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Southend Festival of Performing Arts – Drama — An Essex Festival Speech & Drama Section: Solo Acted Poem or Prose and Duologue Classes for Ages 7 to 16 and Over

Southend Festival of Performing Arts - Drama: The Southend Festival of Performing Arts (Essex, England) Speech & Drama section, with real Solo Acted Poem...

e By Luke Justin October 30, 2026 4 min read

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Speech & Drama · United Kingdom

The Southend Festival of Performing Arts (Essex, England) Speech & Drama section, with real Solo Acted Poem or Prose and Duologue classes across an age ladder from 7 to 16 and over.

A ready-made festival speech and drama section with a solo acted poem or prose class and a duologue class for pairs, graded by age from seven-year-olds to adults, with time limits that lengthen as entrants grow older.

This template models the Speech & Drama section of an annual performing arts festival in Essex, England. Entrants perform a short piece in front of an adjudicator, who awards a mark, places the class and gives feedback. It is built from the festival’s own published 2026 syllabus, so the two classes, the age bands and the time limits are real. Festival dates, fees and entry rules change every year, so check the current syllabus before reusing any of them.

Two competitions are modelled. Solo Acted Poem or Prose is an individual class in which one performer acts out a chosen poem or passage of prose rather than simply reciting it. Duologue is a team class for two performers presenting a scene together. Both are open to boys and girls and are performed in English. In the syllabus the festival’s Speech & Drama days fall in mid-November 2026, inside a wider multi-week festival that also covers other disciplines.

Entrants are grouped into five age bands: 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-15 and 16 and over. The solo class runs in all five bands, with a limit of 3 minutes up to age 12, 4 minutes for 13 to 15 and 5 minutes for adults. The duologue class runs in the four younger bands only, with limits of 4, 6, 7 and 8 minutes as the pairs get older. The syllabus has no plain duologue class for 16 and over (its adult duo-style option is a separate Shakespeare class), so the 16 and over duologue cell is deliberately left empty rather than filled with an invented value.

The syllabus prints a ladder of mark bands (from Developing at 65 and above up to Exceptional at 95 and above) but no points per band and no criteria sheet, so each class is scored on a nominal 10 and entry fees are installed as zero for each organiser to set. No ranks are installed. Before the day, tell entrants how voice, diction, characterisation, movement and, for pairs, shared focus and listening will be weighed, and use the mark bands only as a guide to how your own adjudicators describe a result.

Where this event comes from

The Speech & Drama section sits inside a long-running annual festival of performing arts in an Essex seaside town, where music, dance and speech classes are run side by side over several weeks.

Where this event is run

Age-graded speech and drama classes judged by an adjudicator with a mark and written feedback are a long-standing festival tradition across the United Kingdom, and the same shape is found in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. Local arts societies, drama teachers and schools run smaller versions of the same thing: a ladder of ages, a strict time limit per class and a solo class alongside a pair class.

United Kingdom

Key facts

Two competitions: Solo Acted Poem or Prose (individual) and Duologue (pair)
Five age bands: 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-15 and 16 and over
Solo limits: 3 minutes up to age 12, 4 minutes for 13-15, 5 minutes for 16 and over
Duologue limits: 4, 6, 7 and 8 minutes across the four younger bands; no duologue for 16 and over
Mixed-gender entry, performed in English
Scored on a nominal 10; the source prints mark bands without points, so no ranks are installed

Age groups: 5
Competition items: 2
Competitions: 9
Grade bands: 0
Rank awards: 0

Age groups

Every candidate is placed into one of these groups by age, and competitions are run per group.

7-8 Years

7From

–

9To

Candidates aged 7 to 9 compete in this group

9-10 Years

9From

–

11To

Candidates aged 9 to 11 compete in this group

11-12 Years

11From

–

13To

Candidates aged 11 to 13 compete in this group

13-15 Years

13From

–

16To

Candidates aged 13 to 16 compete in this group

16 & Over

16From

–

120To

Candidates aged 16 to 120 compete in this group

Competition items

The events themselves — each with the category it belongs to and how judges score it.

Solo Acted Poem or Prose

ActionMarks

Duologue

ActionMarks

Competitions by group

The full schedule matrix, sectioned by age group then category — which item runs for whom, and for how long.

Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
7-8 Years
Action
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Solo Acted Poem or Prose	Individual	—	English	10	3 min
Duologue	Team	—	English	10	4 min
9-10 Years
Action
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Solo Acted Poem or Prose	Individual	—	English	10	3 min
Duologue	Team	—	English	10	6 min
11-12 Years
Action
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Solo Acted Poem or Prose	Individual	—	English	10	3 min
Duologue	Team	—	English	10	7 min
13-15 Years
Action
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Solo Acted Poem or Prose	Individual	—	English	10	4 min
Duologue	Team	—	English	10	8 min
16 & Over
Action
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Solo Acted Poem or Prose	Individual	—	English	10	5 min

Frequently asked questions

Can I change this template after installing it?

Yes — installing it creates a fully configured, live event, not a locked package. Every age group, competition item, rule and scoring setting can be edited afterwards to match exactly what your event actually needs.