Roman Izyaev

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Roman Savievich Izyaev (January 29, 1940 – April 29, 2018) was a Soviet, Russian and Israeli stage actor, director, screenwriter and set designer who worked mainly in Judeo-Tat theatre. Born in Derbent, Dagestan, he joined the Judeo-Tat theatre at 17 after being invited by the artist Akhso Shalumova, which began his theatre life. From 1986 to 2001 he was the artistic director of the Judeo-Tat theatre in Derbent, where he played many leading roles.

In 2001 he moved to Israel and founded Rambam, the first Judeo-Tat language theatre in Hadera. He served there as artistic director, actor, screenwriter and set designer until 2017. He wrote two Judeo-Tat plays in Israel: The Husband of Three Wives and The Promised Land. His theatre work took him to many cities in Israel and abroad, including Russia, Azerbaijan, Canada and the United States, such as the Master Theater in Brooklyn, where his troupe staged the musical comedy Mother-in-law based on Mejid Shamkhalov’s work.

Izyaev also directed productions based on Hizgil Avshalumov’s stories, Sash of Childlessness and Shimi Derbendi, in which he played Shimi. He staged one-act plays by Mikhail Dadashev and Divorce in the Caucasus by Vyacheslav Davydov. For his contributions to theatre, he received the Order of the Badge of Honour in 1985. Illness led him to retire in 2017. He died in Or Akiva, Israel, on April 29, 2018, at age 78.