Gizi Heyden-Pryzament

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Lives in the Yiddish Theatre

SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE YIDDISH THEATRE
AS DESCRIBED IN ZALMEN ZYLBERCWEIG'S "LEXICON OF THE YIDDISH THEATRE"

1931-1969

Gizi Heyden-Pryzament

Born on 9 June 1906 in Lemberg, Galicia. Father -- manager with his brother-in-law, the hotel and restaurant owner Zygmunt Tsehngut.

He left her mother eight days after his birth and came to a stepmother for whom she had suffered deeply, and H. simply fled to her grandfather, the badkhan and musician Alter Tsehngut, who was oysgehaltn from his son, where she was raised.

Having from one side the environment of Jews of the badkhan, and from the second side the uncle Shayele Tsehngut, a well-known violinist, and the husband of the prima donna Helena Geshpas and brother-in-law of the prima donna Tsvibel, who was conductor in the troupes of Moshe Richter, Hart and Glimer.

Owning in childhood a musical ability and a beautiful singing voice, H. performed in 1924 in Lemberg in her uncle Shayele's variety (a modern version of the "Broder Singer").

After her marriage in 1925 to actor, playwright and composer Shlomo Pryzament, she began to act as a prima donna and soubrette, together with him in legitimate Yiddish theatre over the Galician province, under the direction of Berl Hart. In 1927 she guest-starred in Warsaw's Kaminski Theatre, later in Vilna, Lodz, Lemberg etc., as well as in foreign lands (Romania, Austria, Czechoslovakia).

During the Second World War, she fled with her husband to Soviet Russia, where they acted for a certain time, then traveled across Asiatic Russia, until in 1943, settling in Samarkand.

There she acted with the Lipman family until the end of the war. Returning to Poland where they acted in Lodz and Warsaw, the traveled to other lands and acted in Sweden (Stockholm), France, (Paris) and then made Argentina their home, where they acted, and from there they often toured and guest-starred across Brazil, Uruguay and other South American countries.

Sh. E. from Shlomo Pryzament.

Shmuel Rozhansky -- Der debut fun gizi heyden un shlomo prizament, "Di idishe tsaytung", Buenos Aires, 4 April 1949.
Shlomo Pryzament -- "Broder zinger", Buenos Aires, 1960, p. 15.