Fred Ohles

Blanche, just widowed, is about to celebrate her 75th birthday when other people (a nosy reporter, an acerbic sister-in-law and a curious teenager) insistently drag her into recollecting long-suppressed memories of violent episodes from her early adult life. That was a time when she suffered domestic abuse, traveled with Bonnie and Clyde and, because of mistaken identity with Bonnie Parker, served a sentence in prison. Blanche resists opening herself up to conversation about that early part of her life, but as the others egg her on, in desperation she reveals her long-hidden identity to the teenaged girl living next door. Then, with the help of that girl, Blanche reads and dreams her way back to the pivotal, traumatic set of events that shaped the rest of her life. In that process she discovers that she was more courageous and nobler in the face of deadly threats than she has ever dared to think. At the same time, her principal antagonist (and sister-in-law), Marty, who relishes her own half-truths about those early days of crime, out of a naive set of recollections from her youth, is compelled to confront how ugly, violent, and duplicitous were the actions of her own beloved, notorious gangster older brother, Clyde Barrow.

A homeless person and a collector of signatures for a ballot petition both occupy a street corner. Gradually they interact with each other, overcoming their initial mutual antagonism at trying to claim the same spot to cajole passers-by. Their manners of speaking seem discordant with their roles.

Premiered in the July 2025 First Flight Festival of Angels Theatre Company, Lincoln, Nebraska.

A professor tells about a first encounter with the "department of alcohology" at a small college - a faculty trio, two of them hard-drinking, the third one formerly hard-drinking.

First performed by David Landis at Solo Tales & Ales, Angels Theatre Company production, October 2024, Lincoln, Nebraska.

An artist who paints portraits addresses a client who has not liked what he received for his commission.

First performed by Scott Clark at Solo Tales & Ales, Angels Theatre Company production, October 2025, Lincoln, Nebraska.

When Milton, the ambitious owner and manager, arrives at his immensely popular Hi-Five Diner one morning, there are no customers. Helen, the server, is sitting atop a table practicing her lotus pose. In walks Brenda, the bakery truck driver, delivering a larger than usual order of sticky rolls because Milton was so pleased yesterday by the recent increase in business. And still, no customers come in. Milton gets frantic. Helen gets philosophical. Brenda gets tactical. Absent being busy as they are on a normal day, Milton and Helen begin to talk frankly with each other. They discover that they have a strong common interest in music, even down to what they enjoy performing. Brenda, having learned where everyone is this morning, brainstorms with Helen and Milton to put their common interest to work and lure back their customers. It works in a big way.

Fathers of the bride and groom meet in the vestibule of the sanctuary as they both arrive well ahead of the wedding. One is a Norwegian immigrant in a loveless marriage who has just begun an adulterous dalliance with a woman who was his girlfriend many years ago. The other is a Canadian immigrant whose wife told him some years ago not to come home anymore. He is in a deep funk, indeed suicidal. As they begin to get acquainted, each man by deception reads a private letter the other man has brought with him, deepening their mutual knowledge of each other's inmost ambitions, fears and flaws. Intermittently, the women in their lives (the girlfriend as she was at 18; the estranged wife) appear, each reminding her man of his responsibilities and foibles. The men nudge each other to improve their lives, which seems in the offing as they enter the sanctuary together.