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This exercise is about practising the prompt expression or representation of basic information and quick switching (see also ROTZ, CROW, CBZO).
Basic information is in particular:
Who are the people on the stage?
In what *relationship and/or what status do they stand to each other?
Where are they?
(Possibly also:)
What *routines or action are they performing?
In what *genre and/or which epoch/time does the scene take place?
What is it about? (Conflict, problem, promise*) (mostly later in the scene)
Two players and a facilitator take part in the exercise; one player per round is usually the main actor. The players begin and act/speak until the facilitator says: "New Choice". It is always only about conveying the basic information mentioned above. The player who last expressed one of the basic information items has to replace the last sentence with a new one or replace the last action that conveyed a basic information item with a new one. (Only) the words last said no longer have any meaning, or the action last performed no longer has any meaning, and are treated as non-existent and completely deleted from "memory".
It is about practice, not about a "beautiful" scene. There usually won't be one, since it is constantly broken off and chopped up. The respective round can be very short, depending on how much basic information has already been given with the first sentences or first actions.
Examples
(FA: NC = facilitator: "New Choice") (in brackets and indented, the basic information in each case)
Example 1:
A: "Darling?"...
::(relationship: married couple or lovers)
FA: NC
A: "Mrs. Schneider, please give me the Müller file."
::(persons/relationship/status: boss-employee; a name; place: office)
FA: NC
A: turns a lever.
::(action without specific information, could be operating a technical device)
B: "Mum, I'm hungry!"
::(persons/relationship: mother-children; place: probably in the kitchen at the stove; established: turning a lever)
FA: NC
A: "Captain, the antimatter transmitter is now running at full load!"
::(persons/relationship/status: spaceship crew member and captain; place: spaceship bridge; time/genre: future/science fiction; established: turning a lever).
B: "Mary, accelerate to faster-than-light speed now!"
::(name/status confirmation)
Example 2:
B is wallpapering.
::(routine/action)
FA: NC
B is screwing a bulb into the ceiling.
::(action)
FA: NC
B coughs heavily.
::(action)
A listens to B's chest.
::(coughing is established and stays. Person: doctor; relationship: still unclear, rather impersonal)
A: "Mrs. Schneider, I'm prescribing you a cough-loosening medicine."
::(2nd person: patient; relationship: doctor-patient; name; place: probably surgery)
FA: NC
A: "Mrs. Müller, as company doctor I have to report your dust lung to management!"
::(coughing and listening doctor are already established, new: specification person: doctor to company doctor; 2nd person: employee; relationship/status: doctor and employee; name; problem)
Example 3:
A: "Hagen, hand me the spear."
::(time/epoch: Middle Ages; possibly genre: German knight saga; name; language: archaic)
FA: NC
A is cooking and tasting.
::(routine/action; place: possibly kitchen)
B: "Darling, table 2 has been waiting an hour already!"
::(cooking and tasting are established. Relationship: married couple or lovers; place now definitively: kitchen of a restaurant).
A: "Helga, tell them that with the run-up to Christmas it's just rather full!"
::(name; time; possibly problem).
