Musical Character Study Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A solo class in which one performer creates a single character and brings them to life through both spoken drama and song, marked as one performance on characterisation, voice, vocal quality and stage presence.

A Musical Character Study is a solo performance built around one character who both speaks and sings. Where a plain character study is spoken drama only, this class asks the entrant to move between dialogue or monologue and song without breaking the character, so the song feels like something that person would truly sing at that moment rather than a separate item dropped into a speech.

In the eisteddfod speech and drama section we build from, the class is open to every age ladder, from the youngest band up to an open adult class. There is one class for each age band, entered by the performer’s age, and the time allowed grows with age: three and a half minutes for the youngest, four minutes for the middle bands, four and a half minutes for the teenage bands and six minutes for adults.

A round is simple to run. The performer is introduced, takes the stage, and presents the piece, usually with a short spoken section, a song (sung unaccompanied or to a backing the entrant provides, as the organiser allows) and a way out of the scene. The adjudicator listens for how convincingly one person is created, how well the singing belongs to that person, and how clean the join between speech and song is.

Organisers run the class because it rewards performers who do both things well and sits naturally between a drama class and a singing class. It suits community theatre groups, stage schools and school drama departments, and it gives musical-theatre-minded entrants a place to compete that a purely spoken or purely sung class does not.

Where Musical Character Study is run

Musical character study classes belong to festival speech and drama sections that also run musical theatre-style classes. The template data we hold has it in one Channel Islands eisteddfod speech and drama section, where it sits beside the spoken Character Study, Monologue and group musical classes. Well-established practice elsewhere is that British and Irish competitive festivals run similar solo musical-theatre or ‘song with speech’ classes, but names and rules vary from festival to festival, so always read the organiser’s own syllabus.

• Guernsey, Channel Islands (eisteddfod speech and drama section)

Key facts

• Solo entry: one performer, one character, speaking and singing.
• Entered by age band; six bands from under 9 up to 18 and over, all open to boys and girls.
• Time limits in the template: 3 min 30 s (under 9), 4 min (9-12), 4 min 30 s (13-17) and 6 min (18 and over).
• One mark out of 10 per performance in the template, with placings First, Second and Third.
• Different from Character Study, which is spoken only, and from Musical Duo and Musical Trio/Quartet, which need more than one performer.
• Idea starters, not rules: a street busker telling their story between songs, a lighthouse keeper singing to pass the night, or a shy new pupil finding courage in a school-show number.

On eTalenter, Musical Character Study 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, Musical Character Study is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 10, commonly time-limited to 3–6 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Musical Character Study

What a Musical Character Study panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Character: one clear person, with a believable voice, posture and attitude from the first word to the last, and no slipping back to being ‘the singer’.
• Link between speech and song: the song should grow out of the scene so the change feels natural; an abrupt switch loses marks.
• Singing quality: pitch, tone and breath control matter, but a convincing, in-character delivery usually beats a polished but blank one.
• Diction and projection: words in both the spoken and sung parts must be clear to the back of the room.
• Use of the time: finishing well inside the limit with a complete shape (opening, development, ending) scores better than being cut off or rushing.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Musical Character Study under Scoring Setup, or start from the mono act judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Musical Character Study

How entrants and their teachers usually get Musical Character Study right on the day:

• Decide who the character is before choosing the song: age, situation, mood and what they want right now.
• Pick a song that suits your voice and age band; a modest song sung truthfully beats a showy one that strains.
• Write a short spoken lead-in and exit so the song has a reason to start and a way to end.
• Practise the speech-to-song switch on its own many times; it is the most exposed moment.
• Time the whole piece with a stopwatch and rehearse to finish about ten seconds under the limit.
• Agree with the organiser beforehand whether accompaniment or a backing track is allowed and how it will be played.
• Rehearse in front of a few people so you hold the character when watched.

Frequently asked questions

Is Musical Character Study judged individually or as a team?

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

What is the difference between a Musical Character Study and a Character Study?

A Character Study is spoken drama only. A Musical Character Study asks the same single-character performance but also includes a song sung in character, so singing quality and the link between speech and song are marked as well.

How long can a Musical Character Study be?

In the template the limit depends on age: 3 minutes 30 seconds for the youngest band, 4 minutes for the middle bands, 4 minutes 30 seconds for teenagers and 6 minutes for adults. Check your own organiser’s syllabus.

Can more than one person perform?

No. This is a solo class. Musical Duo and Musical Trio/Quartet are the classes for two or more performers.

Do I need to learn the piece by heart?

Festival drama classes normally expect performance from memory, but the rule is the organiser’s, so confirm it in the syllabus before you enter.

Want the full judging picture? Read the mono act judging criteria guide, or browse every action competition item.