Born on 12 April 1886 in Vilna, Polish-Lithuania. He received a home education, and in 1907 he became a prompter in Bleykhman's troupe in Paris, then with Miriam Trilling and Herman Berman, with whom he traveled to Antwerp. Later D. became engaged as a prompter (known under the pseudonym of "Genose") to M. D. Vaksman in Paris. 1909-10 D. went with the troupe across Belgium and England. 1912 D. staged in Feinman's Theatre in London, and then became an assistant regisseur in the Pavilion Theatre (Directors Vaksman-Moshkovitsh). In the beginning of 1913 he traveled with Vaksman's troupe to Argentina and returned to London, where he worked for Bleykhman and Joseph Sherman in the Cambridge Theatre, then for a year with Joseph Kessler in the Pavilion and Peregn(?) Theatre.

1917 D. traveled to Russia and became an assistant regisseur in Kharkov in the troupe of Adolf Segal and Dimarsky, 1918 -- in Moscow, then in Vilna as a regisseur with Lipovski, and in 1919 as a regisseur in the same troupe under the name "Fareynikter yidisher folks-teater" (without Lipovski). In 1919 D. acted in Bobruisk with only several actors for some weeks, and went on to Kharkov, where the troupe united with "Unzer vinkl", and D. became assistant regisseur and actor in the theatre until 1921, when the theatre disbanded in Minsk, where D. joined in with the