Brandished: The Dinner Theater

Premise:

A story set around the lives of the people that work at a popular ‘Dinner Theater’ named ‘Brandished’.

There are Thirty-Eight People that work at the Dinner Theater with a 100 guest occupancy.

Garret Frolich von Ihering owns the Theater.

Garret inherited the Dinner Theater from his Mother and Father. He could construct a reality in which he co founded the Theater with his parents. He was One year old when his parents had opened the Original Dinner Theater, known then as The Lil Sadie Dinner Theater.

Often with a ‘Scripted’ routine about Li’l Abner and Sadie Hawkins and The Sadie Hawkins Day Race that ensues. They had different scripts with varied incidents and use of supporting characters from the stories that had been popular. The motif was appealing for families and the theater drew a full house most of the time. The food was good and the show was always a little different with new characters and events each week.

It’s been 7 years now since Garret lost his Mother. His Father had died just the year before and it was no sudden shock when she passed. It actually surprised him that she had held out so long; with the COVID Pandemic and her age. His Father and Mother had developed a relationship at levels not identified on the PLS, Passionate Love Scale. Most couples like that pass together or shortly one after the other.

It wasn’t a co-dependency that had been the psychological tendons of the bond between the two. She was strong like muscle and he was firm like bone. They worked together and it didn’t need to be called love or anything else. The ‘relationship’ was theirs, they owned it, and they valued and appreciated each other; adding even more value together than apart from the other.

They had both been young children that escaped Nazi Germany in April of 1933 and had been thrust together through the event that led them to relocate, him in France and her to Brazil, for 7 years before finding their way to meet in England for their later education as teenagers. Their parents weren’t Jewish just European, multi-ethnic, and fleeing the senseless warring and back-biting that had become part of the culture. A Jew only dressed and acted differently, less threatening than the others who feigned they were from a superior race. Superior, only in piety, to every other different creature, hand-crafted and placed on the planet.

In 1946. After the war, amongst Nations, had subsided and passage back to Germany was safe, they decided to settle back in Giessen, Germany. The people there were busy rebuilding after suffering heavy bombing in 1944. Both found work at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. He became a Faculty Member teaching a class within the History and Cultural Studies Department and she found a position as an assistant to the Dean of Language, Literature and Culture; also substituting in place of Faculty as needed.

For twenty years they taught students and supported the efforts of the Universitat; while also becoming well known with the Student Population on Campus through involvement with the Performing Arts Department and later within the Greater Community through their involvement in developing, and acting, in the English speaking ‘Performances’, at The Keller Theatre in the late 1950’s and throughout the 60’s.

The Keller Theatre:

Founded in 1958, the Keller Theatre is the oldest English-language theatre in Germany. It was run by the American forces as part of their entertainment branch.

It was always open to anyone who wanted to participate in community theatre, the “Keller family”, regardless of their nationality or language background.

The name originates from the first space used — the basement (Keller) of the Miller Hall in Giessen. In 1994, the performance venue changed to Rödgener Strasse 64.

In 2007, when the US base was closed, the theatre passed into the hands of the friends of the Keller Theatre e.V. We continued the good work without a break, using facilities in various parts of the town.

Our “home” is now the Kleine Bühne, where most of our shows are staged.

Students and Notable People during the time at the Universitat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Mazar

Possible Muse or Inspiration for Plays and Productions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_B%C3%BCchner

(POI) Points Of Interest In Giessen:

Akademischer Forstgarten Gießen

Botanischer Garten Gießen, the university’s historic botanical garden

University Hospital of Giessen and Marburg

Both of Garret’s parents were outgoing and friendly. They shared the warmest seat in every room they sat in. The 1960’s in Giessen were like many war torn towns and cities across the civilized planet; in that they were revitalized by a sense of change of seasons and recent rebuilding. Fear of war, in the region, had subsided and the myriad of deployed soldiers had become part of the locale they were deployed to. No longer distracted with the arts of war and now finding discretionary time to entertain themselves and the native civilian population.

Americanizing, Europe and abroad was becoming the only common business, with the jews gone or disbanded, supposedly.

