Kiwanis Music Festival of Greater Toronto – Speech and Drama — Eight Speech and Drama Classes Across Seven Age Tiers, from Beginner to Advanced

Speech & Drama · Canada

The Kiwanis Music Festival of Greater Toronto’s Speech and Drama section, a real Provincial-qualifying discipline: all 8 real class families (Monologue, Shakespearean Monologue, Poetry, Prose, Public Speaking, Storytelling, Duologue, Group Scenes) across a real, fully consistent 7-tier age ladder from Beginner (6-8) to Advanced (19-28), built from the festival’s own official 2026 class-by-class fee and time-limit pages.

A ready-made city festival speech programme: six solo classes plus a duologue and a group scene, each offered at all seven age tiers, 56 classes in all.

This template models the Speech and Drama section of a large community music festival held every year in the Greater Toronto area of Ontario, Canada. Its classes are the kind that can qualify a performer for the provincial finals later in the year, which is why many of the entrants are serious young speakers and actors working with a teacher. Dates, fees, class numbers and eligibility rules change from one year to the next, so always read the current syllabus before reusing any of them.

Eight class families are modelled. Six are solo and open to boys and girls: Monologue, Shakespearean Monologue, Poetry, Prose, Public Speaking and Storytelling. Each solo performer has five minutes. The other two are team classes: Duologue, for a pair of actors, also on a five-minute limit, and Group Scenes, for three to fifteen players, which is given ten minutes. All classes are in English. Acted classes (Monologue, Shakespearean Monologue, Duologue, Group Scenes) are judged as theatre, Poetry and Prose as spoken interpretation of written text, Public Speaking as an original talk and Storytelling as a told tale.

The festival uses one unusually tidy age ladder for every class, and this template keeps it as it is: Beginner (6 to 8), Primary (9 to 10), Elementary (11 to 12), Junior (13 to 14), Intermediate (15 to 16), Senior (17 to 18) and Advanced (19 to 28). Seven tiers across eight class families give 56 classes. Because every tier sits in its own non-overlapping band, each entrant falls into exactly one tier, and a younger performer can be entered only in the tier for their age.

Adjudicators give each performance a mark and written feedback rather than publishing a fixed criteria table, so every class is scored here on a nominal 10-point scale, entry fees are installed as zero for each organiser to set, and no ranks are installed. A later-tuition class for performers who began training later than usual is not modelled, because it is an eligibility exception rather than a separate performance. If you run a similar festival, tell entrants in advance what your adjudicator will weigh, such as diction, expression, memory, characterisation and stage presence, and publish your own entry caps and fees in your registration rules.

Where this event comes from

Competitive festivals that pair music with speech and drama belong to the festival tradition that spread from the British Isles across the Commonwealth, and graded classes with an age ladder, a strict time limit and a written adjudication are still its signature.

Where this event is run

Adjudicated solo and team speech and drama classes with age tiers and a time limit per class are a standard part of festivals across Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Local arts councils, drama studios and schools run smaller versions of the same shape: a ladder of age tiers, one time limit per class, and a mix of acted, recited and original-speech classes plus a pair and a group class so that every speaker has a place to enter.

• Canada (Ontario)

Key facts

• Eight class families: Monologue, Shakespearean Monologue, Poetry, Prose, Public Speaking, Storytelling, Duologue and Group Scenes (3 to 15 players)
• Seven age tiers from Beginner (6 to 8) to Advanced (19 to 28), giving 56 classes
• Six solo classes run to five minutes; Duologue is five minutes for the pair; Group Scenes is ten minutes
• All classes are in English and open to boys and girls; Duologue and Group Scenes are team classes
• Adjudicated with marks and written feedback; scored here on a nominal 10, with fees installed as zero and no ranks
• A later-tuition class from the real syllabus is not modelled

Age groups

7

Competition items

8

Competitions

56

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.

Beginner (6-8)

6From

–

8To

Candidates aged 6 to 8 compete in this group

Primary (9-10)

9From

–

10To

Candidates aged 9 to 10 compete in this group

Elementary

11From

–

12To

Candidates aged 11 to 12 compete in this group

Junior (13-14)

13From

–

14To

Candidates aged 13 to 14 compete in this group

Intermediate

15From

–

16To

Candidates aged 15 to 16 compete in this group

Senior (17-18)

17From

–

18To

Candidates aged 17 to 18 compete in this group

Advanced

19From

–

28To

Candidates aged 19 to 28 compete in this group

Competition items

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

Monologue

ActionMarks

Shakespearean Monologue

ActionMarks

Poetry

LiteraryMarks

Prose

LiteraryMarks

Public Speaking

LiteraryMarks

Storytelling

LiteraryMarks

Duologue

ActionMarks

Group Scenes (3-15 Players)

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 speech competition judging criteria guide.