Performing Sketches in English or French
Senior 2 · Music
Performing Sketches in English or French
Lesson 1 of 4
25 min
A sketch (also called a skit) is a short scene, usually between one and ten minutes long, performed by a small group. Many sketches are funny, but the best ones also leave the audience thinking. Schools use them at assemblies, club days and parents' days to talk about honesty, hygiene, road safety or the environment, because an audience remembers a scene it laughed at far longer than a list of rules.
In this unit you will write and perform a sketch of your own in English or in French. Everything starts with the right theme: the main idea the sketch is about. Its message is what the sketch says about that theme, in one sentence.
A sketch can be made up on the spot (improvised), or improvised in rehearsal and then written down, or fully scripted and rehearsed like a play. At school, the middle way works best.
| Factor | Question to ask | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Who is watching, how old are they, and what do they already know? | For P3 visitors, choose a simple, visual theme such as washing hands. |
| Purpose | Do we want to entertain, inform or persuade? | A road-safety week asks you to persuade. |
| Occasion | What is the event? | An Environment Day assembly suggests an environment theme. |
| Time | How many minutes do we have? | Five minutes fits one problem, not three. |
| Cast and resources | How many actors, and what props or costumes can we find? | Four actors and a plastic bottle are enough. |
| Language | Will the audience understand English or French, and can we speak it clearly? | Use short, familiar words in the language you perform in. |
| Relevance | Is this a real problem in our school or community? | Littering near the school gate is more real than a story about space. |
| Sensitivity | Could the sketch hurt or embarrass anyone? | Laugh at a behaviour, never at a person or a group. |
A script names the speaker in capitals before each line and puts stage directions (instructions for movement and action) in brackets and italics. Read this short script, then look at how it follows the plan.
The Borrowed Answers (theme: honesty)
Characters: GATETE, a student who has not revised; KEZA, his classmate; MR HABIMANA, the Mathematics teacher.
Setting: a classroom, five minutes before a Mathematics test.(GATETE sits at a desk, staring at a small piece of paper and whispering to himself. KEZA enters with her exercise book.)
GATETE: Question one: forty-two. Question two: B. Question three: seventeen metres.
KEZA: What are you reading?
GATETE: (hides the paper, then grins) The future. Someone in S3 kept last year's test, with all the answers. For a small price, I can share.
KEZA: No, thank you. I revised all weekend.
GATETE: (to the audience) She spent a whole weekend doing what I did in one minute.
KEZA: And when the teacher asks you to explain your working?
GATETE: Working? The answer is forty-two. That is my working.
(MR HABIMANA enters carrying the test papers. GATETE quickly pushes the paper into his sock.)
MR HABIMANA: Good morning. Before we start, one small change. This year I have written a completely new test.
(GATETE freezes. His mouth falls open. Slowly, he turns to the audience.)
GATETE: Forty-two... is not going to help me.
(A bell rings: the test is over. GATETE and KEZA are alone.)
KEZA: How was it?
GATETE: Question one asked for the area of a football pitch. I wrote 'B'.
KEZA: (laughs, then kindly) Next time, revise with me. It is less work than hiding papers in your sock.
GATETE: (takes the paper out, tears it up and drops it in the bin) Deal. And Keza... thank you for saying no.
(They freeze. The end.)
| Box | In the sketch |
|---|---|
| Beginning | A classroom before a test; Gatete is memorising "answers". |
| Problem | Gatete tempts Keza to cheat; she refuses. |
| Turning point | The teacher has written a new test. |
| Ending | Gatete tears up the paper and asks to revise with Keza. |
Nobody gives a speech about honesty. The audience sees the message and laughs at the behaviour, not at a real person.
Tip
The one-sentence test. Before you write a single line, say your message in one sentence to a classmate. If you cannot, the theme is still too big or too vague. Narrow it down until you can.
Your group has five minutes and four actors at an Environment Day assembly for S1 to S3. Suggest a theme and a one-sentence message, and give two reasons for your choice.
Solution (one good answer): theme: littering plastic bottles around school; message: "One bottle thrown away is never just one bottle." Reasons: it suits the occasion, and it is a real problem the audience sees every day. It also needs only one prop.
A group plans a fifteen-minute sketch in which a nurse explains the rules of hygiene for ten minutes. Name two pitfalls.
Solution: it is too long for a sketch, and it preaches: the nurse tells the message instead of showing it through action.
Write a one-sentence message for a road-safety sketch.
Solution: for example, "Put the phone away and look both ways before you cross." Any single, clear sentence about one safe behaviour is correct.
Plan the four boxes for a sketch about wasting water at the school tap.
Solution (one possibility): Beginning: break time at the tap. Problem: a student leaves the tap running while chatting. Turning point: the tank runs dry just when the football team comes to drink. Ending: the student helps fetch water and closes the tap properly from then on.
Remember
Sources and credits
The sample sketch The Borrowed Answers, the tables, the pitfalls list and the practice were written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
