LOS ANGELES — A family fled Nazi Germany in 1939 only to find themselves running again a few years later, when Japan invaded the Philippines.
It’s during this flight into the depths of Mount Banahao that audiences first meet Rudy Preissman, the central character of the new play “Mix-Mix: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy.”
“Mix-Mix” is based on the true story of Ralph J. Preiss, one of 1,200 Jewish refugees who found sanctuary in the small island nation during the war.
It’s a lesser-known chapter in the history of the Philippines — one that even director Jon Lawrence Rivera was unfamiliar with.
“I was born and raised in the Philippines, and we are a third world country,” he said. “To be able to do something like that was just a real surprise for me.”
As artistic director of Playwright’s Arena, which is co-producing the show along with Latino Theatre Company, Rivera is passionate about elevating Filipino voices and stories beyond the one he says that everyone knows.
“You know. Philippines. Imelda Marcos. Shoes,” he said, punctuating each work. “I love the idea that this story is about a small, tiny country with no resources. And even with that, we were able to help these Jews to survive. So I think those stories…stories that are not really being heightened…should be given a platform.”
For this piece, he enlisted playwright Boni B. Alvarez, who it turns out had a deeply personal connection to the material.
His grandmother was pregnant with his father during WWII.
“And she had hidden out in a lot of mountainous areas in the province,” he explained. “It also resonated with me because my grandfather was in the Filipino army and was shot down by Japanese soldiers. So my dad never met his father.”
Alvarez spent months talking with Preiss and his daughter over Zoom before he finally started crafting the play. He hopes it will be seen as a celebration of the human resilience.
“I always believe in theater as like a way that documents our history,” Alvarez said. “We learn so much about our past. We try to have it have an impact so that it’s not repeated.”
Rivera would like Preiss’ story and with it the story of how the Philippines’ Open Door Policy helped save Jewish refugees fleeing the holocaust to be told as widely as possible and he hopes this play is a springboard to a bigger project.
Now, he says, is the time this story needs to be told.
“There’s unrest in Israel right now. There’s unrest with all of the immigrants that are coming to this country,” he explained. “I feel that we need to tell the story of people who are actually helping people who are struggling.”