Read Grantville Gazette-Volume XV Page 12


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  Bitty, who had stepped back from the discussion, stared at Elisabeth Sofie, names tumbling through her mind. Somewhere she had heard the name Dorothea Sophie before. With a shake of her head she turned her attention back to her students. "Back to our original problem. What are we going to do about Mrs. Simpson and her open air performance of Swan Lake?"

  "Offer some alternative." Joseph Matowski called put.

  "What do you mean, Joseph?" Bitty asked her younger son a little tersely.

  "Its obvious to everyone we can't do Swan Lake, and you said you didn't want to get on the wrong side of Mrs. Simpson. The only way to stay on her good side is to offer an alternative when you tell her we can't do Swan Lake."

  "And does the font of all wisdom have any idea what we could put on?" Staci asked sarcastically.

  Joseph smiled. "Yes."

  "Well? Speak, little brother. What is this great idea you have?"

  "The life and death of Hans Richter." With barely a pause for his audience to absorb what he had said, Joseph started speaking again. "Just think of it. A ballet in three acts telling the story of Hans Richter, from lowly mercenary to hero of Wismar."

  Some of the girls laughed, but Bitty nodded. "That might actually work." The idea had merit. However, creating a totally new ballet presented a few problems. The only advantage was that here and now, they could create their own rules as to what a ballet should contain. "Casey, Alice, you both studied some choreography at college didn't you?"

  "Yes, Miz B. We both did some papers. Are you really thinking about Joseph's suggestion?" Casey answered.

  "It's the best idea I've heard since Mrs. Simpson dropped her little bombshell. If you and Alice could come to my place, we can start working on it."

  Ever since Elisabeth Sofie mentioned her Tante Dorothea Sophie, Bitty had been worrying the thought that the name was familiar. Seeing Elisabeth Sofie being collected by her cousin Countess Emelie had jogged her memory. Laughing, she looked at her startled companions. "I've just remembered where I heard the name Dorothea Sophie."

  "Well, Mom, don't hold us in suspense. What's so special about Elisabeth Sofie's Tante Dorothea Sophie?"

  "I think you've all forgotten who Elisabeth Sofie is. Do you remember the ladies that turned up at rehearsals with Mrs. Simpson?" At their nods Bitty continued. "One of them was an Abbess Dorothea Sophie of Saxe-Altenburg. She rules the Damenstift of Quedlinburg."

  "Oh! When Elisabeth Sofie talked about her Tante Dorothea Sophie having a secondary school, she really meant her secondary school. Not one that just happens to be close to where she lives, but one she runs," Staci said.

  Tuesday January 10, 1634. Grantville

  "Fräulein Casey, Fräulein Anastasia, I have talked to Tante Dorothea Sophie and Papa. They think the idea has merit. Also, Papa suggests that such a school would benefit from having a suitable patron." Elisabeth Sofie ducked her head for a moment before looking back at Staci and Casey, then in a rush, she said, "Papa suggested that the school could be called 'The Duchess Elisabeth Sofie Secondary School for Girls.'"

  Staci and Casey looked at each other, then at Elisabeth Sofie. "Why would you want to be patron of a school?"

  "Papa thinks it would not hurt for me to develop a public profile as a person of influence. And under the circumstances, starting with a school would be ideal."

  "Why do you need a profile as a person of influence? And why would a school be ideal?"

  "It is to protect my inheritance. Papa has no faith that his heir will respect his will."

  January 1634, Grantville

  Bitty led Lady Beth Haygood to the four watching young women. "Lady Beth, I'd like to introduce you to the Grantville Ballet Company's brain trust. There are my daughters Staci and Melanie, Joel's wife Alice, and Casey Stevenson. They helped me put together the proposal for the ballet on the life and death of Hans Richter."

  "Did Mrs. Simpson go for Joseph's idea then, Mom?" Alice asked.

  "Yes, love. She had already been getting reports of problems from Marcus Wendell, so she was ready to compromise. Mary loved the idea and is happy for us to work on it. She's even authorized a budget to get the music prepared, just as soon as we can work out what music we want. I'll be checking with Marcus to see what is and isn't possible over the next couple of days."

