Devised Non-Musical Group Work Competition: What It Is, Where It's Run and How It's Judged

A large-group drama class in which a company of eight to thirty performers creates and performs its own original spoken piece, without songs, marked on invention, ensemble work and stagecraft.

Devised Non-Musical Group Work is a large-company drama class. Instead of learning a published play, the group makes its own piece from scratch, usually starting from a theme, a picture, a news story or a single line, and performs it using speech, movement and staging but no songs. The word non-musical is what separates it from the Devised Musical Group Work class beside it.

In the eisteddfod speech and drama section we build from, the class is a team entry for a company of at least eight and at most thirty performers, open to any mix of boys and girls, and entered by the age of the group in six bands from 9 and under up to 18 and over. The template allows 15 minutes for the three youngest bands and 20 minutes for the 13 to 14, 15 to 17 and adult bands, calculated per head, and each performance is marked out of 10.

A round runs like any other drama class. The company is introduced, sets up, performs one continuous piece and clears the stage. Because nobody can point to a script, the adjudicator is judging both the idea and how well it has been shaped: whether there is a clear beginning, development and ending, whether every member has a purpose, and whether the group moves and speaks as one company.

Organisers run it because it rewards classroom and drama-club teamwork that a solo class cannot: a whole school year group, youth theatre or adult company can enter together, and the work on the stage is genuinely their own.

Where Devised Non-Musical Group Work is run

Devised group drama appears in festival speech and drama sections and in school and youth theatre competitions across the British Isles and beyond. The template data we hold has this class in one Channel Islands eisteddfod speech and drama section, next to a musical devised class and a scripted musical class. Names, company sizes and time limits differ between organisers, so always read the syllabus of the event you are entering.

• Guernsey, Channel Islands (eisteddfod speech and drama section)

Key facts

• Team entry: a company of 8 to 30 performers in the source syllabus.
• Original, devised material; speech, movement and staging only, with no songs.
• Entered by age band: six bands from 9 and under up to 18 and over, open to any mix of boys and girls.
• Time limits in the template: 15 min (three youngest bands) and 20 min (13 to 14, 15 to 17, 18 and over), calculated per head.
• Marked out of 10 per performance in the template.
• Idea starters, not rules: a town waking up to find the sea has gone, a lost-property office where objects tell their stories, or a school corridor seen through the eyes of a new arrival.

On eTalenter, Devised Non-Musical Group Work 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, Devised Non-Musical Group Work is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 10, commonly time-limited to 15–20 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Devised Non-Musical Group Work

What a Devised Non-Musical Group Work panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Originality of idea: a fresh angle on a theme, rather than a retelling of a well-known film or story, earns more than a competent copy.
• Shape of the piece: a clear opening, a build and a satisfying ending inside the time limit; a string of loosely linked scenes loses marks.
• Ensemble work: everyone should have a purpose, and the group should move, speak and freeze together with precision rather than relying on two or three strong performers.
• Use of space and movement: tableaux, formations, levels and transitions that tell the story without props and costumes doing the work.
• Voice and diction: choral and individual lines must be audible and clear across a large company, with variety in pace and volume.
• Commitment and focus: staying in role while others perform, and handling entries and exits tidily, shows a trained company.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Devised Non-Musical Group Work under Scoring Setup, or start from judging and scoring with eTalenter.

How to prepare for Devised Non-Musical Group Work

How entrants and their teachers usually get Devised Non-Musical Group Work right on the day:

• Choose a single strong stimulus and agree in the first session what the piece is about, so every improvisation builds towards the same idea.
• Use improvisation to gather material, then fix the best moments into a written running order so the piece is repeatable on the day.
• Give every performer a clear job: lead lines, group lines, movement sequences or narration, and rotate who leads so no one is left standing.
• Rehearse the transitions between scenes as carefully as the scenes themselves; this is where large companies lose pace and focus.
• Work with a stopwatch, because a devised piece is easy to overrun; rehearse at full pace and cut rather than rush.
• Rehearse set-up and clear-down on the actual stage dimensions where possible, and keep props to a minimum.
• Perform a run-through for a friendly audience and ask what they understood, to test that the idea comes across without explanation.

Frequently asked questions

Is Devised Non-Musical Group Work 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 does devised mean in a drama class?

It means the group creates its own piece instead of performing a published script. The ideas, structure and often the words come from the company.

What is the difference between Devised Non-Musical and Devised Musical Group Work?

Both are devised, but the non-musical class has no songs. The musical class includes singing as part of the performance.

How many performers are needed?

In the source syllabus the class asks for a company of between 8 and 30. Check your own organiser's syllabus for the numbers it uses.

Is the class judged as a team or individually?

As one team performance with a single mark, so the whole company succeeds or loses together.

Want the full judging picture? Read judging and scoring with eTalenter, or browse every action competition item.

Try Devised Non-Musical Group Work in eTalenter

See every ready-made template that runs Devised Non-Musical Group Work, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.

See where Devised Non-Musical Group Work is used