06/03/2026
Sayegh to Play All 30 Characters in ‘The Goldsmith’
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
by Martha Sorohan
Sharone Sayegh describes her first play, “The Goldsmith,” as a true account of her tumultuous love story in America.
At its heart, she told the Cleveland Jewish News from New York City, is a single piece of gold jewelry that has been passed down across borders, cultures and four generations as her family journeyed from Iraq to Israel to America.
Sayegh will portray all 30 characters in a staged reading of her one-woman show in Hebrew, Arabic and English at 2 p.m. June 13 and June 14 at Cleveland Play House Outcalt Theatre at 1407 Euclid Ave.
With sound composition and music arrangements by Turkish-American composer Avi Amon, the play is part of Cleveland Play House New Ground Theatre Festival, which showcases new playwrights.
A meet-the-author and audience talk-back will follow the June 14 performance.
Staged readings are a new and unexpected experience, Sayegh, a Los Angeles native and 20-year Broadway actress first cast in “Mamma Mia!” in 2024, said.
In 2023, she began writing her family’s story. That same year, she was asked to be part of The Workshop fellowship, which supports and brings together Jewish artists of all colors, backgrounds and disciplines such as choreography, photography and fine arts.
“We had to present 20 minutes of a work in progress, and here I was, a well-established Broadway actress and I’d never written anything myself, as a playwright,” Sayegh said. “I was just writing my (own) story.”
She landed on a title, she said, after calling her grandmother in Israel for more material. She learned that the family’s last name means “goldsmith,” that her great-grandfather had been a goldsmith, and that “Goldsmith” was the family’s full name in Iraq.
“It’s so wild,” she said. “So many coincidences. I think it was meant to be.”
Sayegh said she was astonished at audience response to the first workshop reading.
“It was so much more than I expected,” she said. “At the talk-back, they said, ‘What happened?’ And I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t finished writing it yet.”
A second salon reading brought Sayegh an invitation from the artistic director of a Philadelphia company to appear at its new works program.
“And I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ because I hadn’t finished writing it,” she said.
In 2024, she read her newly-completed play to the Philadelphia company and was stunned by the audience acclaim.
“I wrote mostly through the lens of me and America – faith, belonging, multiplicity of self,” Sayegh said “I’d thought that young people looking for love would identify with it, but the board was mostly older people, and I didn’t know if they’d be able to connect. But they were crying, sobbing,” she said.
She learned that they identified with the characters through the experiences of their parents and grandparents.
“I realized that it’s people of all generations, different viewpoints, of being the first generation love story, of connecting. It’s powerful and moving for me. Their reaction gave me the oomph to keep it going,” she said.
“The Goldsmith” has already won accolades. It was one of two winners at Theater Aspen’s 2025 Solo Flights Festival, which presents one-person shows still being developed, earning Sayegh grant funding for a future production.
“I then started submitting it all over,” she said.
Last fall, in Cleveland with the Broadway “Beetlejuice” tour, Sayegh was introduced to Debbie Yasinow, head of the Jewish Federation’s Cleveland Israeli Arts Connection, which connects and sponsors Israeli artists with Cleveland’s fine arts community.
Determining that Sayegh was a perfect fit for CIAC, Yasinow pitched her to the Cleveland Play House for its New Ground festival.
“The Play House vetted it,” Yasinow said. “They love her, too.”
Currently committed to presenting her play around the country, Sayegh hopes that good reviews will land it in New York.
“I’m focusing on this because if I don’t choose my show, who will?” she said.
Sayegh also assures audiences that the play is not political.
“It’s not a political piece or statement,” she said. “Just my true life story.”
