Samantha Rushton

Samantha was born in Stoke-On-Trent. As a teenager she was active in both areas of performing arts and sports. Throughout her childhood and teen years she was an avid squash player and played for Staffordshire County junior league as well as being Staffordshire girls junior no.1. Her performance roots began in theatre and she soon became involved on and off stage with the Stoke-On-Trent Repertory theatre. Following her studies at Edge Hill University where she gained a BA Hons in Drama, Physical Theatre and Dance she worked in community arts and European research projects at the Creative Communities Unit at Staffordshire University. In 2013 she was awarded a scholarship for her MA Studies in Advanced Theatre Practice at the Royal Central School of speech and Drama in London where she graduated in December 2014. As well as an actor Samantha is also a theatre practitioner. Her most recent research explores the audience experience: how semiotics of language and objects impact personal phenomenology of understanding and meaning in a performance.