Cleveland Jewish News Features Laurel Father Daughter Duo

“I grew up doing theater in Cleveland at Shaker Heights High School and thought I was going to become an actor, and then I didn’t, I became a lawyer and I discovered through my career that you can always find theater,” said Jonathan Leiken, who directed the play. “Really for the last, almost, 30 years of my career I have been doing theater on the side through civic involvement, charity work, either (doing) shows or music, and I am in a band.”

Last year, after seeing his daughter in Laurel’s spring musical, “Once Upon a Mattress,” Mr. Leiken approached the school’s Head of School Ann V. Klotz and the theater department to propose a summer production of Shakespeare that he would direct and coordinate. Laurel was on board and both he and Sascha helped bring the production of the “Tempest” to life in Summer 2023, along with the help of other Laurel students. Sascha played the acting role of “Ariel” and also helped to design the set and costumes. 

For this year’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” Sascha also performed as “Hero,” as well as designed the set and some of the costumes, which she will add to her college portfolio.

Sascha, who both acted in the play and helped to design the set and costumes, told Cleveland Jewish News that “Ever since I was a kid, I knew that I wanted to do art professionally, (but) I really didn’t know what that meant like capacity wise. A couple years ago, I started joining the productions at Laurel and I fell in love with theatre. I just absolutely loved it so much. I thought I wanted to do something art-related and I love theater so much and (then) I remembered there is a whole side of theater that is solely focused on design and art and that is the theater design world, whether it be set design, costume design, lighting and sound.”