Group Repertoire Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A team item in which a group of young performers presents a programme of speech and drama pieces within a 20-minute limit, offered for Junior and Senior entrants.

Group Repertoire is a team item in the English, speech and drama section of a Channel Islands performing arts festival. Instead of one scripted scene, the group brings a small programme: several short pieces of spoken word and drama, chosen and ordered by the group, that together fill a single slot on stage. The word repertoire is the point: the panel is judging the whole programme, not one favourite piece.

On the template it is a Team entry for boys and girls together, in English, offered for two age bands: Junior (6 to 12) and Senior (13 to 17). The time limit is 20 minutes and it is counted per head in the way the template sets time for teams, so the organiser announces how long each group may take on the day. The festival’s printed syllabus does not give a numeric mark scheme, so the template uses a nominal 10-point scale that each organiser can change.

A good entry looks like a planned show in miniature. The group opens with a piece that sets the tone, moves between voices, poems, short scenes or choral work with clean transitions, and ends on something that lands. Pieces are rehearsed to start and stop together, so the audience never waits while a group sorts out who comes next.

Organisers run it because it gives school drama clubs and youth theatre groups a way to show range in one slot. It rewards the teacher who builds a programme with variety, and it gives quieter children a place in a team without needing a big solo part.

Where Group Repertoire is run

On the eTalenter templates this item appears on one: an English, speech and drama festival section from the Channel Islands. Programme-style group classes are common in speech and drama festivals and school drama showcases in the UK, Ireland, Australia and elsewhere, but the exact rules on group size, number of pieces and material differ from festival to festival, so organisers should publish their own.

• Channel Islands
• United Kingdom

Key facts

• Team item: boys and girls together, performing in English
• Two age bands on the template: Junior (6 to 12) and Senior (13 to 17)
• Maximum time 20 minutes per group, with no warning bell set on the template
• Scored on a nominal 10-point scale, because the source describes certificates rather than numeric marks
• Group size and the number of pieces are not set on the template, so the organiser states them in the entry notes
• Idea: a programme on the theme of weather, with a poem, a short scene and a group chant (an idea, not a rule)
• Idea: a journey programme moving from a harbour morning to a night crossing, using different voices for each stage (an idea, not a rule)
• Idea: a programme of retold local legends, each in a different style (an idea, not a rule)

On eTalenter, Group Repertoire is filed under Literary 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, Group Repertoire is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 10, commonly time-limited to around 20 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Group Repertoire

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

• Programme planning: a clear shape with a strong opening, variety in the middle and a deliberate close; a random list of pieces earns less than a planned programme
• Ensemble work: voices, entries and movements together, with everyone contributing and no one carried by the rest
• Voice and clarity: every word audible and understood at the back of the room, with pace and volume varied to suit each piece
• Performance and expression: faces, bodies and eyes engaged with the material, not just reciting lines
• Transitions and discipline: quick, tidy changes between pieces and an entry and exit that do not eat the time
• Choice of material: pieces that suit the age and ability of the group, handled with understanding

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Group Repertoire under Scoring Setup, or start from how judges score and tabulate competitions in eTalenter.

How to prepare for Group Repertoire

How entrants and their teachers usually get Group Repertoire right on the day:

• Pick three to five pieces with contrast in mood and style, then decide the running order around the opening and the ending
• Rehearse the changeovers as hard as the pieces: practise who stands where, who speaks first and how the group moves
• Time the whole programme with a stopwatch against the 20-minute limit and leave a margin; cut from the middle, not the end
• Give every child a clear part, and balance speaking and group moments so nobody is just standing
• Rehearse in the space or a similar one, and practise projecting to the back of the room without shouting
• Record a full run-through on a phone, watch it back, and note slow changes, mumbled lines and ragged finishes
• Keep the group’s costume simple and consistent, so the programme looks like one piece of work

Frequently asked questions

Is Group Repertoire 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 is the time limit for Group Repertoire?

The template sets a maximum of 20 minutes for the group. Organisers can change this for their own event.

How many pieces should a group perform?

The template does not fix a number. The organiser should state it in the entry notes, and groups should plan a varied programme that fits comfortably in the time.

Is Group Repertoire judged as a team or individually?

It is a Team item, so the group receives the result as one entry. The panel is looking at the whole programme and how well the group works together.

Is it the same as a one act play?

No. A one act play is a single continuous piece, while a repertoire is a programme of several shorter pieces in one slot.

Want the full judging picture? Read how judges score and tabulate competitions in eTalenter, or browse every literary competition item.