Struck dumb at Mary's audaciousness I could only nod in agreement. It really would be a good idea to get together to discuss things before any more commitments were made.
"The summer season is only a few months off, too," Mary continued. "We must get together before I return to Magdeburg and discuss what you will need for the performance. And that's another thing. You really should give some thought to moving your company to Magdeburg permanently. Not immediately, of course, but as soon as we can find you some suitable buildings you really must make the move."
This time I actually managed to speak. "What? The high school auditorium has some of the best facilities of any theater in the world! Why would I want to move away from first class lighting, acoustics, and sound?"
"Bitty, you need to bring your performers to Magdeburg where they will be properly appreciated. The people in Grantville aren't interested in regularly attending the ballet. Not enough of them, at least, to sustain a professional company. Yes, the high school auditorium has the best facilities in the world. But even the best facilities aren't any good if you can't fill enough seats often enough. You aren't even able to pay your dancers a living wage, are you?"
Embarrassed, I shook my head. That was one of my biggest disappointments. In almost a year of operation my dancers were still dancing for love. The money I had been able to pay them was peanuts, barely enough to cover the costs they incurred training and performing. Even the money they were being paid for the season of Nutcracker came down to a measly hourly rate when you counted up all the hours of practice.
"Think about it, Bitty. In Magdeburg you will have the whole imperial court, visiting dignitaries, and various hangers-on as potential audiences. Not to mention what will soon be a little horde of nouveau riche merchants and industrialists looking to enhance their social status. They will appreciate your performances—well, attend them, anyway, in the case of some—as the artistic and cultural artifacts they are. And with that potential audience we should be able to afford an Imperial Theater that would be the envy of the world. You owe it to yourself, Bitty! You owe it to your dancers, and to the Art of Dance!"
How she managed to capitalize Art of Dance verbally I'll never know, but she did.
"The Mother of Modern Ballet!" she went on enthusiastically, still capitalizing like mad. Then, frowning with reproval: "But not if you stay buried in this cultural backwater. If not for yourself, think of your dancers. Don't they deserve the opportunities Magdeburg has to offer?"
Harvey saved me from answering. He drew my attention to the time. In only a few hours I was supposed to lead rehearsals for Saturday night's performance. Begging Mary's leave I stumbled out into the night, my arms latched securely to Harvey. Mary had left me a lot to think about. I owed it to my dancers to do the best I could for them. However, Mary was expecting too much. I was just a small-town dance teacher. How could I possibly take on the responsibilities Mary was heaping upon me? All I had wanted when I started out all those months ago was the chance to enjoy a night at the ballet. A chance to watch my Christmas performance of Nutcracker again.
I certainly hadn't planned on becoming this universe's Sergei Diaghilev!
Part III: The Trouble in Franconia
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.
Ezekiel 37:7-8
Motherhood and Apple Pie, While You're at It
Virginia DeMarce
December, 1632: Grantville, Thuringia
Arnold Bellamy looked at the assignment that the Congress of the New United States had given the Special Commission on the Establishment of Freedom of Religion in the Franconian Prince-Bishoprics and the Prince-Abbey of Fulda. Its members were to go to the area that King Gustavus Adolphus had assigned to be administered by Grantville the previous autumn. They were to establish a headquarters at Würzburg. There were to be regional offices in Bamberg and Fulda. They were to hold hearings. In the course of these hearings, they were, basically, to explain a number of things to the civil down-time administrative personnel of these regions. The most important were, reduced to their essence:
1) Under the Constitution of the New United States, there is Separation of Church and State;
2) Religious Toleration is a Great Thing;
3) Burning Witches is a Bad Idea;
4) We Mean It;
—and, also, added as a rider during a late afternoon committee meeting;