  "So the useless little runt has finally managed to justify his existence," muttered Staci.

  "He's never going to let anyone forget it either," Melanie agreed.

  "Staci! Melanie! That's no way to talk about your brother. We'd really be up the creek without a paddle if he hadn't come forward with his idea."

  "Yes, Mom. Sorry, Mom."

  "Did you ask Mrs. Simpson about helping with the school, Miz B?" Casey asked.

  Bitty shook her head apologetically. "I'm sorry, Casey. I totally forgot. I'll try and talk to her tomorrow."

  "School?" Lady Beth asked, looking with interest at Casey.

  Casey nodded. "We were talking about moving the company to Magdeburg and how one of the problems would be how could we earn a living. Melanie is training to be an electrician, which will be a trade very much in demand. Alice already has a firm offer to work for Kelly Construction as a draftsman, but all Staci and I are qualified to do is teach. One of the down-time dancers suggested we should think about opening a school for girls in Magdeburg and offered to talk to her family, and the Duchess Elisabeth Sofie Secondary School for Girls was born."

  "What sort of help are you hoping to get from Mrs. Simpson?"

  "We aren't really sure yet, Mrs. Haygood. But she has all sorts of connections. We desperately need someone to help. Staci and I don't have any idea what's involved and we're not sure we can impress the parents. They'll look at us, see a couple of young women, and either try and talk down the fees, or take their daughters elsewhere."

  "What you are looking for is a school principal then? A mature person with administration experience?" At Staci and Casey's nods, Lady Beth continued. "What sort of salary package are you offering?"

  Staci and Casey exchanged blank looks. "That's one of our problems. We don't know how much we should pay. We don't even know what a teacher should be paid, how much we should be charging, or how many teachers we really need. We don't even know what questions to ask."

  Lady Beth smiled. "So you need someone to do the work of getting your school up and running from scratch, and then to keep it going?"

  "And who works cheap." Casey smiled as she said it. "We know getting the perfect person is a pipe dream, so we might as well ask for the impossible."

  "Actually, girls, I think I know just the person you need. An up-timer with just the right qualifications comes to mind. She won't be cheap exactly, but well worth the price if the numbers add up."

  "Who, Mrs. Haygood?"

  "Please call me Lady Beth. I might be interested."

  "You?" Bitty asked.

  "Yes. It would be a perfect solution for me. I want to be with Jere in Magdeburg, but there's nowhere suitable to send Bethie Ann. I've just about resigned myself to waiting until she's old enough to leave school. However, if your school can take her, then I can go to Magdeburg to be with Jere. Of course, it would be even better if I had a job in Magdeburg to look forward to. Can you tell me a bit more about your school? Who is Duchess Elisabeth Sofie? And how much money is she putting up?"

  "Elisabeth Sofie is one of our down-time dancers. Her father, Duke Johann Philipp of Saxe-Altenburg, is offering us title and the rents for a village with about fifteen hundred acres just outside the walls of Magdeburg. He's also offered to arrange a long-term lease on some land inside the walls for the school. And said we can use some of the rooms in his new town house while the school is being built."

  "So you have a noble patron, a lease on some land, and you own a village and farm land that will help support the school? Sign me up."

  Late January, 1634 Grantville

  "Well, I'm sorry, but if you want any of the Sibelius, then you'r
e going to have to stick to canned music for a while," Marcus Wendell said. "Even the piano score will take a while to transcribe, and if you want any of the music rearranged, that'll take more time."

  "I guess that means we have to do what we did with Brillo."

  "What did you do for the Brillo performance?" Marcus asked.

  "We made a tape."

  "Ah!" Enlightened, Marcus looked from Bitty to the Sibelius CD and the boom box. "So you don't really need a live orchestra for the ballet?"

  "I was promised a live orchestra, Marcus."

  "Yes, yes I know," Marcus answered. "But, if worse came to worse, you don't absolutely need a live orchestra, right?"

