The 2025 Waltham Forest Festival of Theatre
Thursday 27th to Saturday 29th March 2025
Adjudicator: Jan Palmer Sayer
Forest Community Centre, Guildford Road, Walthamstow E17 4EA
Festival award winners
Festival Award for Best Team
Woodhouse Players – 12 Hour Life
Festival Award for Second Team
Wadham Players – Bouncers Act 1
Romeril Award for Third Team (in memory of Phyl and Eric Romeril)
CADOS – Antigone
Roy Seammen Award for Adjudicator's Selection
Scott Clark and Jennifer Gillin (Wadham Players - A Merry Regiment of Women)
Also nominated:
Neil Bird (Woodhouse Players) – Director of 12 Hour Life
Festival Award for Best Performance by an Actress
Ashleigh Cole (Woodhouse Players) – Samantha in 12 Hour Life
Also nominated:
Pam May (CADOS) – Sheila in The Road to Hell
Jennifer Gillin (Wadham Players) – Kate the Shrew in A Merry Regiment of Women
Festival Award for Best Performance by an Actor
Mark Simons (Wadham Players) – Ralph in Bouncers
Also nominated:
Garvey Sheilds (CADOS) – Creon in Antigone
Clovis P J (Woodhouse Players) – Dylan in 12 Hour Life
Festival Award for Best Stage Presentation
CADOS - Antigone
Also nominated:
Wadham Players - Antigone
Vi Gostling New Writing Award
Tom Mallender (Woodhouse Players) – AI (Artificial Irritation)
Also nominated:
Tom Adlam (CADOS) – The Road to Hell
Angela Struthers (Starlighters) – Betty’s Secret
Lucy Elliott (Waltham Forest Youth Theatre) – Troubled Waters
Wanstead Players Pat Dancer Award for Best Supporting Performance
Marcella Rolesu (CADOS) – Chorus / MC in Antigone
Also nominated:
Jude Leighton (Starlighters) – Rita in Betty’s Secret
Festival Award for Best Team in the Youth Section
Waltham Forest Youth Theatre – Troubled Waters
CADOS Award for Most Promising Performer 18 and Under
Rowan Balchin (Waltham Forest Youth Theatre) – James in Troubled Waters
This year's plays
Thursday 27 March 7.30pm
CADOS present The Road to Hell
A comedy by Tom Adlam Unsuitable for children
Wadham Players present Bouncers (Act 1)
A comedy by John Godber Unsuitable for children
Friday 28 March 7.30pm
Starlighters present Betty's Secret
A comedy with sad elements by Angela Struthers New Play
CADOS present Antigone (Excerpt)
From a modern adaptation of the tragedy by Sophocles
Saturday 29 March 4pm
Waltham Forest Youth Theatre present Troubled Waters
An original drama by Lucy Elliott New Play
Woodhouse Players present AI (Artificial Irritation)
An original comedy by Tom Mallender New Play
Saturday 29 March 7.30pm
Woodhouse Players present 12 Hour Life
By Robert Scott
Wadham Players present A Merry Regiment of Women
A light drama by Rae Shirley
Each session will conclude with an adjudication of the two plays. After the adjudications on Saturday evening the Adjudicator will present prizes
This year's adjudicator
Jan Palmer-Sayer MA B.Ed GoDA
Jan studied at Trent Park College and at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. 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 a sell-out show and awarded 5 stars by The Scotsman.
In 2014, Jan was commissioned by the Arts Council, Isle of Man to direct a community passion play at Easter while at the other end of the country, her production of The Grapes of Wrath, adapted by Frank Galati, was one of a sequence of regular appearances by her theatre company at the famous cliffside Minack Theatre and it gained the company another 5-star review as well as the coveted Minack Trophy for the best production of 2015.
This was followed in 2019 with a 5* production of I, Don Quixote by Dale Wasserman, named runner-up for the Minack Trophy and playing (when it wasn’t rained off!) to full houses, and she was once again invited to play there in 2021 with a madcap production of The 39 Steps – a suitable antidote against the country’s lockdown. The company returned to the Minack in 2023 with Jan’s production of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin: “what a beautiful production; visually rich, musically enchanting and deeply moving. . .” and have been invited back again in 2025 to present Shakespeare in Love. Jan’s other recent directing credits include Pressure by David Haig (which won the British All Winners Festival in July 2021), Husbands and Sons adapted by Ben Power, Peep by Jodi Gray, Peter Whelan’s The Bright and Bold Design, and, last autumn, The Winslow Boy.
Jan also finds time to act, appearing recently in The Cane by Mark Ravenhill, The Children by Lucy Kirkwood and A Monster Calls, based on the novel by Patrick Ness.