey into Night (1965), and Madame Zara in Gypsies of Jaffa (1971). Alongside her stage work, Rovina also appeared in a number of films, including Pioneers of Palestine (aka Sabra, Aleksander Ford, 1933), and Iris (David Greenberg, 1968).
Rovina is the mother of actress and singer, Ilana Rovina who was the product of an affair she had had with poet, Alexander Penn.
