A solo class in which one performer speaks or acts a speech or short passage from the plays of William Shakespeare, judged on understanding of the verse, clear speech and a believable character.
Shakespeare is a solo speech and drama class in which one performer takes a speech or a short passage from a play by William Shakespeare and presents it to an adjudicator and an audience. The words are four centuries old and fixed, so the marks are won by what the performer does with them: understanding what the character wants, shaping the verse so that the sense reaches the listener, and making the moment believable in the few minutes available.
In the two festival schedules we build from, the class is entered as an individual item for boys and girls together, in English. A Vancouver speech arts division introduced in 2026 offers it in five age tiers (10 and under, 11 to 13, 14 to 17, 18 to 22 and an Open division) with a five-minute limit in every tier and adjudicator marks on a ten-point scale. A Scottish festival held in Perth offers it in three tiers, 12 to 14 with three minutes and 15 to 17 and 18 and over with four minutes each, marked out of 100, and that syllabus states that a performance over the maximum time receives a written adjudication but no marks.
A round is simple to run. The performer is called, usually says the title of the play and the name of the character, settles and then performs with no scenery and little or no costume. Nothing is acted around the speech, so a performer who rushes the verse, drops the ends of lines or recites without picturing the situation is quickly heard. A performer who breathes at the punctuation, lets the thought run on across the line ends and plays the character's need in each sentence is easy to follow even when some words are unfamiliar.
Organisers include the class because it is the most direct test of speaking difficult language aloud, and because it links a speech and drama programme with a text that schools already teach. It is also a clear way of placing a strong speaker in front of an adjudicator who can say, in a written or spoken report, exactly where the verse was well handled and where it needs work.
Where Shakespeare comes from
The texts come from the plays of William Shakespeare, written for the London stage in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Speaking Shakespeare as a competition class belongs to the British and international festival tradition of music, dance and speech, where verse speaking has long been a staple of the speech and drama sections.
Where Shakespeare is run
In eTalenter's data the plain Shakespeare class appears in two templates: a Vancouver speech arts division in British Columbia, Canada, and a Scottish festival held in Perth. It is a recognised festival class in the British-style speech and drama tradition, but it is not a worldwide item. The catalogue also holds neighbouring classes with their own rules, such as a Shakespeare scene for a pair or a Shakespearean monologue in costume, and those are kept as separate items because their format differs from this solo speech class.
- Canada - British Columbia (Vancouver speech arts division)
- Scotland, United Kingdom (Perth festival speech section)
Key facts
- Individual entry: one performer, boys and girls together, in English.
- The piece is a speech or extract from a Shakespeare play; the schedules in our data do not print a rule on memory, so check whether your own festival wants the text learnt.
- Vancouver tiers: 10 and under, 11 to 13, 14 to 17, 18 to 22 and Open, each with a five-minute limit and marks out of 10; the printed Open division is for diploma-level, over-18 and previous-division-winner entrants.
- Perth tiers: 12 to 14 with three minutes, 15 to 17 with four minutes and 18 and over with four minutes, marked out of 100; over-time performances receive a written adjudication but no marks.
- Ages follow the festival's own rule, so check the date on which your age is counted (the Perth syllabus counts it on the last day of the festival).
- Idea starters, not rules: Puck's closing speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream for younger entrants, Portia's mercy speech from The Merchant of Venice, Viola's speech about the ring from Twelfth Night, Mark Antony's funeral speech from Julius Caesar, or Hamlet's advice to the players for older tiers.
On eTalenter, Shakespeare is filed under Action and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 2 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Shakespeare is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 10, commonly time-limited to 3–5 minutes where a limit is set.
What judges look at in Shakespeare
What a Shakespeare panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Understanding of the text: the performer clearly knows who is speaking, to whom, what has just happened and what the speech is trying to achieve, and it shows in every sentence.
- Verse speaking and sense: the thought runs across the line ends, the breaths fall at the punctuation and the important word in each phrase is heard, so that the meaning reaches listeners who do not know the play.
- Clarity and audibility: every word is crisp at the back of the hall, with pace chosen for the character and not driven by nerves.
- Character and truth: the performer plays a person with a need, not a poem, and the emotion changes as the speech moves.
- Restraint with the body: gestures are few, clear and motivated by the words, and the performer stays still enough for the voice to do the work.
- Control of time and shape: the piece has a beginning, a turn and a landing, and it finishes inside the limit for the tier, since an over-time entry can lose its marks.
- Choice of piece: the extract suits the performer's age and voice and is long enough to show range inside the limit.
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Shakespeare under Scoring Setup, or start from the full mono act judging criteria guide.
How to prepare for Shakespeare
How entrants and their teachers usually get Shakespeare right on the day:
- Choose a speech you can explain in your own words. Read the whole scene it comes from, so you know what happened before and what comes after.
- Paraphrase every line in modern English on paper, then go back to the original and notice which words carry the meaning.
- Mark the punctuation and the natural breaths in the text, and practise running the thought through the line ends instead of stopping at each one.
- Time the speech with a stopwatch against the limit for your tier, cutting the text if needed and leaving a second at the end for the stillness after the last word.
- Say the lines out loud to a person in the far corner of a room, and ask them to tell you which words they did not catch.
- Decide who the character is speaking to and where that person stands, then keep your eyes on that imagined listener instead of the floor or ceiling.
- Rehearse without moving first, then add only the gestures you cannot do without; film a run and watch with the sound off to see which movements are distracting.
- Prepare a recovery plan for a blank, such as the first words of the next line, and practise starting again calmly.
- On the day, learn the stage conditions, introduce the play and character clearly if the festival asks for it, and hold the final pose until the adjudicator moves on.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shakespeare judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter's templates it's most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
Is a Shakespeare class the same as a drama or monologue class?
Not exactly. In the Vancouver schedule Shakespeare is its own family of classes beside Drama, Poetry, Prose, Public Speaking and Storytelling, and it asks specifically for text from Shakespeare's plays. A drama or monologue class normally lets you choose any suitable piece.
Do I have to learn the speech by heart?
The schedules in our data do not print a memory rule, so read the festival's own regulations. Whatever the rule, performers who know the text well can look up, picture the listener and play the character, and adjudicators notice the difference.
How long can the performance be?
It depends on the festival and the tier. The Vancouver division allows five minutes in every tier, while the Perth syllabus allows three minutes for ages 12 to 14 and four minutes for older entrants. Check the limit for your own tier before you cut your speech.
Can two people perform a scene together?
Not in this class, which is a solo item. A scene for two performers is a separate class at some festivals, so look for a duo or scene class in the schedule instead.
Do I need an English accent?
No class in our data asks for one. Adjudicators listen for clear, natural speech and for sense, so speak in your own accent and make every word easy to follow.
Want the full judging picture? Read the full mono act judging criteria guide, or browse every action competition item.
Try Shakespeare in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Shakespeare, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
