'Awake & Sing' starring Marilyn Fox, directed by Elina de Santos

LOS ANGELES - Aug. 26, 2015 - PRLog -- Clifford Odets' gritty, passionate, funny and heartbreaking masterpiece about the hopes and struggles of a lower-middle-class, three-generation Jewish family living in a Bronx apartment during the Great Depression continues to resonate 80 years after its 1935 premiere. Director Elina de Santos and lead actress Marilyn Fox return with a 20th anniversary revival of the smash Odyssey Theatre production that ran for nine months in 1994-95.

“[Odyssey Theatre associate artistic director] Beth Hogan and I feel so strongly about this play and what it has to say for today, that we wanted to bring it back,” says de Santos. “So many people in 2015 are in the same position as this family, struggling daily with social and economic pressures just to be able to get by. Everything is still skewed to the one percent. Odets talks about the ‘system’ in this play. It’s the same conversation we are having today. In what ways do we need to be responsible to society and to our community?”

Awake and Sing! was Odets’ first full-length play, catapulting him to the forefront of the world stage and establishing him as a champion of the underprivileged. It premiered on Broadway at the Belasco Theater, where it was directed by Harold Clurman and starred Stella Adler as Bessie Berger, Sanford Meisner as Sam Feinschreiber, and Morris Carnovsky as Jacob. Veteran theater critic Clive Barnes included Awake and Sing! in his book, “50 Best Plays of the American Theatre.” Actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Ralph in a production when he was a teenager, recalled in an interview,“The story paralleled that of my own family. I was so inspired with its illumination of the human condition that I decided to be an actor.”

Performances of Awake and Sing! take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., Sept. 26 through Nov. 29. (On Sunday, Sept. 27 only, the performance will be at 5 p.m. with no 2 p.m. matinee.) Additional weeknight performances are scheduled on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Oct. 14 and Nov. 4, and on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Oct. 8, Oct. 22, Oct. 29, Nov. 12 and Nov. 19. Three post-performance discussions will take place on Oct. 10, Oct. 24 and Nov. 4 and are included in the ticket price. Tickets are $34 on Saturdays and Sundays; $30 on Fridays; and $25 on Wednesdays and Thursdays, with $20 tickets available for seniors and $15 tickets for students and members of SAG/AFTRA/AEA. There will be three “Tix for $10” performances on Friday, Oct. 2; Wednesday, Oct. 14; and Wednesday, Nov. 4. The third Friday of every month is wine night at the Odyssey: enjoy complimentary wine and snacks and mingle with the cast after the show. The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025. For reservations and information, call (310) 477-2055.