Exodus: The Shanghai Jews, an original, L.A. Theatre Works-commissioned audio docudrama by Kate McAll recorded by a distinguished cast before a live audience, is now available for digital download for the price of $4.99 at latw.org.

In Exodus: The Shanghai Jews, listeners will hear eight Jewish refugees recount their true stories of escaping Nazi persecution to settle in the last place they could ever have imagined — Shanghai, China.

After the Anschluss of 1938, Chinese Consul-General to Vienna Dr. Feng Shan Ho offered unlimited visas to Jews seeking to escape Europe. As a result, about 20,000 Jews settled in Shanghai between 1938 and 1941. There, they established synagogues and businesses, living side-by-side with their new Chinese neighbors under harsh conditions during the Japanese occupation.

“These eight personal narratives give us a glimpse into a fascinating, little-known piece of history,” says director Anna Lyse Erikson. “Each story is a tale of tragedy and triumph.”

The recording stars veteran actors Edita Brychta (Daniel Deronda, Oslo, The Murder on the Links and The Confession of Henry Jekyll, MD); Shannon Cochran (August: Osage County, End Days, The Rivalry, Dr. Strangelove, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers); Arye Gross (M. Butterfly, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, Julius Caesar, Crimes of the Heart); Anna Mathias (Bump, The Goodbye Girl, Act One, Cyrano de Bergerac); Alan Shearman (Racing Demon, An Enemy of the People, The Life of Galileo); André Sogliuzzo (For Us All, The Sun Also Rises, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Twelfth Night, Pressure); and Joanne Whalley (Extinction, The Little Foxes, Macbeth, Look Back in Anger, The Real Thing).

The production was recorded before a live audience at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater in June, 2023.

L.A. Theatre Works stands apart in its approach to making great theater widely accessible and affordable, bringing plays into homes and classrooms of millions of theater lovers, teachers and students each year. The company’s syndicated audio theater series broadcasts weekly on public radio stations across the U.S. (locally, in Southern California, on KPFK 90.7 FM); can be downloaded as a podcast via iTunes, NPR One, or wherever you get your podcasts; and can be streamed on demand at latw.org. The L.A. Theatre Works catalog of nearl 600 recorded plays is the largest archive of its kind in the world. Audiofile magazine calls L.A. Theatre Works productions “the gold standard for fine audio theater recordings.”

Click here to download high-resolution photos of the actors recording Exodus: The Shanghai Jews.

To place an order, go to latw.org.