
The Oxford School of Drama is pleased to announce the appointment of three new staff members. Seamus Allen, Jane Jeffery, and Gemma Maddock will join us for the new academic year as Head of Foundation, Senior Acting Tutor, and Head of Voice, respectively. We know our entire OSD community will join us in welcoming Seamus, Jane, and Gem to the OSD family. Read on to learn more about our new staff.
Seamus Allen - Head of Foundation Courses
Seamus trained in his hometown, Dublin at the Conservatory of Music and Drama. After graduating, he toured nationally with some of Ireland’s premier children’s theatre companies, as well as developing and performing clown performances for Barrabbas, and magic shows for Cahoots N.I.
Since moving to the UK Seamus has appeared in The Tempest, As You Like It, Comedy of Errors, Macbeth and Robin Hood (Creation Theatre Company), Quest (Folklore Presents) The Disappearance (The Sticking Place),and Where’s My Desi Soulmate? (Rifco Arts). Tv work includes Bear Behaving Badly (Thames Valley). Seamus is also a skilled improviser, training with Ken Campbell’s School of Night and core cast in the annual London 50 hour Improvathons and performs with “Austentatious, The improvised Jane Austen Novel”.
Seamus was the director of the Young Company at the Watermill theatre in Newbury. He established Readings only Improvisation comedy club, “What’s the Game?! Improv”, hosting shows as well as coaching professional performers. Seamus was Head of acting at Read college, a course which he wrote and which became one of the most successful Foundation courses for getting students into the top acting degree programmes in the UK. Most recently he has been Head of Year at Drama Studio London and gained an MSc in Performance Psychology focusing on excellence in actor training.
Jane Jeffrey - Senior Acting Tutor
Jane works as an actor, actor-trainer and director. She trained at ALRA, where she later returned to teach and went on to become Head of Acting.
She has worked extensively in drama schools and conservatoires, including ArtsEd, Rose Bruford, ALRA and Fourth Monkey Actor Training – directing over 60 projects, productions and showcases on Acting, and Musical Theatre, BA and MA courses.
Jane’s work as an actor is mainly for TV, where she has appeared in Unforgotten (ITV), Mammals (Amazon Prime), Silent Witness, River, Eastenders, Casualty, Holby City, Doctors (all for BBC), Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Law and Order, The Bill (all for ITV), Coalition, Top Boy (for Channel 4). She has also appeared in Independent films , shows in the West End and in a number of Theatre productions at off-west end theatres across London.
Jane is Artistic Director of First Sight Theatre and has directed shows at Soho Theatre, Finborough Theatre, Theatre 503, Southwark Playhouse and The Kings Head Theatre.
Jane retrained as an actor after working as a lawyer for many years.
Gemma Maddock - Head of Voice
Gem hails from a farm in Mukinbudin, Western Australia, but has lived in the UK for nearly ten years. She is a designated Linklater Teacher, professional voice coach, experienced educator in higher education, and head of department. Over the last nine years in the UK, she has been fortunate enough to work with renowned professionals on legendary stages and teach at highly regarded Acting schools.
Recent places of work include; RADA, the Collective Acting Studio, the Higher Education Department at Shakespeare’s Globe, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, LAMDA, Rose Bruford, Mountview and Arts Ed.
Some of her recent professional theatre voice coaching credits include; Operation Mincemeat (Southwark Playhouse & West End) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Covent Garden- Actors Church) Trouble in Butetown, Love and Other Acts of Violence and Force Majeure (Donmar Warehouse) Matilda The Musical (West End & UK Tour); Strictly Ballroom (West Yorkshire Playhouse & West End), The Railway Children & In The Heights (Kings Cross Theatre).
Gem’s work is quite physical with a heavy emphasis on “play”. Everything is also through the lens of a neurodiverse practitioner, being dyslexic with a very visual learning brain. Gemma, by her nature, is a magpie, collecting ideas and methods to cater specifically to the room rather than a preconception of what is needed or what has always been done.
Statement from OSD Principal Edward Hicks
We are thrilled to have Seamus, Jane, and Gem join the OSD team. Their extensive experience in actor training and industry expertise will significantly enrich the learning experiences we provide our students. These important appointments also allow OSD to restructure and expand our students' pastoral and academic support, helping them feel supported in their growth and development as actors.
Edward Hicks, OSD Principal
We can’t wait for the new academic year to start so we can all properly welcome Seamus, Jane, and Gem. We know they will bring fresh energy, enthusiasm, and genuine care to their work, which will benefit everyone in the OSD community.