  "Marcus, have you any idea how hard it is to perform to a tape? Do you realize just how difficult it is to restart without a signal from the conductor?"

  Marcus didn't know much about ballet, but he had dealt with enough stage shows as a teacher to know that the conductor needed to keep an eye on the stage to keep the music in time with the action. "Bitty, I understand what you're getting at, but there're problems in Magdeburg. Have you thought about the acoustics of the square?"

  "I wouldn't have thought it had any." Bitty answered without giving the question much thought. "Aren't you going to use amplifiers and stuff? I'm sure Mrs. Simpson said something about borrowing the Navy's PA system."

  "We were. I mean, we are. We were planning on borrowing one of the church control boards to run everything, but none of them can cope with the number of different input devices we'd have to use. And it's going to be pushing it to get enough good quality microphones for everyone."

  "Are you saying you can't deliver live music for the ballet?" Bitty asked.

  Marcus's posture collapsed with a heavy, heart felt sigh of utter frustration. "No. I'm not saying we can't deliver. Just that you should look at developing a backup plan. We're having a little trouble with the down-time performers. They've had a few problems adapting to the new instruments, and some of them are having difficulty with the new music." He gave Bitty a wry grin. "They find it too dissonant."

  "If you need any help making the tape I can probably loan you a couple of my people, and with a finished tape, transcribing to get a complete score should be much easier."

  Late February, 1634, Grantville

  "Staci, Casey, Alice, how are you all? I've just this minute arrived back from Magdeburg. That bit of land inside the walls the duke's agent has found is ideal. It's just off a main road where they plan to install a tramway sometime in the future. That'll increase the radius from which you can draw pupils. And being just down the road from the Duke of Saxe-Altenburg's townhouse means the location can't be better."

  Staci waited until Lady Beth paused for breath. "So you're still interested in running the school then, Lady Beth?"

  "What? Oh yes, definitely, and some of the up-timers in Magdeburg are also interested in your school. I spoke with Rowan Washaw and she was very enthusiastic." Catching the blank looks, Lady Beth elaborated. "Rowan is getting the St. Veronica's Academy in Magdeburg up and running. That'll be a useful feeder. And I've found a possible extra up-time teacher. Ceci Jones. She did English at college and is certified to teach. Currently she's running a single room school for the children of up-timers, but she likes the idea of having the support of other teachers."

  "I know Ceci. We did the ESOL training together." Staci said.

  Lady Beth nodded absently, "Good, now, Abbess Dorothea Sophie has given me a list of local families she's been forced to turn away from her school in Quedlinburg. I've spoken to some of them, and as long as the abbess approves the curriculum and graduates are qualified to enter one of the proposed new colleges, they're interested. A couple of the families commented that a local school with up-time teachers would be much better than having their daughters go to Quedlinburg as boarders." Lady Beth gave the girls an apologetic smile. "I think they mean 'a lot cheaper.' Anyway, I know you were planning on starting with just a fifth and maybe a sixth grade, and introducing new grades as the pupils advanced, but a number of the potential fifth and sixth graders have older sisters. It would save the parents a lot of trouble if you could accommodate the older sisters as well."

  "I guess that will be okay," Staci said. "But what sort of numbers do you think we'll have, and can we earn a living?"

  "To pay the rent on the school, a living wage for you and Casey, me, Ceci Jones, and a handful of down-timer teachers and other staff, and provide everyone with room and board, I estimate we will need something like one hundred and eighty pupils to break even. The abbess thinks that your first year you should easily get thirty fifth graders and maybe twenty sixth graders, with another twenty or so pupils spread over the higher grades. Based on the parents I spoke to, those numbers seem possible. You should expect to reach break even point and be adding more staff inside five years."

  "So what do we live on for the next five years?" Staci asked.

  "The rents from the village," Lady Beth replied. "They won't be high, but if you can encourage the tenants to adopt some of the up-time farming techniques they should grow fairly quickly, especially the way Magdeburg is growing. Of course, if you had some capital to invest, the farm yields could increase much faster."

  "If we had investment capital for what?" Casey asked.