While the powers that be, behind the veil, were happy and content with the results of the prior 40 years. Trade across nations was making new headways. Some were getting rich from the production and selling of goods and developing the new technologies that would lead to new discoveries. This was the era of Don Draper and Mad Men.

In 1946. Garret’s parents had moved into a small apartment, on campus, the Universitat provided as part of their compensation. It was meant to be a way they could transition more comfortably into the still war ravaged environment at the time. They would have plenty of time to find more permanent housing with many new houses being built to choose from with a little patience.

Garret’s Mother was Ida Christina Frölich-Ihering, a Third Generation namesake for her great grandmother, Ida Christina Frölich, who was married to Caspar Rudolph Ritter von Jhering. A prominent Jurist who is best known for his 1872 book Der Kampf ums Recht (The Struggle for Law), as a legal scholar, and as the founder of a modern sociological and historical school of law.

It was all a secret and null of any prominence. Ida Christina Frölich I had been branded with the name and then carted off to secrecy from anyone that would consider her and her offspring part of the family. Ida Christina Frölich had died, barely 40, in 1867 during a failed birthing.

Hermann Friedrich Albert von Ihering was born in 1850 in Kiel, Germany, the oldest son of Rudolf von Jhering, and had many children of his own. Many still may be unaccounted for. In 1880 he had a child named Ida with a woman, Meta, he had a sorted affair with the same year he married Anna Maria Clara Bezel-Wolff. Publically it was assumed that Ida I, had been born to Hermann and Anna; without any correction from Meta. Then at age two, Ida died, according to Hermann and Anna, of unknown symptoms. At the time, only four people knew what really happened to Ida; simply to avoid potential shame and ridicule as a bastard child from a tree of pious and contemptible people.

Hermann realized what ‘Sins of The Father’ meant now through true ‘divine’ intervention. As a means to mitigate the concern he blessed his child with separation from the clan that would connect her to her namesake.

Ida Christine Frölich I had one child, a girl, who she named Ida Christine Frölich II. In honor of her Fathers Mother she would never know. Ida I, was 18 years old when the 28 year old Sebastian Wolff impregnated her. Her step-brother. In time she would realize this truth, and confront it, eventually.

Ida I, had been taken by her Mother, Meta Buff, to live in a remote village not far from Giessen. Hermann had made arrangements and supplied a stipend to supplement their living expenses. While he went to Rio De Janeiro with his recently acquired wife. The widow, Anna Maria Clara Wolff (born von Bezel) and now brandished with a new name, Anna Maria Clara Bezel-Wolff-Ihering. Accompanied by her then 10-year-old son, Sebastian Wolff, to stake out a new life in Brazil.

In 1883, Hermann was nominated a traveling naturalist of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro and lived in several cities by the Lagoa dos Patos. He eventually bought an island at the delta of the Camaquã River, which started to be called Ilha do Doutor (Doctor’s Island) and lived there for some years with Anna and the kids in Rio de Janeiro. He was naturalized Brazilian in 1885.

Hermann returned from Brazil alone in 1892 to attend his Father’s funeral in Göttingen. He visited Meta and Ida also at this time. Spending a month in Europe while Anna stayed in Rio de Janeiro with his other kids. Anna was already accustomed to his frequent absences. Hermann would actually return to São Paulo and the island before visiting Anna and the kids, 3 months later.

In 1898 Hermann returned again to Giessen, bringing Sebastián, and again without Anna, who was with Rodolpho, Clara and Wilhelm and now in São Paulo. Hermann and Sebastian made the long trek back to Giessen to spend just a few days for a visit to see Meta Buff and Ida. It is this time that Sebastián and Ida are left alone for 3 days. While Hermann and Meta travel to a nearby Bed & Breakfast for their own purpose of having a moment of private time to make love and ‘frolic’ together without any cares for others.

In 1901, Hermann and Annas’ son, Rodolpho, was sent to Europe to study in Heidelberg. However, their other son, Wilhelm, died soon after, being only 16 years old, and his wife Anna became too shaken by the event and died later in the same year. Rodolpho then abandoned his studies and returned to Brazil to help his father collect specimens and artifacts from the region.

