Daphne Greengrass

Dear Miss Belby,

As a member of the Young Protectors League applying for the summer programme, I write to you as one whose profession I deeply admire and aspire to. I also write to you as a sincere and avid admirer of your operatic performances. Two Christmases ago I saw you perform as Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung, and I was both mesmerised and moved to tears. Though my own talents are aligned more to dance and dramatics than opera, I feel that you are the premiere embodiment of how a performance artist can serve our Protectorate.

I can think of a few uncultured souls who might question the significance of the artist to our Protectorate. To convince them otherwise, I would tell them to look to wizarding communities elsewhere who still must keep their art, performance, and sport underground and away from the eyes of Muggles. My own grandmother, Alexandra Greengrass, did a three-year run as lead in The Isle of Circe. It played at The Seraphim, which at the time was hidden somewhere between the New London Pavillion and the Criterion Theatre. The star of the show had to get into the theater via a disguised "red telephone box," under the shadow of marquees announcing shows about "Salad Days." Indeed, the strength of our Protectorate rests firmly on the foundation of New London, which would not exist without the cultural contributions of artists and performers such as yourself. Never before has there been a land of witches and wizards with so firm a grasp on their own history, and so much confidence for their own future, and that is because we can now speak, sing, and dance our history our in the open as never before, all thanks to artists like you, who lift our spirits and morale!

I myself aspire to be a stage actress like my grandmother. Since the age of four I have studied dance and dramatics with Mr Gerald Krumgold, and since the age of eight I have studied song and voice with Mrs Hortence Gibbons. I played the role of Auror Crouch in Hogwarts' recent dramatic production, and while the role was not a leading one, I took it on as seriously as I would a leading role at the Palladium. I understand how important such productions are to the vibrant, still-growing culture of the Protectorate, and I shall see to it that I continue to play my part for that culture.

Sincerely yours,
Daphne G. Greengrass