Springboard Brighton & Hove – Drama — An English Drama Festival Programme With Acted Solo Scenes and Duologues Across Seven Age Bands

Speech & Drama · United Kingdom

The Springboard Brighton & Hove Performing Arts Festival (England, celebrating 100+ years) Speech & Drama classes, with real Acted Solo Scene and Duologue items across a real age ladder from 7 to 16 years.

A ready-made drama festival section: an Acted Solo Scene class for individuals and a Duologue class for pairs, laid out across a continuous ladder of age bands from 7 to 16, with time limits that lengthen as performers grow.

This template models the speech and drama section of a long-running performing arts festival in the south of England. It is deliberately compact: two classes, the Acted Solo Scene, where one performer plays a short scene from a script, and the Duologue, where two performers play a scene together. The value is in the age ladder rather than the item count, because both classes are built on literal ages instead of school-year labels.

There are seven age groups in the template: 7-9, 9-10, 10-11, 11-12, 12-13, 13-14 and 14-16. The Acted Solo Scene is offered in every one of them, as a separate class per band in the source. The published duologue classes are coarser, so the template copies each real duologue rule across the finer bands it covers. The groups therefore share boundaries, an organiser reconciles only one age system, and a teacher entering a pupil in both classes finds them in the same row.

Time limits come from the printed programme and include the performance only as the source states. Acted solos run to 3 minutes for the youngest band and 4 minutes for every older band. Duologues run to 4 minutes for ages 7 to 11 and 5 minutes from 11 upwards. Solos are individual entries; duologues are team entries of two. Both classes are open to any gender and run in English, and the maximum duration is installed on each assignment so a timekeeper has a clear stop point.

The source prints no mark-sheet, so the template carries a nominal ten-point scale and no invented criteria; fees are installed as zero for each organiser to set. Judging suits one adjudicator or a panel equally well, and the overlap setting is switched on for alternate age bands so a performer on a boundary can be entered in the band that suits them. The age ladder stops at 16 even though the duologue source reaches further, so a festival wanting an older section should add groups of its own.

Where this event comes from

The structure comes from the festival’s own published 2027 speech and drama syllabus, which lists the acted solo scene classes, the duologue classes, their age ranges and their time limits.

Where this event is run

Age-laddered solo scene and duologue classes are a standard feature of festival-style speech and drama competitions across the United Kingdom, Ireland and other countries that follow the same festival tradition, where drama teachers and schools enter pupils year after year. The model suits any school, studio or community festival that wants a simple solo-and-pair drama section with fair, age-matched competition.

• England, United Kingdom

Key facts

• 2 items: Acted Solo Scene (individual) and Duologue (team of two)
• 7 age groups from 7 to 16: 7-9, 9-10, 10-11, 11-12, 12-13, 13-14, 14-16
• Solo time limits: 3 minutes for 7-9, 4 minutes for every older band; duologue: 4 minutes up to age 11, 5 minutes from 11
• Open to both genders, English language; entry fees installed as zero for the organiser to set
• The source’s duologue classes are coarser than its solo classes, so each real duologue rule is copied across the finer bands it covers
• No criteria printed in the source, so none are installed; nominal ten-point scale

Age groups

7

Competition items

2

Competitions

14

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.

7-9

7From

–

9To

Candidates aged 7 to 9 compete in this group

9-10

9From

–

10To

Candidates aged 9 to 10 compete in this group

10-11

10From

–

11To

Candidates aged 10 to 11 compete in this group

11-12

11From

–

12To

Candidates aged 11 to 12 compete in this group

12-13

12From

–

13To

Candidates aged 12 to 13 compete in this group

13-14

13From

–

14To

Candidates aged 13 to 14 compete in this group

14-16

14From

–

16To

Candidates aged 14 to 16 compete in this group

Competition items

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

Acted Solo Scene

ActionMarks

Duologue

ActionMarks

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.

Do I need technical knowledge to set this up?

No. Installing a template does the setup work for you; you only need to review the details (dates, unit or house names) and open registration.

Want the fuller picture first? See our guide to drama and speech judging guide.