Exercise: Fortunately, Unfortunately

You need to agree as a group that you are creating a story which has a beginning, development, culmination, and an end.

You can also agree on the duration of the game and the condition that all the elements of the story structure must be created before time is over.

If there are more people doing this exercise, then you can have the fun of doing it in a competition between two (or more) groups, where each group must develop the story in max 5 min.

It is recommended to all participants to stand up and be in an active mode.

Do it in a group of 4 players, everyone of each has a different task:

• One narrator, who always creates a sentence starting with “Fortunately...”
• One narrator, who always creates a sentence starting with “Unfortunately...”
• One player physically expressing the action
• One player who expresses the action by voice and sound

The game begins with the player who starts the narrative with “Fortunately...” (then thinks up an event that seems fortunate to them). Once they hear the narrative, the physical and the sound storytellers express the event of the story using their “tools”.

Narrator 2 enters the story by breaking the mood with “Unfortunately...” (then thinks up an event that will change the action) and again the physical and the sound storytellers express that event of the story.

The whole group goes on with the storytelling until it reaches a happy end.

Narrator 1 starts: “Fortunately, I won the lottery today”

The Physical storyteller: doing a gesture expressing the event: for example, gesture of joy.

The Sound storyteller: making a sound for example, “Ye-e-e-e!”

The Physical and Sound Storyteller should follow closely each other.

Narrator 2: “Unfortunately, I lost the ticket”.

The Physical storyteller: doing a gesture expressing wander of how it happened.

The Sound storyteller: making a sound that is fitting the event - for example, strong wind blowing.

The Physical storyteller: doing a gesture expressing the event acts physically upon the proposition that the wind has blown the ticket away.

This cycle of fortunately-unfortunately continues until the “story” reaches resolution and ends.