Gibraltar Cultural Services is pleased to announce that the adjudicator for the 2020 Gibraltar Drama Festival is Mrs Jan Palmer Sayer B.Ed. MA GoDA.

Mrs Palmer Sayer studied at Trent Park College and at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. In 1998, she was awarded an MA in Theatre and Performance Studies at the same time as running her own theatre company – Shattered Windscreen. Five years ago, she retired as Headteacher of Hertswood, a Specialist Arts College featured in a BBC autumn education series with Professor Dylan Wiliam.

In 2014, Jan was commissioned by the Arts Council, Isle of Man, to direct a community passion play at Easter as the island celebrated its year as the first Island of Culture. Jan’s directing credits include A Matter of Life and Death, a promenade production of Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde, The 39 Steps and Our Man in Havana. Earlier this year, she trod the boards once again playing Hanna Kennedy in Peter Oswald’s adaptation of Mary Stuart, and Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter.

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 2015, at the other end of the country, her production of The Grapes of Wrath, the Steinbeck classic adapted by Frank Galati, was one of a sequence of regular appearances by her theatre company at the famous Minack Theatre. This gained the company another 5-star review as well as the coveted Minack Trophy for the best production of 2015.

Jan was appointed as a GoDA adjudicator in 2001. She returned to GoDA’s Council in 2014 to organise the 2015 National Festivals Conference, held in London. She is the current Chairman of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, and one of its busiest members. This year, amongst her many engagements, she will be adjudicating in Munich, Ulster and Edinburgh and next year she will return to Florida to adjudicate at the aactWorldFest but for now, she is very much looking forward to her first visit to Gibraltar.

Tickets for the festival will be on sale on weekdays at the John Mackintosh Hall as from Wednesday 26th February 2020, between 9.30am and 4.30pm. During performance days, tickets will be on sale at the venue an hour before the session begins.

Tickets are priced as follows:

Each Performance Session – £5.00

Gala Night – £10.00

Season Ticket - £ 25.00

Student Season Ticket - £20