Play with tot by front of arcade (5)
I believe the answer is:
drama
'play' is the definition.
('drama' can be a synonym of 'play')
'tot by front of arcade' is the wordplay.
'tot' becomes 'dram' (I've seen this before).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'front of' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'arcade' is 'a'.
'dram'+'a'='DRAMA'
'with' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for drama that I've seen before include "Plays as branch of literature" , "Literary genre for the theatre" , "Exciting play or event" , "Acting" , "Exciting series of events" .)