Awake and Sing!

Acclaimed director Simon Levy brings Clifford Odets’ depression-era classic Awake and Sing! to life on stage at International City Theatre. This moving portrait of a Jewish immigrant family crowded together in a cramped Bronx tenement features multiple award-winning actress Jacqueline Schultz as the domineering matriarch Bessie Berger. The production is part of Celebrate 350, a year-long commemoration of 350 years of Jewish life in America sponsored by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Considered to be Odets’ best work, Awake and Sing! compassionately portrays the struggles of the financially destitute Berger family as its three generations cope with survival and grasp for dreams during the depression years in New York. Tragedy, hope and politics are all interwoven to create a powerful work as illuminating and engaging today as it was when first performed in the 1930s.