N. was born in 1898 in Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye), Ukraine. Her father was an employee in a Briansk plant, at the same time he acted in the local orchestra. She was raised in Yekaterinoslav, two years she lived with her family in Pavlograd, later she moved to Dnepropetrovsk (n. Yekaterinoslav), where he entered into a factory for women's hats and she settled at the same time into her studies with a well-known female teacher.

Entering into acting in an "amateur" circle, she debuted in the role of "Jennie" in Meyerson's play "Der hamer fun lebn" and soon thereafter she participated also in a local Russian "amateur" circle, debuting in Psibishevsky's "Tsulib glik". Since then she has acted in an "amateur" circle and also performed in roles in guest-starring professional Yiddish troupes. Through the initiative of actor Zhelazo, she entered into a professional Yiddish itinerant troupe, but due to her family's situation, she had to return to acting in the drama circle in the [chancy=tsufelike] productions of the professional Yiddish troupes in Dnepropetrovsk.

In 1919 she entered into the troupe under the auspices of Miriam Trilling and Kazhdan, where she acted until 1920, when the troupe disbanded due to the death of Trilling, and N. traveled out with Kazhdan's troupe to Baku, where she acted for two years. In 1922 she entered into Brandesco's troupe in Moscow and here, having the opportunity to become known to the new Soviet Theatre, she received a negative position in the old Yiddish theatre. Thereof she toured with a collective under the auspices of Menachem