By himself he was an intelligent and handsome
man, he later had with his wife and
brother-in-law, the actor Aaron Lager, founded
their own itinerant troupe across Russia, which
was very popular.
In 1904 he issued in
Odessa "D. M. Sabsey, songs and couplets,
published and property of the bookstore
brothers Bletnitsky in Odessa". In the
inside book cover, it is given, "Lider gezikhte
n kupleten." The book contains thirty-three
songs, including a song instead of an
introduction about the performing of the songs
for the public.
In 1907-08 S.
was director in Dvinsk and most of thee time he
used to travel across Lebanon [Lifland] and
Courland. In 1908-09 he played under the
direction of Nakhum Lipovski and -- according to
Lipovsky -- they had few people, which he used
to speak to on the stage.
Still S. also later
directed with troupes, in which there were
raised many of the later prominent actors.
Thus writes Avraham
Teitelbaum: "The amusing production of the
Sabsey-Lager season in 1910 on the Odessa stage,
'Time of the Messiah,' which held a large number
of productions, together with the newest
'American hits.'" And further: "...to play
Goldfaden, Sam Adler, Sabsey and the other
theatre directors on their old shteygerishn
naive-serious, theatrical way..."
In the years
1920-21, during the civil war in Russia -- S.
settled in Kremenchug (Ukraine), where with his
wife, were hired for the troupe of M.
Volkenstein. There S. used to give repertoire
and costumes and distributed once costumes on a
balcony, when the balcony suddenly broke, and S.
fell over, breaking his spine. After several
days of lying in a hospital, he passed away
(1921?) in Kremenchug.
His wife passed away
in the same city two years later.
M.E.
from Menaha Boodkin, Nakhum Lipovski, Jacob
Katzman, Bina Abramowitz, A.G. Kompaneyets, and
Sh.E. from Mark Leiptziker.
