"Awake and Sing"

One of our classes in the program is called Script Analysis. Each class has one play that they are currently researching and tearing apart. We are currently working on Clifford Odets' play "Awake and Sing," and one of our projects was to pick a movie and describe how the movie helps with research for the play. We're learning how to take outside material and think about how the characters functioned during the times.

Mr. Simpson helped me choose "The Cradle Will Rock" written and produced by Tim Robbins.

“The Cradle Will Rock” depicts the economic times of America in the 1930s. The Great Depression was in full swing, labor strikes were happening across the nation, and Americans were beginning to feel the pressure of Fascist Germany and fearing a communism/socialist government take over. As the movie begins, we read in the beginning credits that the Work Projects Administration, a program that was a part of the New Deal, has a budget for the Federal Theater Project. This program brings low cost theatre to the USA thereby giving professional actors work and theater to the people.

We are introduced to a beautiful destitute young woman sleeping illegally in a theater who “sings for a nickel.” She later, by the generosity of the unemployment teller, gets a job as a stage hand in a show produced by Orson Welles and John Houseman. We also meet a talented and tormented composer, Marc Bliztstein, who later creates a musical called, “The Cradle Will Rock.” The production is funded by the Federal Theater Project and produced and directed by Welles and Houseman. The young homeless stagehand steals an audition slot and is cast as the leading lady for the show. Another one of the actors, Aldo Silvano, is an Italian immigrant trying to make a way for his family in America without the support of his Mussolini devoted rich parents. Mussolini’s former mistress, Margherita Sarfatti, starts to politically align herself with tycoon Gray Mathers whose wife, Contesse LaGrange, actively supports and helps Welles’ theater production. A vaudeville ventriloquist, Tommy Crickshaw, is struggling to keep his act together. Meanwhile, Nelson Rockefeller is disturbed by Diego Rivero’s mural that he painted in the Rockefeller center based on Rivero’s desired social revolution. The Committee on Un-American Activities investigates The Federal Theater Project and cuts their funds by 20% forcing the theater to shut down and forbidding the show to go on with the help of government guards. The actors find a way to do play from their seats in a different theater.

This movie constantly begs the questions: (How far is one willing to go? How much will one risk? How much does one sacrifice for their beliefs and at what cost?) These type of questions are illustrated when we see Silvano and his wife discussing their living situation. They have six people living in a one-bedroom apartment infested with rats, and yet Silvano refuses to take his parents money for a new apartment because they are Mussolini supporters. This is a difficult sacrifice that not many people could have made. We start to understand why the characters of Odets' play would make some of the despicable choices they made. The mother of the play, Bessie, tricked a young immigrant into marrying her daughter although she was already pregnant with a different man’s baby. These horrible choices that Bessie is forced to make are understandable to someone who is willing to do absolutely anything for the love and well being of their family. In both examples, their choices are prideful and we are left to wonder if the result is worth the cost.

In the scene where the socialist artist, Diego Rivera, argues with Margherita Sarfatti about their political views she calls him a wealthy communist and he calls her a Jewish loving Fascist. It’s easier for us to understand why people like Jacob believed in a communist nation based on how workers were treated and how the unemployed were treated. These issues were demonstrated throughout the movie and made us feel more compassionate to the idea of a social revolution.

This movie shows fear and how the absence of knowledge plays in ones comfort level and choices. The presence of fear is what drives so many of Odets’ characters to live in misery including Moe, Hennie, Bessie, and Ralph. This movie gives us a social and economical description of America at the time adding more understanding to the complexity of Odets’ play.

I'm not sure if it was because I was so "raw" from the Art Alive project, however, I couldn't help but notice how the actual use of painted visual art was so prevalent in the movie.

I know that we are obviously in the more academic side of things right now, but I am definitely soaking everything that I can up! Tonight we went and saw the Industry showcase for the end of the program and all the performers were amazing! I look forward to getting there