Saturday evening, a troupe of Yazidi actors were busy rehearsing for the premier performance in Armenia’s first ever Yazidi theater, scheduled to open today in Etchmiadzin’s Machanents Theater.

The actors had gathered in the Ferik village house of Majit Shamoyan, in Armenia’s Armavir Province.

Ferik is majority Yazidi, a national minority that numbers around 60,000.

The premier performance of the play “Life and Love” deals with the Yazidi participation in the recent Artsakh war.

Lawyer Greta Aleksanyan wrote the play and Machanents Theater Artistic Director Gevorg Babakhanyan will oversee the production.

Greta Aleksanyan

In February 2020, Aleksanyan founded an educational/cultural initiative called “Standing with the Yazidis”. Visiting Yazidi populated areas in the country, Aleksanyan saw the need for a Yazidi theater in Armenia.

The new Yazidi theater bears the name of Arsen Poladov, a Yazidi who served as the first artistic director of the Armenia’s Pantomime Theater.

It will operate in the Machanents Theater until it has a home of its own.

Aleksanyan selected actors for the play by knocking on doors in Ferik. During her rounds, she was introduced to Artsakh war veteran Amar Mamoyan. He accepted Aleksanyan’s offer to act in the play. Mamoyan and the other actors have no stage experience.

68-year-old Anahit Sharoev was also selected as one of the actors. Sharoev says her selection came as a total surprise but she wholeheartedly welcomes the opportunity to present her national culture to the wider public in Armenia.

“I’ve waited a long time for today. We exist but had nothing cultural to show,” says Sharoev, adding certain Yazidi traditions are hindering the minority’s greater participation in public life.

She singles out the custom not allowing girls to finish their education.

“Girls are not allowed to finish school. They are pulled out in the fifth grade. But I am grateful to my parents that I finished tenth grade with an excellent record,” says Sharoev, adding that some parents in Ferik are keeping their kids in school, thus allowing them to attend university.

In the play, Sharoev and her grandson Zoro, will portray a Yazidi mother and son who must confront the reality of the recent war in Artsakh.

The son is determined to volunteer for the front, while his mother initially opposes his decision. She finally relents and sends him off to war with her blessing.

Zoro Sharoev says Yazidis and Armenians alike are looking forward to the play.

"This is a big deal. We act in the name of our heroes. Both nations have experienced genocide. We share this. We have to show that we support each other," says Anahit Sharoev.

Anahit's grandchildren and great-grandchildren will not be there at the premiere. The hall is too small to accommodate first night theatergoers. But they will go to the next day's performance to see grandma on stage and to proudly applaud her.