Obie Winner Melia Bensussen Opens 'Awake & Sing!'

Obie Award winner Melia Bensussen (Luck of the Irish, Circle Mirror Transformation) has returned to the Huntington Theatre Company to direct "Awake and Sing!," Clifford Odets' stirring American classic about a working-class Jewish family striving for a better future. Performances at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre began Friday, November 7 and will continue through Sunday, December 7, 2014.

"Since her gorgeous, moving production of 'Luck of the Irish' in 2011, I've wanted to bring director Melia Bensussen back to the Huntington to mount a classic," says Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. "She has a great passion for Clifford Odets' work - 'Awake and Sing!' evokes stirring memories of her relatives, she once told me. Her talent for telling intimate family stories that play out on a broad social canvas makes now the perfect opportunity for her return."

"We don't want life printed on dollar bills," the passionate Ralph Berger proclaims to his mother Bessie. In 'Awake and Sing!,' three generations of an immigrant Jewish family are crammed into a Bronx apartment where they dream of a brighter future. Matriarch Bessie's fierce determination keeps her family afloat whatever the cost as she faces opposition from those with vastly different definitions of success. Gritty, passionate, funny, and heartbreaking, Odets' 1935 masterpiece beautifully captures both the hopes and the struggles of an unforgettable American family fighting for security and prosperity as they emerge from the Great Depression.

"'Awake and Sing!' portrays the emotional battlefields that ensue when economic pressures overwhelm," says Bensussen. "How can we love purely and generously when we are in constant danger of losing our homes, our savings? Odets captures the complexities of intimacy and tension in a close-knit family. To find a balance between love, support, and self-interest in any nuclear family is the stuff of great plays."

Chicago Sun-Times calls "Awake and Sing!," "so timely it might have been written yesterday."

"Awake & Sing!" is sponsored by Grand Patron Boston University; Season Sponsors J. David Wimberly and Carol G. Deane; and Production Sponsors Gerry and Sherry Cohen.