  "Farm productivity on the property is low because of the damage years of rampaging armies have inflicted. The tenants are farming with the bare minimum of tools and draft animals. If you can raise some money to supply modern farm implements and draft animals, not only will you improve the estate's chances of attracting tenants, but the rents you'll be able to charge will be higher."

  March 1634, Grantville

  Bitty joined the rest of the company watching the pair on the practice floor rehearse their moment of glory in A Falcon Falls. She held her breath as they approached the finale of the routine. It was supposed to end with a particularly spectacular hands free fish dive, and this was the first complete dance through at normal speed.

  "Joe's looking good, isn't he, Mom?"

  Staci's words echoed Bitty's thoughts. "Yes. It'll be nice having a reliable lead male again."

  "Hey, Carl's reliable."

  "When he's around," Bitty muttered, giving Staci a meaningful look.

  June 1634, Hans Richter Square, Magdeburg

  Lady Beth led Bitty through the crowd of spectators to the enormous stage that dominated the southern edge of what was an extremely large public square.

  Bitty gestured to the people who were spread over the bleachers and sitting on blankets on the ground. "Who are all the people?"

  "Just normal people. They started coming out during their lunch break to watch the stage being built. When rehearsals started, there was a surge in interest."

  "Why are you letting them watch?" she demanded, her waving arms reinforcing her dismay at what she is seeing. "Rehearsals should be away from the public gaze. That way the magic isn't lost."

  "Bitty, there just isn't anywhere big enough to rehearse in Magdeburg. At least, not with a suitable floor." Lady Beth paused while Bitty filled in the blanks.

  "Stone floors?" At Lady Beth's nod she shuddered.

  "Or undressed timber," Lady Beth added

  Bitty nodded. "Okay, so the floors had no life or they would shred slippers, but why haven't you closed off the stage?"

  "It's only for half an hour during lunch hour that rehearsals are public Bitty. And never in costume." Still Bitty didn't look convinced. "Carl and the girls think its good PR to let the people see what the new ballet is about."

  Bitty could see Carl and the girls arranging the performers for the next piece. "Explain!"

  "It started quite innocently, Bitty. As soon as they finished laying the floor, Carl and the girls tried it out. They didn't bother to hide what they were doing and a bit of a crowd stopped to watch. You know Carl. Give him an audience and he puts on a show."

  Bitty nodded. That explained why they'd started, but it didn't explain why
they were still giving even a short free performance. She'd have words with Carl and the girls later. Meanwhile she turned her attention back to the stage. They were rehearsing the last sequence from the first act. The battle scene, where the hero first meets his love interest. Several lines of men, the mercenaries, moved in slow time. Opposite them, a single line of soldiers, the Americans, tapped time in place. Suddenly a dancer, Bitty was able to recognize Mike Song, shot diagonally across the stage from the American side. He stamped his heels rapid fire as he spun, to finish with a full splits leap, a grand jeté, over the falling mercenaries. Mike was good in his role as the machine gun tracer.

  Mike's entry was the signal for the Americans to start clogging in earnest. This was supposed to represent rifle fire, and more mercenaries fell. One more pass by Mike and the Americans charged the mercenaries, breaking their line and routing them.

  Then it was time for the ministering angels. While other dancers checked out the fallen soldiers, four of the dancers, Elisabeth Sofie, Catherine Matzinger, Ursula Sprug, and Richelle Kubiak, joined hands and started a sequence stolen directly from the second act of Swan Lake. It had been included more as a sop to Mary Simpson and her friends than for any real choreographic reason. While they danced, Casey ministered to the fallen hero. The scene ended with Carl being carried off in a litter, Casey at his side.

  There was a moment of silence as the music died. Bitty was among the last to rise to her feet. Once standing she turned her amazed gaze over the crowd. They had rushed forward, in a remarkably organized way, and were now crowding around the dancers on the ground in front of the stage. Bitty pointed to the melee. "What . . .?"

  "Groupies. It was a bit of a shock the first time it happened."

  Evening, July 4, 1634, Hans Richter Square