Last day = performance day! To prepare, the young participants in the summer program arrived at Späth’s Nurseries already dressed in black athletic clothes, as discussed the day before. To warm up, they played the “catch the ground creature” game again, among other activities, and then practiced a few roles (like woodlice ;) ). After that, it was time for the dress rehearsal.

Since the performance was to take place at various spots in the garden, the schedule had to be well coordinated so that everyone would be sure to know exactly when their turn to perform was coming up. In the meantime, the turtle from the garden pond came ashore, which was briefly more exciting than rehearsing for the performance. However, the turtle made it quite clear that it would rather be left in peace, so the rehearsals were able to continue afterward.

During lunch break, the waffle experiment was launched once again. Two children had even brought waffle irons from home, which were supposed to work better. However, the first waffles made with them turned out to be another minor disaster at first. For a moment, the idea of giving up on the experiment was floated. But the craving for a good waffle was so strong that they kept trying. Eventually, butter—instead of oil—turned out to be the magic ingredient, and in the end, it produced whole, fluffy waffles for lunch.

Time flew by quickly after that, and it was time to work on the costumes. The children had their faces painted to match their roles as moles, earthworms, or soil fungi. The moles, for example, were also given some faux fur to tie around their waists.

Then the first parents and audience members began arriving on the grounds. Excitement mounted, and Lotti retreated with the children to the back of the garden, where the first part of the performance was set to begin. Now all that was left was to wait for the videographer, who was there to professionally record the performance.

Then soil expert Karin began with a short speech and led the parents to the first performance location, pointing out aspects of life beneath our feet along the way. There, the children welcomed the audience with a city gate, rolling through the character, partner acrobatics, and a handstand flip.

From there, the tour continued to a large beech tree, where four children brought a millipede to life. At the next stop, the moles and earthworms performed their tricks. To guide the parents to the next station, the group then walked around the garden pond. There, a special listening station awaited them: a segment from the Edaphonistas soil radio drama series was played for them to listen to.

We then moved on to a birch tree in front of the garden pond featuring a trio of statues, followed by a quartet of statues in the small wooden hut. The performance concluded with a group of ten statues, which were meant to depict an intriguing floor pattern.

At the end, the children bowed to their parents and the audience—and just like that, the three-day vacation program and the performance were over. Everyone helped clean up together before it was time to say goodbye.

Now we can look forward to the professional recording of the performance!