THE SCRIPT

Maria Joanna Madise was the same age as me. The occasion of our meeting happened upon a coincidence. After she heard me being "a princess in the palace", her eyes sparkled in a familiar way and she asked:
"Would you like to be a fairy?"
Naturally I said yes.

We met two times over a cup of tea in Kohvicum to discuss what being a fairy actually meant. Later the part of a fairy changed to be a part of a baroness and was to be played at a Children's Festival in Kärdla - the capital of the Hiiu County in one applied drama performance titled "The Tree Investigators".

Last weekend there were the rehearsals, this weekend we gave two performances for about a hundred participants. The costumes were designed by Mae Kivilo.

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THE TREE INVESTIGATORS

"I am late!" said the European Union Officer, a bureaucrat, naturally. Receiving phone calls from Brussels, she was simultaneously trying to put together a team of researchers to investigate the trees in the park. These were the kids and their families, just by passers, anyone willing and having the time to enter the mysterious stage of the park. "Follow the red thread, do not get lost, fill in the documents", said the Officer handing workbooks to the participants.

The first tree needing investigation was the Beech. "Stop now!" said the gate-keeper. A moment later his attention was driven away by a certain individual sitting on a tree, trying to scrape out something on the stem. The two started to have a fiery debate over how one should or shouldn't treat a tree stem.
Later the questions in the workbook were answered, the audience won the gate-keeper's trust and could continue their journey.

"Hello, what pleasure it is to meet you, please do enter, be our guests!" I said seeing the audience approach the yard.
"But what about Papa, he forbid the visitors!" exclaimed another fair lady - my companion.
"Papa is in Lübeck, he will not know!" I said.
We introduced ourselves to be the daughters of a certain Baron Robert Eginhard von Ungern-Sternberg. After finding out that the visitors were not the regular spies but investigators whom Martha the kitchen lady had previously spoken of, we asked them to help us determine the Tilia. When the name had indeed proven to be the one of Basswood, we remembered that a few moments ago we had enjoyed tea and honey of the blossoms of the Tilia. The visitors also came to know that bast obtained from the inside of the bark could be used for weaving ropes. A rope-weaving competition was immediately held and the winners received a deserved pack of cookies.

"Aadu! Aadu!" I cried.
"Yes!"
"Aadu, have you completed the park plan?" asked my sister.
"Yes, come take look!" answered someone in the other end of the park.

Aadu, a 15-year old country-boy, was hired by the Baron to design the park. Now he had to make a park plan. Unfortunately Aadu had misunderstood and instead of an English park, he had designed a formal French garden. The children were then asked to help Aadu to create a model English garden by planting toy-trees, creating ponds and digging ditches in the sand.

Grateful ladies and Aadu guided visitors to the red thread.

The road went on to treat the guests with yet another meeting. My Brother had to play a part of a forgetful traveller who had lost his compass. Now together with the audience he was to find out where North was. To him it meant finding his tent, to the visitors it meant finding the third tree - the Cottonwood and the lost thread.

Questions answered, the road continued.

Last, but not least was the Fir (Abies). Sitting under it were musicians playing aeolian harp or kannel . Created from the wood of a Fir tree, the story of the making of the kannel unrolled in a runic song. The Estonian folk song described how kannel was made of fish bones and various types of wood, with strings made from a maiden's hair. According to folklore, that instrument, and the sound it produced, was believed to frighten away evil spirits, plague and death.

The final point of the journey was to hand in the results and to sum up what had been learnt. Each participant received gratitude and a balloon. It had taken approximately one hour to complete the route.