Solo Acted Poem or Prose Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A solo acting class in which one performer brings a poem or a piece of prose to life as a short dramatic performance, entered by age band and judged on how well the words are turned into a character and a story.

A Solo Acted Poem or Prose is a short piece of acting in which a single performer takes a poem or a passage of prose and plays it, rather than simply reading it aloud. The words are not a script written for the stage. They come from a poem, a story, a novel or an essay, and the performer decides who is speaking, to whom, and what is at stake. Where verse speaking asks the entrant to be a clear and musical voice for the poem, this class asks them to become someone inside it.

In the English festival syllabus this item is built from, the class is a section of a seaside-town festival in Essex, run for five age bands: 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-15 and 16 and over. The time limit is three minutes for the three youngest bands, four minutes for 13-15 and five minutes for 16 and over, and the class is open to boys and girls together, in English. The festival’s speech and drama days fall in mid-November 2026.

A round is simple. The performer is called, says the title and the author, takes a starting position and begins. There is no set, and a chair or a single prop at most, so the performance depends on voice, face and posture. A narrator-style prose passage might be played as one character telling the story to a friend; a poem might become a speech to a particular person at a particular moment. The adjudicator then gives a mark and comments on what worked and what to try next.

On paper an entry is one named performer, the title and author of the piece and the age band. In eTalenter’s template the entry is individual, the time limit is set per band and the score runs on a nominal ten-point scale, because the source prints mark bands rather than a points table. Organisers run the class because it lets pupils use the poems and stories they already know in a more adventurous way, and it gives teachers a clear way to see who has understood a text and not only memorised it.

Where Solo Acted Poem or Prose is run

In eTalenter’s data Solo Acted Poem or Prose appears on one template, the speech and drama section of an English seaside-town festival in Essex. Acted or dramatised verse and prose classes sit in the speech and drama sections of many competitive festivals across the United Kingdom, but class names, age bands and time limits differ from event to event, so always read the syllabus of the festival you enter.

• United Kingdom – England (competitive festival speech and drama sections)

Key facts

• Individual entry, boys and girls together, performed in English.
• Five age bands in the source syllabus: 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-15 and 16 and over, each with its own class.
• Time limits rise with age: 3 minutes for 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12, 4 minutes for 13-15 and 5 minutes for 16 and over.
• The material is a poem or a piece of prose, acted as a character or narrator, not a play script.
• The syllabus prints mark bands from Developing (65 and over) up to Exceptional (95 and over) instead of a points table; eTalenter scores on a nominal ten-point scale and installs no points for the bands.
• The source prints a small entry fee per performer that rises with the age band; eTalenter installs no fee, so an organiser sets their own.
• Idea starters, not rules: a funny poem played as a complaint to a parent, a chapter of a favourite story told by one character to a friend, a poem about the sea spoken by someone waiting on a pier.

On eTalenter, Solo Acted Poem or Prose 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, Solo Acted Poem or Prose is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 10, commonly time-limited to 3–5 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Solo Acted Poem or Prose

What a Solo Acted Poem or Prose panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Choice of material: a poem or passage with a voice, a situation and a change inside it, that suits the performer’s age and fits the time limit.
• Interpretation: the performer has decided who is speaking and to whom, so that every line sounds meant and not merely read.
• Characterisation: voice, posture, eyes and face show one clear person, held steady from the first line to the last.
• Clarity and word-sense: every word is heard and the meaning of the verse or prose comes through, including rhythm and sentence shape.
• Shape and pace: a beginning, a turning point and an ending, with pauses used on purpose and not as gaps while remembering the next line.
• Control and finish: a secure memory, a calm start and an ending that lands inside the limit for the age band.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Solo Acted Poem or Prose under Scoring Setup, or start from the full mono act judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Solo Acted Poem or Prose

How entrants and their teachers usually get Solo Acted Poem or Prose right on the day:

• Choose a poem or passage with a clear speaker and a reason for speaking; a piece where the voice never changes is hard to make interesting in three minutes.
• Write one sentence on who your character is speaking to and why now, and let that choice drive every change of pace or volume.
• Learn the words completely before you add any movement, so your attention goes to the character and not to the next line.
• Mark the sentences that carry the meaning and the places where the thought changes, and use a pause or a change of pace at each one.
• Keep the staging small: a starting position, one or two moves with a reason and an ending position, always facing the audience.
• Time the piece aloud with the title and author included, against the limit for your age band, and cut a verse or a sentence rather than rush.
• Rehearse in a room about the size of the festival hall, speaking to the back wall, then once in front of a teacher or friends.
• After a disappointing result, read the adjudicator’s comments, change one thing at a time such as pace, ending or eye line, and try a different piece next time.

Frequently asked questions

Is Solo Acted Poem or Prose 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 Solo Acted Poem or Prose and verse speaking?

Verse speaking is judged on speaking a poem clearly and musically. In an acted class you also take on a character or narrator and perform the words as drama. The same poem can suit both, but the preparation and marking differ.

Can I use a poem or prose passage that was not written for the stage?

Yes, that is the point of this class. The source class asks for a poem or a piece of prose, which you then act. Check your own event’s rules for any limits on the material or on cutting it.

How long can the piece be?

In the source syllabus the limit is 3 minutes for ages 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12, 4 minutes for 13-15 and 5 minutes for 16 and over. Other events set their own limits, so read the rules before you cut your piece.

Is it the same as a dramatic solo or a mono act?

They are close relatives, since all are single-performer acting classes. A dramatic solo usually plays a scripted speech from a play, while this class dramatises a poem or prose. Each event names and judges its class slightly differently, so use whichever matches your syllabus.

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