Awake and Sing!, Clifford Odets's social chronicle of life in Depression era America, is the Harvard Summer School Repertory Theater's second offering of the season and it has its premier Wednesday night. The play itself is brilliant, but it's long and extremely difficult to perform well. The Summer Rep has set itself up for a real challenge here; this has to work as more than just nostalgia if it's to be worth the time and the effort. The Crimson's review will appear in Friday's edition. Wednesday's and Thursday's performances begin at 8 p.m.

The Summer School Dance Center gives its first performance of the year Thursday night in Agassiz Theater. The concert, which runs through the weekend, features new works by Reuben James Edinger, Beth Soll and Mel Wong. Advance tickets cost $3, tickets at the door go for $3.50. Shows start at 8:30.

Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller's tragedy of the common man, has already had its definitive production that everybody has had a chance to see on television, but the Tufts Arena is giving the play a go-round any way. No quarrel with Tufts' choice of plays, but Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock are a very hard act to follow. If by some quirk you've never seen this before, see it now. It premiers Wednesday at 8:15. Admission is $3.50, $2 for students on Thursdays.

Light Up the Sky, Moss Hart's hilarious comedy about show business, is being performed at the Provincetown Playhouse, which traditionally offers some of the best summer stock in New England. The Playhouse, on the Cape, is next door to the Eugene O'Neill Museum, a neat place to visit if you're down that way.

Fascism, Fascism, Fascism!, after hit runs in Greece, Chile, Brazil, South Vietnam and a few other places, moved into Cyprus for a trial performance early this week. Critics at ITT and the Pentagon give it good notices, and are thinking of bringing it here when audience surveys show the time is right. Sources say that a wave of resistance will eliminate the show from the political arena in the near future.