Jan Palmer Sayer B.Ed. MA GoDA
Jan studied at TrentParkCollege, where she graduated with a degree in Drama and Education, and at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance where she gained her Masters in Theatre and Performance Studies. She has worked in provincial theatre as an award-winning actor and director, andlast year retired as Headteacher of Hertswood, a SpecialistArtsCollege, featured in the BBC’s autumn education series with Professor Dylan Wiliam. In 1998, she was awarded an MA in Theatre and Performance Studies at the same time as running her own theatre company – Shattered Windscreen. Her theatrical exploits have taken her as far afield as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where her production of The Fall of the House of Usher was awarded 5 stars by The Scotsman. In 2013, at the other end of the country, her production of Wild Oats, a wild west version of the British classic by James McClurewas the latest in the sequence of regular appearances by her theatre company at the famous cliffside Minack Theatre and it gained the company another 5 star review. Having retired from education, Jan has more time to devote to directing and this year, her credits include Grimm Tales (a youth production), A Matter of Life and Death, a promenade production of Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde and she currently directing The 39 Steps. Earlier this year, Jan was commissioned by the Arts Council, Isle of Man to direct a community passion play at Easter as the island celebrates its year as the first Island of Culture. The project includedwell over 100 actors and musicians and was performed at various historical and cultural sites around the island.
Jan was appointed as a GoDA adjudicator in 2001. She returns to Council this year to organise the next National Festivals Conference in 2015. Last year, she adjudicated all the Welsh regional one-act festivals, as well as Spelthorne, HaveringPeripatetic Festival of Full-Length plays, the Divisional Final at Maidenhead and the English Final at Christchurch. In 2014, Jan has adjudicated the Bristol Festival, FEATs (for the third time) in Luxembourg as well as the AETF Eastern Area Final. She also returned to the Isle of Man’sGaiety Theatre in Douglas to adjudicate their first School’s Play Festival, theBritish All-Winners Final and also to direct a production of Delivered, the winner of the George Taylor Memorial Award for the best original unpublished play.
In 2015, Jan will be directing a production of TheGrapes of Wrath at the Minack Theatre Cornwall and she also has a busy adjudicating season too. Jan’s adjudicating engagements for 2015 so far include Woking Festival (for the third time), the Oxfordshire Drama Network’s Festival, the Southern Counties Drama Festival, Hereford Festival, the One Act Drama Festival at the Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond N. Yorkshire and the Southern Area Quarter Final. She is looking forward to returning to Wales this year to adjudicate the prestigious Welsh Final.
JPS 2014