VAYA Online INTERNATIONAL
SPEECH ARTS + DRAMA FESTIVAL
Adjudicators

Peter Dayson, London, UK (Intermediate & Senior Speech Arts)

Peter has been a Producer/Director/Actor/Writer for over 50 years. This diversity has given him the opportunity to have worked for major companies all over England and have connections in all parts of an industry that he loves.

He started his career in repertory which includes Manchester Library Company, Nottingham, Bath, Chesterfield, Torquay, The Mill at Sonning, Basingstoke and Swansea. His many roles include Malcolm in ‘MacBeth’, Launcelot in ‘Merchant of Venice’, Danny in ‘Night Must Fall’, Rayleigh in ‘Journeys End’, Happy in ‘Death of a Salesman,’ John Macey in ‘Monday After the Miracle’ (West End) and Chris Keller in ‘All My Sons.’ Tom in ‘Glass Menagerie’ and Jack in ‘Charleys Aunt’.

His many musical roles include Joseph in ‘Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ (Hong Kong and Tour) Danny in ‘Grease’ Berger in ‘Hair’, Judas/John the Baptist in ‘Godspell’ and the lead in the national tour of ‘Rainbow Man’. Peter also appeared in the Beatles musical ‘With A Little Help from My Friends’ (West End).

His many tours also include ‘Happy as a Sandbag’ with Sue Hodge, Linda Lusardi and Ian Reddington, where he played George Formby, Winston Churchill, Rob Wilton and Adolf Hitler. As a director Peter was responsible for the award –winning production in London of ‘Gorilla in the Roses’.

For Television Peter has appeared in ‘Sorry’, ‘Blakes Seven’, ‘Dr Who,’ ‘Squadron’, ‘Allo ‘Allo’, ‘Three of q Kind’, ‘The Stanley Baxter Picture Show.’ And ‘Stig of the Dump’.

For the last 50 years Peter has appeared in Pantomime as Dame, Writer and Director for many leading managements and worked with such artists as: Charley Drake, Frankie Howard, Hinge and Bracket, Little and Large, Bernie Clifton, Ted Rogers, Paul Henry and many soap stars from ‘Eastenders’ ‘Coronation St’ ‘Neighbours’ ‘Emmerdale Farm’ and ‘Home and Away’.

As a producer and director, he has over 70 productions to his credit including the award winning ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ at Wolverhampton Grand starring Kimberley Davis, and Little and Large.

He was also responsible for Disney’s first Pantomime for Television as a Writer and Executive Producer on the Disney Club starring Frank Bruno, Eamon Holmes and all the Disney Presenters. This led to Peter being asked by Disney to direct a charity production in London with all the Disney characters - Mickey/Donald/Minnie/Pluto and Goofy together with a host of stars from film and television at The Duke of York’s and hosted by Ted Rogers.

As a director in theatre, he has been responsible for production such as ‘Boys in the Band’ and ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, ‘Fatal Attraction’ (Nottingham), Gorilla in the Roses (West End), and for 7 years as Artistic Director at the Stafford Gatehouse Theatre where he was responsible for seven pantomimes and six Shakespeare Festival Productions. These included ‘Romeo and Juliet’ starring Bruno Langley (Coronation St) and Scarlet Johnson (Eastenders), ‘MacBeth’ starring Russell Boulter (The Bill) and Glynnis Barber (Dempsey and Makepiece) ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ with Toyah Wilcox and Paul Henry and ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ starring Mathew Kelly and Julie Kate Olivier.

In 2007 he produced and directed ‘Godspell’ at Her Majesty’s Theatre, 2008 ‘Hair’ at The London Palladium. Both productions won the award for ‘Best Musical of the Year’ at over 19 colleges and Institutions in America. In 2009 ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and in 2010 he produced, directed and wrote a new Beatles Musical ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ which played at The London Palladium and subsequently transferred to Stuarts Opera House in the USA. Later that year Peter wrote the sequel ‘Strawberry Fields Forever More’ which played to a capacity audience at Her Majesty’s Theatre. He produced and directed ‘Inspiration’ at the London Palladium on behalf of Havering College. It had over 300 students and children taking part together with 16 characters from ‘Sesame Street’, Julie-Kate Olivier and Tim Faulkner and artists from the current cast of ‘Les Miserables’.

