Lives in the Yiddish Theatre
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"

1931-1969
 

Sonia (Chaya Sara) Nathanson
 

 

N. was born in December 1894 in Berdichev, Ukraine. Her father was a haberdasher. She learned in a city school and at night in a Yiddish professional school, In 1904 she moved with her family to Odessa and due to economic conditions, she later, for a year, entered into Fishzon's chorus. N. then debuted as "Leahle" in Shomer's "Der tsveyter haman", and soon became the second prima donna, acting a season with Fishzon in Yekaterinoslav and in Odessa.

In 1913 N. was prima donna with Adler-Lipovski in Lodz's Circus building, then with Kompaneyets in Warsaw and in the "Grand Theatre" in Lodz with Zandberg. During the war mobilization, N. aced in Riga (Lerman, Meyerson, Rubin), then in Pinsk and Homel, 1917 -- in Kiev under the direction of Berman and Grossman, later migrating over to Russia and Tashkent in a members troupe, in 1924 --she guest-starred in Moscow and she traveled back to Tashkent, where she acted until 1928  (from that a year dramatic repertoire in the Yiddish Workers House and in a cooperative, coming into a lease from the government).

In 1929 N. came to America, acting for several months in a non-union troupe in Pittsburgh, and one time she acted as "Mirele Efros" in New York's Folks Theatre. Thereafter she traveled back to Europe.
 

M. E.


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 2, page 1402.
 

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