To everyone I say: find the strength to become who you are, without fear of facing the path that will lead you to discover your true essence.
Francesca Ravera is an award-winning actress living in New York City. She left her “safe job” in Genoa to pursue her dream of acting, defying expectations and abandoning her career as a dentist to follow her true nature. After studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, she starred in plays, films and short films, building an international career. She has acted in Off-Broadway productions, including Nick Payne’s Constellations and Garret Jon Groenveld’s The Hummingbirds at Chain Theatre. Her most recent project, Truth Be Told, premiered at the Gene Frankel Theatre in New York from February 19 to March 9, 2025. We interviewed her for TheNewyorker.
What motivated you to follow your passion for theater, despite the uncertainties and challenges you may have encountered along the way?
I have always loved theater. As a child, I dreamed of acting. I used to tell everyone in elementary school that I would become an actress. Perhaps a common desire of many children, but I really believed in it.
When it came time to choose a university, however, I took a different path and enrolled in Dentistry. I thought it was the right choice, but the further I went, the more I felt I was living someone else’s life. I had a scroll, a green lab coat, tweezers in my hand-and yet inside I knew I belonged elsewhere. Theater, which had always been a part of me, was knocking on the door too insistently to be ignored. For a long time I was afraid to really follow that passion. I wanted to act, but I didn’t know where to start. I was terrified of making a mistake, of not succeeding. Then, one day, I realized that the only mistake would be to stay still. I decided to listen to that inner voice and jump in.
I moved to the United States without a big plan, without knowing how long I would stay. All I knew was that my dream had always been New York. Once here, I started studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, then at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. I just wanted to train, to improve myself-but one thing led to another. I started auditioning, getting roles, building my career. And the further I went, the more I realized that I would never go back. The theater gave me everything, and I gave it everything in return.
Reflecting on your experience so far, what has New York offered you that you probably would not have found in any other city?
Being in New York has given me so much, both professionally and humanly. And in this business, the two are never really separate: what you experience, what you learn, the people you meet-all are reflected in the way you play a role. Every experience enriches you as a person and, inevitably, leaves a mark on the stage as well. From an artistic point of view, there is academic training, of course, but the real school is the stage. Going on stage, rehearsing, making mistakes, experimenting-that’s where you really grow. But what makes New York unique is its multicultural dimension. Here I’ve had the opportunity to come into contact with people from all over the world, each with a history, a culture, a perspective different from my own. I don’t know if I could have had a similar experience in Italy. Maybe yes, to some extent, but not with this intensity. In New York you only have to sit in a café to find yourself, within ten minutes, in conversation with someone from the other side of the world. And then there is the artistic energy of the city. I always say it: New York is not small, but it feels like it, because an incredible number of opportunities are concentrated in a relatively small space. From a work perspective, being immersed in such a diverse reality has taught me a lot. It pushes you to adapt, to be versatile, to deal with people who have completely different approaches from your own. It is not easy for me to compare with Italy, sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had stayed, but it is not a thought that haunts me. I live in the present, and I am deeply grateful for everything I am experiencing here.
How has acting enriched your life, both professionally and personally?
I love the opportunity to connect deeply with both the characters I play and the audience. Each performance is a unique experience, an ongoing process in which one is constantly growing. Theater-and acting in general-is never static: each role is different, each production has its own particular energy, shaped by the director, the cast, the method of work. This dynamism requires great adaptability and elasticity, qualities that I not only find fascinating but that represent the very essence of this craft. Over the years I have played many characters, and each of them has left something with me. It often happens that, reading a script for the first time, a role seems interesting to me but not particularly engaging. Then, day after day, working on it, I realize how much I connect with it. Several times, at the end of the last performance, I found myself in tears because I knew I would miss that character, his voice, the emotions he made me experience.
What was the character you played that left a deep mark on you, and how did it challenge or transform you as an actress?
One of the most significant roles for me was in Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms, one of the first plays I played in New York. I was Lainie, the wife of an American man kidnapped and held hostage in Beirut. During the play, my character was desperately trying to secure her release; in private, she dealt with the pain of absence by imagining dialogues with her husband. It is an intense story about loss, politics, and powerlessness in the face of events. In the end, her husband was killed by his captors, leaving Lainie in a devastating void. It was a difficult role, but deeply formative. Another play I am very attached to is Constellations, which I staged in both New York and Italy in which a couple experiences endless versions of their love story, with each small decision leading to a different outcome. Finally, Truth Be Told was another impactful project for me. It deals with a dramatically topical issue in the United States: mass shootings. My character is a writer working on a book about a boy responsible for one of these tragedies, trying to reconstruct his story through the words of his mother. A powerful confrontation about truth, media manipulation and collective responsibility emerges. It is a text that challenges many certainties and that I felt deeply necessary to bring to the stage.
You mentioned your latest play, Truth Be Told. Tell us more about this production and the director who staged it just this March.
Truth Be Told, premiering at New York’s Gene Frankel Theatre between Feb. 19 and March 9, 2025,is a psychological drama written by William Camerone directed by Kim T. Sharp that centers onan intense confrontation between two women scarred by tragedy. I am one of those two women, Jo Hunter, a true crime writer, who must investigate the mass shooting and confront the perpetrator’s mother, resulting in a tension-filled confrontation about justice, grief and the media’s role in constructing reality in the raw violence of public opinion. Kim Sharp approached the text with extraordinary sensitivity, giving it its proper weight and deeply respecting its essence, especially in dealing with such a complex issue. His method of working is something I appreciate immensely: he challenges the actors. He allows us the time and space to find the answers within the text, guiding us with questions rather than pre-packaged solutions. It is rare to meet directors who allow such freedom. Some of them prefer to treat actors as puppets, telling them exactly what to do, how to move, what tone to adopt. Kim, on the other hand, values personal interpretation, and for an actor this is an invaluable gift.
Was there a scene that you found particularly difficult to play in your role?
If a scene appears too easy, it means you have to dig deeper, find an obstacle, a conflict. This is my approach as an actress: I always try to add more depth to moments that initially seem to lack complexity. The role of Jo is dense with complex challenges, both emotional and narrative. One of the hardest tests is when Jo has to push the boy’s mother to confront the facts. It is a delicate balance: on the one hand, Jo cannot afford to walk away from the interview; on the other, she is faced with a woman who has lost a child, and the emotional stakes become untenable. Jo must remain lucid, maintain sensitivity and respect, and never give in on the truth. And then there is the ending. After an entire play spent in denial, the mother surrenders to reality. The roles are reversed: if in the beginning it is Jo who presses on while the mother resists, in the finale it is the latter who breaks down. It is a moment of profound rupture, a shattering emotional transition that leaves an indelible mark.
What feeling do you think it left with the viewers once the curtain closed?
Everyone reacts differently, based on his or her own sensitivity and personal history. However, the play prompts the audience to question not only what they believe to be true, but also why they believe it. One of the most powerful aspects of the play is its ability to show both sides of the coin. There are no good guys and bad guys, just people trying to survive something unimaginable. There are moments when the theater is filled with absolute silence. It is a dense, tension-filled silence in which every breath seems suspended and I feel that the audience is totally immersed in the story. I have a deep gratitude to the Gene Frankel Theatre and its artistic director Thomas Gordon, director Kim Sharp and William Cameron, the author of the play. Theater, for me, offers a unique thrill; with the audience you create a contact, a dialogue that I find absolutely magical that invites you to look inside yourself. Acting, for me, means just that: exploring new perspectives, telling thought-provoking stories, making authentic connections with the reality around us.
The article Following the dream: Francesca Ravera’s journey from Genoa to Broadway comes from TheNewyorker.
