Awake and Sing! takes place in a 1930s Bronx tenement apartment that is home for the Bergers, a family of Jewish immigrants. Here, where three generations dwell under the same roof, Bessie, the domineering matriarch, lives in perpetual fear of being evicted. Her need for respectability is undermined by a weak husband and her outspoken Marxist father. Bessie’s son Ralph, who dreams of a life that “isn’t printed on dollar bills” and sides with his grandfather’s politics, is appalled when Bessie goads his pregnant sister into a loveless union with a boarder she’s taken in to help with expenses. Ironically, Ralph’s leftist grandfather is the family member who makes the greatest sacrifice to secure his future. Considered to be Odets’ finest drama, Awake and Sing! famously captures the hope and despair of the Depression era working class in search of an American Dream.
This ambitious production of Awake and Sing! has taken on the huge challenge of recreating an accurate representation of a real Depression era tenement apartment in a small 50 seat theater with the construction of a meticulous set containing wood plank floors, framed by detailed doorways and the authenticity of period furniture. Placed in close proximity to the stage, the audience surrounds the actors, at once suggesting the thinness of the tenement’s wall and neighbors voyeuristically eavesdropping on the Berger family. Odets claimed that Awake and Sing! was more about a whole social class being crushed by circumstances beyond their control. By remounting the play in this immersing and intimate fashion the production aims to evoke comparisons of the circumstances, tone and outlook of then to the economic pressures that continue to affect society today.
John DeSotelle, founder of John DeSotelle Studio and Artistic Director of The Nu•ance Theatre has been acting on stage, in television and film as well as directing and teaching in theater for 20 years. He directed Raft of the Medusa and Waiting For Lefty for The Nu•ance Theatre.
Awake and Sing! opens Thursday November 6th at John DeSotelle Studio (300 W. 43rd St. in the Times Square Arts Center at the corner of 43rd and Eighth Ave) and runs thru Saturday November 22nd. Performances are Thurs. thru Sat. at 8PM with Sat. matinees on Nov. 8, 15 and 22 at 3PM and Sun. shows on Nov. 9 & 16 at 5PM. Wednesday performances on Nov. 12 and 19 are at 7PM. Tickets are $18. Group tickets are available at $15 for 10 or more. For tickets go to www.desotellestudio.ticketleap.com/AwakeandSing or www.NuanceTheatre.com and call (212) 581-0188. For further information go to www.DesotelleStudio.com.