Sarah Farhangi played Rapunzel in the recent Catalyst regional youth troupe production of the musical “Into the Woods.” As a result, she had time to rehearse only for the ensemble in the Tigard-based Motive Theatrics’ recent staging of the musical “Newsies.”
During the same period, she prepared to play Ariel, singing “Beyond My Wildest Dreams” from the Broadway musical version of “The Little Mermaid” as the sole entertainment at Tigard’s State of Our City event on April 13 at Tigard’s Broadway Rose Theatre.
Smiling brightly, Sarah delivered the song with extraordinary poise and confidence. Her rendition of that same piece had won her honors for best novice musical performance in the Oregon Thespians regional competition in February.
And she’s busy enrolling in summer theater camps. And Sarah gets straight As. And she’s just 15.
Sound exhausting? Far from it, says Sarah, who explains that she takes deep personal satisfaction from musical performances and delights in the progress they make towards her own wildest dreams about the professional stage.
Dan Murphy, managing director of Broadway Rose and master of ceremonies for the State of Our City event, closed out an ovation for Farhangi’s performance there by saying, “Wow! She’s only a freshman at Tigard High School!”
Later, Murphy, whose troupe has engaged the talents of thousands of youths over its nearly 35 years, says while Sarah was singing, he was “thinking, wow, this girl is good! This was her time to shine as a soloist, and I really thought she rose to the occasion.”
For the performance, Sarah wore a brown T-shirt commemorating Broadway Rose’s 2025 production of “Les Misérables” in which she played a street boy named Gavroche – one of roughly 10 of her musical stage roles to date.
Tori Scoles, theater director at Tigard High School, had recommended Sarah for the city event in light of her “phenomenal talent,” her status as an “up-and-comer,” and her freshman rank.
In addition, Scoles says, “I knew Sarah’s piece would be perfect because it would be very uplifting and positive, and I knew that’s what the city would want.”
Scoles credits Sarah’s twin attributes of artistic drive and down-to-earth teamwork as a winning combination in her time so far in musical theater. “She’s inclusive with the whole of the group,” Scoles says. The theater director also says Sarah bounces back from disappointment.
Moreover, as a Latina daughter of immigrants, Scoles identifies with Sarah as a person of color and first-generation American trying to take flight in theater. In Scoles’ case, she says, her family background tended only to dampen her passion for theatrical pursuits out of economic concerns.
Sarah’s case could not be more different. For her self-possession in embodying her stage parts and her drive to methodically plot a stage career, Sarah says she takes inspiration from her mother.
Frouz Farhang (slightly different spelling), an immigrant from Iran about 20 years ago, raised her three daughters as a single mother speaking a second language while working full time as a dental lab designer technician and coaching her kids to assert their independence.
The mother says she has encouraged her kids to pursue their interests partly because her own youth lacked such luxuries. Growing up during the Iran-Iraq War between 1980 and 1988, she says, she was deprived of making a wide variety of choices about chasing her bliss.
“We never got a chance to follow our passion,” Farhang says. “We were in survival mode. It’s one thing I never got to do.”
As a result, she wishes that Sarah and her two other daughters would pursue whatever passions hold the promise of making them happy. “I always encourage my kids to follow their hearts, and she’s doing it,” Farhang says.
Now that Sarah’s spree of musical appearances fills much of her free time, Sarah’s mother says, “I’m loving it.” The mother says she’s offering and organizing transportation for Sarah to get to rehearsals and shows, listening to her rehearse and attending her productions.
Her daughter’s strength is her passion, Farhang says.
The mother also might well mention Sarah’s determination. Sarah says she’s “dead-set” on a college performing-arts program, preferably in New York City, followed by a succession of professional stage appearances.
“Performance is just something that’s so important in my life that I just can’t imagine anything else,” Sarah says. “I’m hoping it pushes me for the rest of my life. I devote as much time as I can to theater.”
“I just want to devote my life to it and see how far I can get myself,” she says.
