Fred Ohles

Fred Ohles began writing plays in retirement, after a career in higher education. In addition to his playwriting, he is working on two books currently: a community history of philanthropy, which has been commissioned by the Lincoln (Nebraska) Community Foundation, and a reflection on his own fascination and experiences with word puzzles. He is the author of three published works - a translation from German of reflections on wage labor in 1910s Australia; a history of political censorship in early 19th-century Germany, based on archival research; and with two co-authors (including his mother), a biographical dictionary in American educational history.

Fred Ohles began writing plays in retirement, after a career in higher education. In addition to his playwriting, he is working on two books currently: a community history of philanthropy, which has been commissioned by the Lincoln (Nebraska) Community Foundation, and a reflection on his own fascination and experiences with word puzzles. He is the author of three published works - a translation from German of reflections on wage labor in 1910s Australia; a history of political censorship in early 19th-century Germany, based on archival research; and with two co-authors (including his mother), a biographical dictionary in American educational history.

Scripts

Drawn Back

by Fred Ohles

Cast Size
6—9
Genre
biography,
drama,
period

Blanche, just widowed, is about to celebrate Christmas in 1985 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 a criminal band and served a sentence in prison. Blanche resists, but in desperation reveals...

Blanche, just widowed, is about to celebrate Christmas in 1985 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 a criminal band and served a sentence in prison. Blanche resists, but in desperation reveals her long-hidden identity. Then, with the help of the teenaged girl living next door, Blanche reads and dreams her way back to the pivotal, traumatic set of events from her life during the 1930s. In that process she discovers that she was more courageous and nobler than she dared to think. At the same time, her principal antagonist (and sister-in-law), Marty, who relishes those early days of crime, out of a naive set of recollections from youth, is compelled to confront how ugly, violent, and duplicitous the actions of her own beloved, notorious gangster older brother were.

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