One of the Most Powerful Theater Games Ever

I learned this game during my training in Drama Therapy at Kansas State University. It was introduced to me in Renee Umenah's book, Acting For Real: Drama Therapy Process, Technique, And Performance. The game is entitled, "Fortunately, Unfortunately" and it goes something like this:

1. A group of participants are assigned to create an imaginary character with a goal. They can flesh out the character as they wish.
2. The first player starts the story with a sentence that establishes both the current status quo and the character's ultimate goal.
3. The next player creates a sentence that begins with "Unfortunately . . ."
4. The next player, building on the story, creates a sentence that begins with "Fortunately . . ."
5. This continues until the last player who ties up all the loose ends and concludes the story with the character achieving his goal.

I've played this game dozens of times in variety of situations with a variety of audiences. It never plays out the same, but it's always incredibly illuminating, offering insights into how we flesh out our own emotional roller coasters.  Here's how it played out in my own life today:

The Wild Goose Chase
 by Kareen King

Fortunately: My husband told me about a flock of thousands of geese outside. I ran outside with my brand new digital camera and took dozens of potentially award-winning shots of them flying toward and above me with cattle grazing in the background.

Unfortunately: I discovered I forgot to put the memory card in the camera.

Fortunately: I ran back in the house and installed the memory card. Ran back out to find the geese still there!

Unfortunately: While attempting to shoot more amazing pics, I discovered the battery went dead.

Fortunately: I ran back in the house and installed recharged back-up battery.

Unfortunately: I ran back outside and discovered that every last goose was gone.

The moral of the story: Be prepared or your goose is cooked!

How can this be applied in the long-term care setting (or in life, for that matter)?

Several thoughts come to mind including:

- Use this game as an activity with the residents or during staff meetings.

- Use this game and follow with conversation starters such as "What disrupts your own status quo and how do you deal with it?" or "List some of your best "fortunately's" or worst "unfortunately's".

Of course, I will tell this story to the residents next time I work with them, as I always enjoy sharing my own life experiences. And I will milk it for all it's worth. Because one thing I've learned from this game is that, I will not "land" in an "unfortunately." I will make lemonade from the lemons life throws at me, such as this one today.

And I will show them a picture of my empty picture with, ironically, the graveyard in the background. I will ask them to imagine what could fill up that pasture at any given moment of the day. And I will describe, as best I can, what I saw this morning. I will let them play it out in their mind's eye, for after all, many of them will be too visually impaired to enjoy the details of my pictures anyway. And I will laugh at my own mistake, having had fun making play out of the misery-loves-company adage.

So, if I would have had my camera all ready to go, I wouldn't have had this "as-good-as-it-gets" story to tell. I missed capturing the peak moments on camera, but I can still learn from the debris. And I can practice "The Golden Nugget Pursuit" which is part of The Golden Experience.

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Kareen King is a Registered Drama Therapist and founder of The Golden Experience™, offering keynotes, concerts, and workshops to enrich lives in long-term care. For booking information, contact her at kking@thegoldenexperience.com or visit www.thegoldenexperience.com. Kareen's CD's which feature original songs that give voice to individuals in long-term care settings, have been used as caregiver training tools, gifts for long-term care staff and volunteers, and for personal inspiration. To hear samples and to purchase, click http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KareenKing.