Advance and Illustrate

The players begin a scene. From outside, either only by the trainer or also by everyone watching, two commands are called in depending on the situation, which all players follow. They are the two terms "Advance" and "Illustrate".

Whenever "Advance" is called, the players concentrate exclusively on the action and bring it forward. That means they establish the playing characters (the "who"), the "what" of the scene, and then play out an action. (See also basic information.) When a place is established, that also brings the scene forward; the elaboration of the room is a different matter. The problem is heightened, a solution is found, perhaps the "why", the background of the action, is also developed. During the "advancing", the players don't add anything to the surroundings, but only introduce new information at the level of content (who, whom, why and where). They can introduce a new character etc., but every offer has to bring the story forward.

When "Illustrate" is called, the focus shifts to exploring, describing and discovering what is already there and established. During the "illustrating", action and pushing the story forward are ignored. Instead, the players go deeper into their surroundings, their inner world or the static situation. For example, the washbasin at which their character stands moves into focus. The taps are explored, the shape is described, what design style is involved, whether the surface is clean or dirty, whether the basin is new or older, etc. The consequence of illustrating is that surroundings, inner world or current situation have become much more real and vivid. This in turn inspires and lifts the players and enables the audience to enter into the story even more.

Variant:

In this variant several small groups can practise at the same time:

The exercise is for 3 people. A and B tell a story together, with A telling only in the advance direction and B only in the extend direction. The third player, C, points with an outstretched arm at whoever is in turn at the moment. Switches are possible at any time. Care should be taken that A really only says advance sentences and B only extend ones (sometimes quite difficult). This exercise focuses on the one hand on the contribution of what is being played to the story, and on the other on discovering the surroundings. The aim of the exercise is to make the players aware of when and how they are bringing the story forward through their playing and when not.

See also Advance-Extend