With four special needs schools as well, it was awarded the ‘Inspire Mark’ and the ‘Tess’ award for best musical and started the Olympic performances as part of the Cultural Olympiad. This led to an invitation to perform the production at the Olympics and Paralympics.

Peter also produced and directed ‘Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ and a new musical, ‘Synergy St.’ both of which played at Her Majesty’s Theatre. In 1991 Peter was signed to E.M.I as a writer and collaborated on the UK hit single ‘Streets Ahead’. He regularly works with artists recording albums and demo tapes. Peter wrote a new musical which played in the West end called ‘Class’ and produced and directed ‘Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ at the Brentwood Centre starring Chesney Hawkes. Recent productions included directing ’Aladdin’ in Worthing with Lee Latchford Evans from ‘Steps’, which was nominated as Best Pantomime Production of the Year and ‘Aladdin’ in Redditch with Robin Windsor from ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.

Peter has his own production company ‘Synergy Street Productions’ and recently produced a production of ‘Sing’ which played to capacity audiences and high critical acclaim. He has also just finished producing and compering ‘An Evening with Helen Sharman’ (the first British astronaut in Space) at Lincoln Cathedral, and has just written, directed and produced a new musical at Hazlewood Castle in Leeds, called ‘Hazlewood-Legends of the Castle’ which ran to high critical acclaim. He recently also worked with Michelle Dockery and Lily James and the cast of ‘Downton Abbey’ on several charity fundraisers.

Peter has been working with major agents, producers and representatives putting on various productions, including ‘An Evening with Charles Duke Junior’, the youngest man to walk on the Moon.

In 2019 Peter directed ‘Sleeping Beauty’ starring Jez Edwards in Leeds, and ‘Cinderella’ starring ‘Ben Haynoe in Redditch. He also directed ‘Aladdin’ again in Leeds and ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ in Birmingham later this year and ‘Pinocchio’ in Worthing. Peter recently directed ‘Cinderella’ in Leeds at the Carriageworks Theatre, which was nominated for three Pantomime awards, winning one for Best Newcomer and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in Redditch.

Peter is currently working on ‘An Evening with Dame Judi Dench and Dame Stella Rimington’ which is in pre-production and planned for the latter part of this year.

Peter is also a British and International adjudicator for the British Federation of Adjudicators (BIFF) and has recently finished festivals in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Canada, Purley, Isle of Man, Derby, Chichester, Colsterworth and Cumbria. He is also working on a new concept ‘rap’ to introduce a new student cohort to Festivals. A few years ago, Peter ran the London Marathon, (second time) for Arthritis Research UK and in his spare time enjoys spending time with his wife Anna and three children Lucy 23, Harry 21 and Jack 16 and Benji (our dog) 43, loves egg and chips and is a massive Spurs fan.
Josette Jorge-Tse, Toronto, Canada (Junior Speech Arts)

Josette Jorge-Tse was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. She studied at a French immersion elementary school and attended high school at a top-ranked all girl's private school where she was voted Student Body President. She then earned her bachelor's degree in Theatre Performance at Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts. She also holds a Performer's Associate Certificate for Speech and Drama from Trinity College London, United Kingdom.

The youngest of a large family, Josette started off as a quiet and timid young girl. Her parents enrolled her into speech and drama classes in order for her to work through her shyness. Through the art of performing, she discovered her ability to make people laugh, the freedom to express herself, and the permission to be seen. Since then, she has never stopped performing and is now recognized as an acclaimed professional actress on stage, TV, and film. In fact, children often recognize her as "Pam Fontaine" from the popular TV show "The Stanley Dynamic" on YTV. Josette came a long way from being quiet and timid!

Because of her background Josette has a passion for helping youth discover their voices and leadership skills through speech arts, much like she did. She has been teaching speech and drama at several schools and colleges for over 14 years. As a teacher, her goal is for her students to find their personal power and highest potential through public speaking.