In 1907 Hermann returned to Geissen to collect Meta Buff, Ida I, and her child, Ida Christina Frölich II. He fetched them and immediately returned to Brazil. Taking Meta and Ida and little Ida to São Paulo to live with him, with Anna now gone and the other kids grown and gone. They visited the Island, where Herman and a local farmer had established a lucrative ‘Nudibranch’ harvesting operation and spent time in Santa Catarina with Hermann as he worked with the museum to acquire specimens and artifacts of notable value.

In 1920 The Iherings’ returned to Europe, nomadly living, first in Naples, before returning to Germany. In 1921, he settled with Meta in Büdingen until Meta died in 1928. Hermann, Ida I and Ida II moved to Giessen where Hermann died shortly after in 1930.

Hermann and Metas’ daughter Ida I, now 48 years old, the now 30 year old daughter Ida Christina Frölich II, now with a new baby girl, lived together in Giessen until 1933.

Ida Christina Frölich I had named her daughter Ida Christina Frölich II as a matter of continuation of something she really didn’t understand fully. Why her Father had done what he did hadn’t made sense to her. She never made a fuss about it or asked to be revealed to her Father’s paternal family. She was accustomed to their life spent abroad, away from the messy affair. Being on the same continent now would make no difference, just like when she was younger and had no knowledge of her Father.

Ida Christina Frölich II was born in 1930, just after the death of her Grandfather Hermann and was 3 years old when her Mother and Grandmother left Geissen to avoid the brewing war between forming Nationalist German Factions and the settled Jewish Merchants; that had been lit kindling already through generations of social needling.

April 1st, 1933 was the signal to the Elder Ida to leave the community they had been living in just outside of Geissen. It had been 12 years now since they had moved back from Brazil and just a few years since Hermann had passed. Both Idas’ had witnessed the rapid changes as if merely spectators from Brazil. With little cause to venture outside the small village community they lived in not far from Geissen.

In 1885, Hermann had bought a small island at the delta of the Camaquã River, he had named Doctor’s Island. He had spent some time collecting species samples near the Lagoa dos Patos engaged as a Naturalist by the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro.

Hermann had left the property to Ida I and Ida II, not knowing Ida III would materialize. He had two small houses built and a barn with a stable. Hermann made a pact with a local man he had befriended and partnered with Specimen Collecting and left the island in his care when he left to attend his Father’s funeral in 1892. He returned to the island for a brief couple of months before moving on to São Paulo in 1893. He returned in 1895 for an extended stay on the Island before returning to live with Anna in Rio de Janeiro in 1900. After a last visit with Meta and Ida in 1919, he never returned to the Island before he died in 1930.

Ida Christina Frölich III would learn to talk on this island. Experiencing the same atmospheres her Mother did as a child. She’ll be 10 when she meets Herbert Ihering (Jr.)

Background:

Herbert Ihering (also sometimes Herbert Jhering: 29 February 1888–15 January 1977)

It’s not privy information to the general public that Herbert Ihering is the son of Hermann von Ihering. This is a scandalous issue and will draw attention to this book when published. Exposing this may be a libelous affair. Do your due diligence.

Herbert Ihering Sr. never married and only had one very brief affair with a woman who had portrayed herself as a man when he met her. The encounter produced a child in 1928. The child’s Mother named him, as she did, to be his Father’s namesake, as a pointed matter of spite towards his Father. Herbert had denied the child and shunned her requests for help in birthing and raising the baby; ashamed of the whole affair.

Herbert (Jr) grew up without knowledge of who his Father was or even that he was a Jr. or namesake. He was 5 years old when his Mother and Grandfather had taken him to France in April of 1933. Avoiding the culture change occurring and violent criticism of their Jewish ancestry. They weren’t especially jewish, just Multi-Ethnic European and not aryan.

Herbert Ihering (Jr) would meet Ida Christina Frölich III in ten years and marry her in fourteen. Her name would become Ida Christina Frölich-Ihering.

Was this Hermann’s plan all along? How could that be?

Who will Garret’s offspring be? His wife Amelia is pregnant, expecting twins. The year is 2027.

‘Brandished’ has just opened for a season with a new production. There’s much more to come…

Checkout my books available in the Kindle Unlimited Library:

Amazon.com: Aaron Tarpley: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle