Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: 18dc34e5e7a9c286ce539f1dd3cb6bdda2fd2f39ca0887322fc2a4048a3b630c

# One Person Scenes

Performers line up along an imaginary conveyor belt doing hand work while adopting, agreeing with, and heightening a single shared emotional perspective.

**Time:** 15 minutes. UWT suggested duration of 15 minutes to run multiple rotations and a short debrief.
**People:** 4 to 24. Lines of 4 to 6 performers at a time while the remaining participants observe. If the total count leaves a remainder below 4 (such as a group of 7), run one line of 4 and one line of 3, or have remaining members observe and join the next round.

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Practice emotional alignment and full agreement across a group by sharing and intensifying one perspective without debate.
**Use it when:** Use when an ensemble or team overcomplicates discussions, debates premises, or struggles to accept a colleague's direction.
**Skip it when:** Skip when the group needs analytical critique, risk assessment, or diverse contrasting points of view.

## Materials and tools

- Timer
- Open floor space

## Before participants arrive

1. Clear a walking path or line area where 4 to 6 people can stand shoulder to shoulder.
2. Ensure a timer is available.

## Say this to open

Line up side by side along an imaginary conveyor belt. Begin miming a simple physical task with your hands as items pass by. When I call 'Go', one person speaks a single line showing a clear emotion. Everyone else instantly adopts that exact same feeling. Do not debate or explain. Agree with the feeling and heighten it using short lines and facial expressions. The miming keeps your hands busy; the scene is all about that one shared emotion.

## How to run it

### 1. Introduce core mechanics and rules (3 minutes)

Share the opening script and introduce the exercise. Outline the core rules: keep hands moving on a repetitive conveyor belt action, speak a clear emotional statement, agree fully with that emotion across the whole line, and heighten it without asking questions or debating. Provide a neutral example: if the starter says 'I feel totally rushed today', others echo and amplify with lines like 'There is zero time left' while matching the hurried feeling.

### 2. Run first active line (4 minutes)

Bring the first line of 4 to 6 performers to the front. Have them establish their hand movement along the conveyor belt. Once rhythmic movement starts, call 'Go'. One person initiates with an emotional line. The rest immediately mirror and heighten that exact emotion using facial expressions and short lines with clear periods at the end. Stop the scene after 90 seconds.

### 3. Rotate subsequent lines (5 minutes)

Cycle the remaining participants to the front in lines of 4 to 6 (or 3 if accommodating odd numbers). Run each group for 60 to 90 seconds. Remind performers to share airtime, avoid questions, and focus entirely on matching the starter's emotional truth.

### 4. Debrief the experience (3 minutes)

Assemble the entire group. Call on two or three participants to answer one of the debrief questions about matching emotion and letting go of plot invention.


## Debrief questions

- What made it easy or challenging to step straight into someone else's emotional state without discussing it?
- How did having continuous hand movement change your urge to fill silence with talking?
- What happened to the scene's momentum when everyone agreed on the feeling rather than adding plot details?

**Finished output:** Every participant completes at least one round sustaining and intensifying a shared emotional perspective.

## Remote

Performers turn on cameras in gallery view. The active group of 4 to 6 mimes a shared repetitive task visible on screen, such as sorting mail or stamping papers. One performer speaks the starting emotional statement. The other active performers stay unmuted and heighten the identical feeling with short statements and visible expressions.

## Hybrid

Form mixed lines where each spot in the 4 to 6 person line is assigned to an in-person person or a remote person displayed on a central screen. Both in-person and remote performers do the identical conveyor belt hand motion on camera and speak in turns to heighten the same emotion.

## Access and participation choices

- Performers may complete the exercise seated if standing is uncomfortable.
- Mimed hand actions can be adapted to any gentle, repetitive seated motion.
- Anyone may pass on generating the initial statement and participate solely through facial expression or a brief affirming response.

## If the session gets stuck

**Performers talk about the physical items they are handling rather than their feelings.**

Remind the line that the hand motion is only a physical placeholder. Call out: 'Speak from the emotion, not the item.'

**Performers start asking questions or arguing with the premise.**

Prompt them immediately with 'Agree and heighten'. Remind them that agreement excludes questions and everyone shares the same perspective.


## Terms used here

- Self-Contained Emotional Statement (SCES): A short spoken line that clearly expresses an emotional state without needing external context or justification.
- Heightening: Building on an established idea or feeling by intensifying its expression and raising the stakes.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Improv Does Best (2013).

Retained the conveyor belt assembly line format, the focus on self-contained emotional statements, and the agreement mechanic documented by Improv Does Best. UWT added explicit group size adjustments for odd numbers, clear hybrid participation rules, step timing, access options, and a structured debrief.

[Improv Does Best](https://improvdoesbest.com/2013/01/29/one-person-scenes-exercises/)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/one-person-scenes-exercises/