Exodus: The Shanghai Jews

As Jews tried to escape Nazi Germany in the 1930s, they faced unthinkable roadblocks in obtaining exit visas. And while they were denied entry in one country after another, a bureaucratic oddity enabled some of them to flee to an unlikely destination: Shanghai, China. In this LATW original commission, playwright Kate McAll used the survivors’ own words to create a narrative of people starting their lives over in a completely new land.Funding for this presentation is provided in part by The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and The I. Michael Kasser Trust: Michael and Beth Kasser.Special thanks to Prof. Steve Hochstadt for his generosity in sharing his research and recordings to help create this work.Recorded at the UCLA James Bridges Theater in June 2023.Directed by Anna Lyse EriksonProducing Director: Susan Albert LoewenbergAn L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording, starring:Edyta Brychta as Lisbeth LoewenbergMichael Canavan as Herbert Greening Shannon Cochran as Ilse GreeningArye Gross as Gerard Kohbieter Anna Mathias as Trude Reisman Alan Shearman as Paul ReismanAndre Sogliuzzo as Ernest CulmanJoanne Whalley as Melitta Colland.Senior Producer: Anna Lyse EriksonRecording Engineers, Mark Holden and Charles CarrollSound Design by Mark HoldenEditing and Mixing Engineer, Charles Carroll Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin