Rehearse part of play, provided with external force (8)
I believe the answer is:
practise
'rehearse' is the definition.
(I know that rehearse can be written as practise)
'play provided with external force' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'play' could be 'act' (synonyms) and 'act' is located in the answer.
'force' could be 'prise' (as in prising or forcing something open) and 'prise' is found in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'part of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for practise that I've seen before include "Rehearse" , "Drill" , "Work" , "Observe" , "Train by repetition" .)