INTERVIEW: Sea Dog Theater celebrates 90 years of ‘Awake and Sing!’
Photo: Awake and Sing! features, from left, Gary Sloan and Trevor McGhie. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Varner / Provided by Everyman Agency with permission.
The work of Clifford Odets continues to entrance theater audiences around the world. The playwright’s stories are routinely revived, and this year is the 90th anniversary of arguably his most famous work: Awake and Sing! To celebrate the occasion, Sea Dog Theater is currently presenting a remounting of the classic, with direction by Erwin Maas. Performances continue through Nov. 8 at Sea Dog Theater on East 16th Street inside an old chapel.
Sea Dog is unique on the theater scene in New York City. The company, which previously presented a staged version of Tuesdays With Morrie, is most interested in telling tales of alienation and reconciliation, which seems most appropriate in 2025. The company’s take on Awake and Sing! honors the original time period and setting of the story, which is the Bronx, circa 1935, but Maas brings a “contemporary vision” to this family drama.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Maas to learn more about this beloved show centered on intergenerational dram and economic struggle, according to press notes. He also opens up about his native Netherlands and the contemporary lessons to be learned from Odets’ words. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
Why Awake and Sing! in 2025? What is it about this play that still works?
On the first page of the script Clifford Odets writes: “All of the characters in Awake & Sing! share a fundamental activity: a struggle for life amidst petty conditions.”
Unfortunately, I think many will agree, we are not that far off from what people experienced in the 1930s: a world in distress, the rise of fascism, economic hardship, an ever-increasing wealth gap and a younger generation that feels their future is constrained. Many people today can identify with these characters who feel that they are stuck and struggle to escape the situation they find themselves in. We can recognize the general feeling that exists that things are going backwards, remembering better times that seem to be disappearing in our rearview mirrors, and having dreams that are being suffocated. Though the struggle to survive and a longing for a better future is present in every generation, it seems especially salient (again) in our current times. The fact that, in this piece, the next generation breaks the cycle and is inspired to make change provides a sense of hope that still very much works (and is needed) today.
Have you made any changes to the text?
We have made very little changes to the text. Our concept and production design is bringing the piece in a more timeless/contemporary space instead of pointing directly (and naturalistically) to the 1930s. Nevertheless, the text overwhelmingly stays true to Odets’ original, and nearly all references in the text to the 1930s have been kept. A few words have been changed to fit the way people talk in this “timeless / contemporary” world and, since we do not use any props in our production, some words / lines that are addressing props specifically have been changed or cut. For example: “She made her engagement” becomes “She got engaged,” and, (Moe holds up paper) “Here, look at this. (Points at paper) ’10-day luxury cruise to Havana.’ That’s the stuff you coulda had.” becomes simply “’10-day luxury cruise to Havana.’ That’s the stuff you coulda had.”
How does the staging inside a chapel change the interpretation of this piece?
To be able to create theater in such a beautiful chapel is both an absolute blessing but also a curse. The space in which we perform, and its conditions/scheduling needs, have definitely been our greatest challenge: how to bring to life a hyper naturalistic play in a space that doesn’t allow for this kind of naturalism and doesn’t have the usual theater needs. The opportunity it provides is to look at this play through a different lens and create a contemporary retelling of the story highlighting the universality of the Berger family and what they are going through.
My co-creator and production designer, Guy de Lancey, describes it beautifully: “An opportunity to articulate and maintain the sense of claustrophobia and longing within the play necessitated rethinking the staging away from realism, allowing the performances, characters and language to carry that aspect, encouraging a modernizing of the staging toward ideas articulated in new media dramaturgy, where the literal is less critical than poetic resonance. In dispensing with realism, the idea is to regard the stage not as a home but as an arena of social and interpersonal relations. This allows the opportunity to focus intensely on a stripped-down setting — no props, hardly any furniture — making space for the intensity of the emotional and motivational trajectories of the characters to be fully foregrounded. So, there is no fundamental transformation of sacred communal space into a literal Bronx home. The architecture and shape of the space are utilized as is, augmenting them to articulate the minimal poetic condition of the play. The sacred communal space is maintained, with staging, light and a meta-textual visual layer of video portraiture of private emotional notes, making the actors always present to the audience, to the play, to its atmosphere, allowing a transformation in how the play is experienced.”
How would you describe the Berger family?
As Christopher Domig, Sea Dog Theater’s artistic director, and I mention in our directors’ note: “Our Berger family reflects both the modern, multiethnic American family and the shared reality that we are all caught up in forces trying to dictate how we live. The Berger family represents all of us — the everyman and everywoman, people in our cities and suburbs, our villages, and the stranger we sit across from in a bar, on a train, or in a theater. Just as there’s no real privacy in the Bergers’ Bronx apartment, all of our actors remain present for the entire play. There is no true off ramp, no private room in this new world.”
Despite the Bergers’ bickering, there’s a great sense of family / communal living in this play, and in a time where more and more folks bury themselves in their own separate screens and more people than ever feel lonely, it is nice to see that sense of connection within this family. By stripping away most of the set and props, our production especially focuses on the relationships between the characters. For better or worse, the characters of this play reject the status quo and, each in their own way, fight for a better future. To me it is hopeful to see that human trait. It might remind us as a call to action.
What’s it like working with this cast?
I often say: “50 percent of a director’s job is to bring the right people into the room.” With this cast (and creative team) I definitely feel I / we succeeded in doing that. This play being such an ensemble piece, I knew we needed a strong group of actors that fit well together. Already we’ve heard from many audience members how impressed they are by the cast and that there is no weak link in the ensemble. I concur. All eight actors put their game face on and came to play from day one and rapidly formed a sense of family together. It’s been an absolute privilege and joy to work with this ensemble of actors, and I look forward to work with all of them again in the future.
How’s the theater scene in the Netherlands?
Though I’ve been living in NYC and working internationally for a long time now, I’m still connected to the theater scene in the Netherlands. I appreciate the importance of design in communicating a story / theater text in many of the Dutch theater works as well as a focus on / awareness of metaphor. I’m also a big fan of the ensemble-based theater, which, no doubt, is made easier by the subsidy system. Many theater companies in the Netherlands are ensemble-based, and that is an interesting connection to this particular production. Awake & Sing! was written for, and created by, the Group Theatre. When they first staged the play in 1935, they weren’t primarily setting out to lead a political movement. They wanted to create a new kind of American theater, an ensemble that resisted the star system and valued collective work over individual acclaim. Though there are definitely several strong ensemble theater companies in the U.S. today, it would be wonderful to see even more of these ensembles in the American theater landscape.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Awake and Sing!, directed by Erwin Maas, continues through Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Sea Dog Theater in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
