Petaluma Profile: Petaluma actor Sophia Grace Ferar

Local theatergoers might instantly recognize Petaluma actor Sophia Grace Ferar by her long, curly hair, as she has been acting at local venues since she was 5 years old. The 28-year-old has lived in Petaluma all of her life. In addition to performing at Spreckels in Rohnert Park, and theaters in Novato and San Anselmo, she’s played a number of roles at Cinnabar Theater, including an early appearance in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

“Cinnabar is my favorite theater,” Ferar says. “Cinnabar has my heart forever.”

It is with Healdsburg’s Raven Players, however, that Ferar has been given the opportunity to sink her teeth into her strongest leading role, as Anna in Francine Schwartz’s drama “The Germans Upstairs,” which was to have opened on March 20, but has been postponed do to the current health crisis.

“It’s based on stories the playwright heard from her grandmother about living in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1940,” says Ferar, going on to describe the play’s central characters. “They are Jewish, and rent out the upstairs rooms to a pair of German officers. The family is unhappy about the tenants but the person most upset is Anna’s 16-year-old daughter. The dialogue is nuanced, so we have to show our emotions through physicality.

The production was planned for Healdsburg’s Hudson Street Winery, where the audience is very close to the small stage, and according to Ferar, the director Ron Nash was using that audience intimacy to the cast’s advantage.

“For example, in the scene where I have to slap my daughter, we practiced and practiced over and over to make sure it looks and sounds ‘real,’” she says. [Actor’s secret: Ferar actually slaps the hand her “daughter” is holding up to her cheek].

“It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Anna falls in love with one of the Germans, or that her daughter is embarrassed and disgusted by this,” says Ferar. “The play is pretty intense. I grew up being raised Jewish, and I couldn’t stop crying when I read the script. The dialogue is beautifully written and very ‘real.’ There are several times when I need to cry onstage and people ask me how I do it. No trick is needed. I’m completely involved in the character and my emotions are so real. I even have dreams in character sometimes.”

Ferar assumes that, when an audience finally gets a chance to see “The Germans Upstairs,” the experience will be emotional for them as well.

“The second German is much more of a Nazi who says things that are jarring today,” she says, “and there are two places in the show where soldiers march, with an arrest scene, and times when women are groped and fondled. I guess you could say the play is PG-13, not appropriate for children under 13.”

Ferar’s real life daughter is 5-1/2 years old (“going on 15”) and is continuing her mother’s tradition of attending Waldorf Schools. Ferar attended Summerfield Waldorf School from kindergarten through her sophomore year in high school, when she transferred to Analy High.

“Because of the multiple approaches Waldorf taught me,” Ferar explains, “I’m able to deal with all different kinds of situations and not get stuck doing a problem one way.”

“I love this town,” Ferar concludes. “Petaluma has always had my back. I‘m still discovering things about the place. When I grew up, nobody ever came to Petaluma. They arrived by accident. And once here, they discovered what I am learning now, how the culture and activities are so varied, with old-time farmers, newcomers, and migrants all functioning together in a pleasant way.”

NOTE: The Raven Theater production of The Germans Upstairs, scheduled to open on March 19th, has been cancelled because of the “Coronavirus uncertainty.” A statement online suggests that the company hopes to produce the play later this season or possibly the next.