Devised Work Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A team creates its own original piece of drama from scratch and performs it to an adjudicator in the Junior and Senior classes of a Channel Islands English speech and drama festival.

Devised work is theatre that a group makes itself rather than takes from a script. The team starts with a theme, an image, a story or a stimulus, experiments with it through improvisation and discussion, and shapes what it finds into a performance with a beginning, a middle and an end. The result is original: nobody hands the performers lines, so every choice about character, structure and staging is theirs.

On the one eTalenter template that carries it, a Channel Islands English speech and drama festival, Devised Work is a Team item for boys and girls together, in English, offered in the Junior (6 to 12) and Senior (13 to 17) bands. The template gives it a limit of 25 minutes, timed per head, and a nominal ten-point scale. It does not record the stimulus, whether a theme is set, how many performers a team may have, or whether a written outline must be submitted, so organisers should state those rules in the entry notice and teams should read them before they start making.

A typical round runs like this: the team sets up quickly, performs its piece with little or no scenery, and then the adjudicator responds. The piece is judged on what is on the stage, not on how long the group spent in rehearsal, so a tight, clear idea played with commitment usually beats a sprawling one.

Organisers run it because it rewards creativity and teamwork rather than memory of someone else’s words, and because it suits schools and youth groups who work in drama lessons through improvisation. It sits naturally next to the scripted Dramatic Selection and One Act Play classes on the same programme.

Where Devised Work is run

On the eTalenter templates this item appears in one: an English speech and drama festival in the Channel Islands. Devised or original-work classes also turn up in school drama days, youth theatre festivals and drama examinations elsewhere, usually under names such as devised piece or group creation, but the rules differ from event to event.

• Channel Islands

Key facts

• Team item for boys and girls together, offered in English
• Offered in Junior (6 to 12) and Senior (13 to 17); Adult is not assigned on this template
• The template time limit is 25 minutes, counted per head
• Scored on a nominal ten-point scale; the team receives one result
• Idea: a story told entirely from the point of view of an object left on a railway platform (an idea, not a rule)
• Idea: a short piece built around a single line such as ‘the tide is coming in’ (an idea, not a rule)
• Idea: a local legend retold with a modern twist, using only movement, a few props and spoken narration (an idea, not a rule)

On eTalenter, Devised Work is filed under Action and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Devised Work is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 10, commonly time-limited to around 25 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Devised Work

What a Devised Work panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Originality: an idea that feels fresh and personal to the group rather than a retelling of a well-known scene
• Structure: a clear beginning, a developing middle and a deliberate ending, so the audience always knows where the story has got to
• Ensemble work: performers who share the stage, listen to one another and make the transitions between moments smooth
• Characterisation and voice: roles that can be told apart and are played with commitment, with every line heard
• Use of simple staging: movement, space, sound and props chosen to serve the idea rather than decorate it
• Time discipline: a piece that fits the limit without a rushed ending or a slow start

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Devised Work under Scoring Setup, or start from how judge scoring and tabulation works in eTalenter.

How to prepare for Devised Work

How entrants and their teachers usually get Devised Work right on the day:

• Read the entry notice first for any set theme or stimulus, cast size limits and whether an outline must be handed in
• Begin with improvisation games and short experiments, and record the best moments so they are not lost
• Agree one clear idea the whole piece serves; cut scenes that do not move that idea forward
• Give every performer a real job on stage and a role in the making, so the work belongs to the whole team
• Fix the piece by repeating it: once the structure is chosen, rehearse it the same way each time so it can be performed reliably
• Rehearse with a stopwatch and mark a safe place to trim if the room or nerves slow the piece
• Practise the set-up and clear-down so the performance starts and ends cleanly
• Perform it for a small audience and ask what they understood, then adjust before the day

Frequently asked questions

Is Devised Work judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What does devised work mean?

It is drama that the performers create themselves, starting from a theme or idea and shaping it through improvisation into a finished piece, instead of learning a published script.

Is Devised Work the same as Dramatic Selection?

No. A dramatic selection is a chosen extract of existing drama, while devised work is original material made by the team. They are separate classes on the same template.

How long can the piece run?

The template carries a limit of 25 minutes, timed per head, for both Junior and Senior. Always use the limit in the entry notice of the event you are actually entering.

Can we use music, props or costume?

The template does not say. Simple staging is normal in drama classes, but follow the rules of your own event.

Is it judged individually or as a team?

It is a Team item, so the group receives a single result, though each member should contribute clearly to the performance.

Want the full judging picture? Read how judge scoring and tabulation works in eTalenter, or browse every action competition item.