2027 Festival Adjudicators
Samanatha Tucker BA(Hons)
Samantha is proud to have represented BIFF as an adjudicator for many years and her friendly, enthusiastic nature ensures entrants feel they can showcase their work in a nurturing and positive environment that enables them to leave the festival feeling happy and proud of their achievements with that all-important feedback to take their work to the next level!
Samantha has a vast experience in the festival movement, having taken part as a youngster, entering her own students who have won cups in Choral Speaking, Shakespeare, Acting, Verse and Prose, Sight Reading and Public Speaking. Samantha’s passion for the festival movement motivated her to set up and run the Haverhill Performing Arts Festival which was a BIFF member and she was Chair and then Vice Chair.
Samantha’s love of performing started at the age of four at the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke taking part in the Basingstoke Music and Arts Festival and she went on to perform in a variety of amateur and professional productions both locally and nationally. Samantha studied Acting, Directing and Textual Analysis as part of her Drama degree, taking on roles as diverse as Gwenda in Bazaar and Rummage to Dionyza in Pericles; graduating from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Samantha has taught Speech & Drama for over 20 years and was principal of her own Drama Studio in Haverhill, Suffolk for over 10 years and directed numerous productions, including The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and her favourite; Oliver!
Samantha has been a visiting Speech and Drama teacher at a number of schools and has been at St Faiths School, Cambridge for over 17 years helping prepare pupils for exams in a wide variety of subjects and secure Drama scholarships to their next schools. Samantha is delighted to have been appointed last year as a New Era Academy Examiner and is a member of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama.
When Samantha is not working you can find her curled up with a good psychological thriller, attending the theatre, walking her dog Ellie, or planning her next travelling adventure!
Rebecca Vines MA,FVCM,LLAM,LALAM,GSMD,ATCL,ANEA
Rebecca read journalism at Cardiff University, during which time she wrote a weekly column for The Guardian newspaper. She continues to work for a range of publications as a features writer, ghost writer, and theatre critic.
Rebecca then studied as an actor at the London Centre for Theatre Studies; and her theatre credits include off-West End, Fringe, tour, educational theate and voiceover. Favourite roles include Maggie (Dancing at Lughnasa); Elizabeth (The Crucible); Beverley (Abigail’s Party); Madame Arcati (Blithe Spirit); Martha (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Rebecca trained as a specialist drama teacher at The Guildhall. She has taught in a range of primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions for the last twenty years; and is the Principal of her own drama school, which operates internationally. Rebecca’s pupils have been awarded places at major conservatoires and bodies such as RADA, LAMDA, Central, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall, Bristol Old Vic, Mountview, East 15, Guildford, AADA, Royal Birmingham, the Oxford School of Drama, National Youth Theatre, and the National Youth Music Theatre. Their work can be seen on the BBC, ITV, Sky, C4, E4, Netflix, Working Title, National Theatre, RSC, and with countless touring theatre companies in the UK and abroad.
Rebecca sits on the Adjudicator’s Council for the British and International Federation of Festivals; on the Awards Panel for the UKPA; and is a LAMDA, GCSE and A level examiner.
In 2014, Rebecca was awarded the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts in recognition of her work in the youth theatre sector. Rebecca is passionate about helping performers take their first professional steps, and helps emerging talents to form and manage their own theatre companies. As such, Close Up Theatre, No Prophet Theatre, and Eleventh Hour Theatre have all played to critical and commercial acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival: kickstarting careers and forging critical industry networking opportunities.
Rebecca’s productions have played to critical acclaim and commercial success at the Edinburgh Fringe since 2023. In addition to directing and producing over thirty thirty sell-out shows at the Fringe; Rebecca has adapted classics such as 1984, Jane Eyre, Emma, and Pride and Prejudice for the stage; and has written the original works More Myself Than I Am, Torn, Coward Conscience, and OTMA.
Rebecca is currently working on a PhD based around Shakespeare’s history plays; and she is passionate about inclusivity and diversity in the Arts, spending her free time ‘making things happen’ for people who would otherwise have no agency within the creative sector.
Ben Humphrey
Ben graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (BOVTS).
Ben is currently the Senior Creative and Educational Consultant to the National Trust for Scotland. Prior to this he was the Artistic Director of the Swan Youth Theatre and Associate Director of the Worcester Repertory Company as well as a lecturer and module leader in voice, performance and acting at the University of Worcester.
As an actor he has countless professional credits to his name including successful seasons in London, Stratford-upon-Avon and with international tours. Directing credits include; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Trojan Women, Happy Birthday, Dick Whittington, Cinderella, The Comedy of Errors (which transferred to the National Theatre of Romania in Craiova for the International Shakespeare Festival in 2016) and the sell-out 800th Anniversary production of William Shakespeare’s King John produced around the tomb of the King himself in 2009. He followed this with another sell-out production, Othello, in the same venue.
In 2009 Ben became the youngest member of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators (GoDA) and now serves as a senior member of its national council. He adjudicates all over the globe at Full Length, One-Act and Speech and Drama Festivals and is delighted to be returning to Bath having had such a warm welcome when he was last here adjudicating.
In 2012 Ben was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is also an Associate Research Fellow with the University of Worcester and Vice Principal Emeritus of Academy Theatre Arts.