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 Erikson

Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording, starring:

Edyta Brychta as Lisbeth Loewenberg

Michael Canavan as Herbert Greening

Shannon Cochran as Ilse Greening

Arye Gross as Gerard Kohbieter

Anna Mathias as Trude Reisman

Alan Shearman as Paul Reisman

André Sogliuzzo as Ernest Culman

Joanne Whalley as Melitta Colland.

Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson

Recording Engineers: Mark Holden and Charles Carroll

Sound Design: Mark Holden

Editing and Mixing Engineer: Charles Carroll

Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin