Awake and Sing ! by Clifford Odets
Awake and Sing! is a drama written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.
Considered Clifford Odets’s finest play, AWAKE AND SING! premiered on Broadway in 1935, performed by the Group Theater. It is the story of the Bergers, a lower middle class, three-generation Jewish family living in a Bronx apartment during the Depression. Odets described it as “a struggle for life amid petty conditions,” capturing a frenetic, pressured existence in this crowded dwelling with robust authenticity. The play recalls that this country was founded as the land of opportunity for immigrants who came with an enduring belief in the American dream. Odets’s characters are all the parents, grandparents, and children who sought refuge and forged new lives. Families like these from around the world continue to make their way here every day, making Awake & Sing! as timely today as it was when it was first written.
The National Asian American Theatre Company will kick off its 25th Season in residency at The Public with this classic Odets drama. Stephen Brown-Fried directs an all-Asian American cast that includes Mia Katigbak recreating her OBIE Award-winning role as matriarch Bessie along with Sanjit De Silva, Mel Duane Gionson, Teresa Avia Lim, James Saito, Jon Norman Schneider, David Shih, Alok Tewari, and Henry Yuk.
Awake and Sing ! by Clifford Odet
Director by Stephen Brown-Fried
Opening Night July 06, 2016
Closing – August 08, 2016
Joe’s Pub – The Public Theater
Dates to Keep in Mind
Post Show Discussions – join us immediately after these performances to go deeper into world of AWAKE AND SING!
Thursday, July 16
Beth Phillips, who is writing the first comprehensive biography of Odets for Random House Knopf, will discuss with director Stephen Brown-Fried the implications of non-traditional casting in a society that can no longer ignore racial and economic disparity.
Thursday, July 23
“Creating Character”: Join Peter Kim, NAATCO’s Associate Producer, for a discussion with cast members about their process in creating their characters and the journey of revisiting the same role two years later.
Thursday, July 30
“Who Performs Whom?” Can Asian American actors portraying Jewish Americans of Russian heritage change our perceptions of race and culture? Professor Karen Shimakawa (Chair, Performance Studies, NYU), Jorge I. Cortiñas, playwright-in-residence at Bard College, and Jonathan Kalb, drama critic and Professor of Theatre at Hunter College discuss NAATCO’s Awake and Sing!
Summary
The play is set in The Bronx borough of New York City, New York, in 1933; and it is concerns the impoverished Berger family, who all live under one roof and their conflicts as the parents scheme to manipulate their children’s relationships to their own ends, while their children strive for their own dreams.
The audience is introduced to a very unique family. The matriarch of the family, Bessie, had high hopes and dreams for her family. However, despite her hopefulness, her largest fear is that her family will lose their home and all their possessions. This fear stems from a woman down the street who has had this exact thing happened to her.
The house consists of extended family such as Bessie’s father, Jakob along with her husband, Myron and her son, Ralph and her daughter Hennie. To top it all off, in order to ease the financial burden on the family, the Berger’s have taken in an immigrant boarder as well named Sam.
Besides, the desire for financial stability, there are other problems that the Berger’s face such as Hennie’s unmarried pregnancy. To avoid this burden on the family, Bessie insists on the marriage between Hennie and the new immigrant boarder in order to save her family’s reputation and her daughter’s life. Hennie and Sam have no love for each other. The family has very different views on the arranged marriage between Hennie and Sam. For example, Ralph, a more philosophical character of the play, is not in agreement with his mother’s decision. Ralph very much resembles his grandfather who is an idealist. The Berger house is therefore divided into idealist and realists, much like society as a whole.
In a turn of events, Jakob commits suicide and throws himself from the top of a building. Even though he believes that life should not be defined by money, he leaves his insurance policy to Ralph in hopes that it will change his outlook on life.
Themes
Odet brings to the table the issues of the importance of appearances in relation to respectability in society; how we appear to society is how we improve and gain status. His also presents the contrasting world of idealism and realism. Odet also presents the contrasting of materialistic ideals and the importance of money in society. Through his writing, he zooms in on the economic burden that is placed on society and how that affects the lives of humans and the way they live their lives. He also shows how values can become blurred and perceptions can change with experience.
Cast
Sanjit De Silva
Mel Duane Gionson
Mia Katigbak
Teresa Avia Lim
James Saito
Jon Norman Schneider
David Shih
Alok Tewari
Henry Yukv
