Taking Stock of the Field: 50 Years of Performance and Prison

Shona Babayemi trained at the Identity School of Acting and the National Youth Theatre and is member of Clean Break. Her theatre includes: [Blank] (Donmar Warehouse); Rising (UK Tour/Cardboard Citizens); All the Lights are On (Clean Break); Humans Of (Omnibus Theatre/Clean Break); Every Brilliant Thing (Cockpit Theatre); Glint (Stratford Theatre Royal); and Invisible People Berlin (UFA Fabrik)

Sarah Bartley is a community theatre practitioner and Senior Lecturer in Applied and Community Performance at joined Royal Central School of Speech and Drama . Her research explores the intersections of performance with social and economic policy, with a particular focus on the welfare state, justice systems, and grassroots collective action. You can read more about her research interests and publications here.

Esther Baker is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Synergy Theatre Project which works across theatre and the criminal justice system delivering projects in prisons, theatres, schools and pupil referral units. She has directed numerous productions in prisons and mainstream theatres and made a number of films. Synergy was the 2025 winners of The Stage Community Award.

John Bergman MA,RDT,BCT is a UK born drama therapist/theatre director/ Associate Professor with 45 years experience working with prisoners, prison officers, men, women and young people  in international  criminal justice settings. He is the founder and Director of Geese Theatre Company USA (1980-2018), which created original intense educational/therspeutic theatre that was prisoner specific. He has presented internationally at over 700 professional conferences and is the recipient of the NADTA 2005 Research Award.

Tony Cealy is a theatre practitioner using the arts to create dialogue about social, economic and political concerns. He is passionate about co-creating innovative and effective policy solutions alongside people most affected by them. He collaborates with grassroots groups, charitable, community organisations and the wider voluntary community sector to provide creative programmes, projects and events that support people to live with the uncertainty and complexity that surrounds them. From the collaborations he co-desigsn a range of community led workshops, performances, projects and programmes that are about empowerment and social change.

Dalton Harrison is a dyslexic trans man with a history of prison. Dalton has been working with Professor Aylwyn Walsh since 2019 and in 2024 collaborated on the arts and abolitionist futures project partnered with Abolitionist Futures, to explore how to build a future without prisons, police and punishment. He is currently studying a criminal justice and criminology Msc. Dalton has had his poetry changed into art, music and contemporary dance. He has collaborated internationally and worked as a consultant for theatre and television. His debut poetry collection is The Boy Behind The Wall.

Anna Herrmann is Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Clean Break. She has been working in the field of theatre and social change for over thirty five years, specialising in theatre and education in the UK and abroad. She joined Clean Break as Head of Education in 2002, becoming Joint Artistic Director/Joint CEO in 2018. With Clean Break she has directed Scenes from Lost Mothers (national tour), Catch (national tour), Through This Mist (co-directed with Róisín McBrinn), Sweatbox (national tour and film), and Not Pretty Like The Rainbow (national tour). Anna is on the Advisory Board of the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance and is an Honorary Fellow at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Saul Hewish Saul Hewish is Artistic Director for Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation). He is a specialist in using drama, theatre and related arts with people who experience multiple disadvantage, especially those within the criminal justice system. Prior to co-founding Rideout in 1999 he was a founding member and former director of Geese Theatre Company UK (set 1987). In addition to his work with Rideout, Saul is a Teaching Fellow in Theatre Practice at the University of Warwick.

Jenny Hughes is Professor in Drama at the University of Manchester. Her work explores the intersections of theatre and performance, economic justice, and social change agendas. She has published on theatre and performance in relation to socio-economic inequity, activist performance, war, histories of welfare and civic culture. Recent work includes a new book with and about the work of Common/Wealth, an experimental and political theatre company based in Bradford and Cardiff – DIY: Making Political Theatre (to be published in September 2025 by Manchester University Press). You can find out more about Jenny’s research and publications here.

Caoimhe McAvinchey is Professor of Socially Engaged and Contemporary Performance at Queen Marys University London. She has a particular interest in performance and prison, theatre practice with and about criminalized women, intergenerational arts practices and the documentation and evaluation of socially engaged arts practices. You can read more about Caoimhe’s research and publications here.

Keith Palmer MBE founded The Comedy School in 1998 providing workshops for aspiring comedians, learning and development for commercial and public sector organisations, running projects with and for young people. He is an experienced producer, facilitator, and consultant on the comedy circuit, in television and arts education projects.

His work in the Criminal Justice Sector has spanned a 30-year period and additional work includes developing and providing bespoke training and personal development programmes for organisations including The Princes Trust, British American Drama Academy, The ICA, Arts Education, The National Youth Theatre, Equity, St Marys University, 20th Century Fox, NHS, London Zoo, Angst Production and Premiere League football coaches. Keith also produced the entertainment for Nelson Mandela's visit to Brixton in 1996. He was awarded an MBE in 2020 for services to charity and the entertainment sector.

Simon Ruding is Director of TiPP and has more than 35 years’ experience in the field of arts and criminal justice. In 1989 was introduced to prison theatre through a project in HMP Manchester and subsequently joined Geese Theatre Company where he succeeded Saul Hewish as Director. He became Director of TiPP in 1999, where he has developed creative, trauma-informed approaches in prisons, probation, youth justice, and mental health settings.

Simon combines hands-on practice with academic insight—he holds a PhD in Applied and Social Theatre from the University of Manchester, where his research explored contemporary performance and restorative justice in youth justice contexts. Simon sits on the Advisory Board of the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance and is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Manchester.

Steve Scott Bottoms is a writer, teacher and theatre-maker, and has been Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance at the University of Manchester since 2012. Previously, he taught at the Universities of Leeds (2005-12) and Glasgow (1993-2005). Much of his recent work has engaged with aspects of applied theatre and performance. His interest in the use of theatre in prisons led him to toward the research that resulted in his book Incarceration Games, which connects the history of therapeutic role-play in prisons with that of social psychology experiments such as the Stanford Prison Experiment. Meanwhile, in his practice-based research as a theatre-maker and storyteller, he has worked extensively with questions of environment and ecology. You can read more about Steve’s work and research here.

Jess Thorpe is the Lecturer in Arts in Justice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she leads and writes about creative projects in prisons and with communities affected by the criminal justice system. As Co-Artistic Director of Glass Performance, she co-founded award-winning projects such as the young people’s collective Junction 25 and Polmont Youth Theatre — the first youth theatre in a Scottish prison. She was Associate Director (Engage) at Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre from 2020–2024 and her first book A Beginner’s Guide to Devising Theatre won a Drama and Education award in 2021. Jess is currently completing her PhD with the RCS and St Andrews University.
Aylwyn Walsh is a South Africa practitioner who works across arts spaces, informal education and higher education, where she is based at the University of Leeds in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries. You can read more about Aylwyn’s research and practice here.

Jason Warr is Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Nottingham with research interests in penology, sociology of power, narrative and sensory criminology, and the philosophy of science. His most recent book is concerned with forensic psychologists employed within the prisons of England and Wales: Forensic Psychologists: Prisons, Power, and Vulnerability. You can find out more about Jason’s research and publications here.

Andy Watson joined Geese Theatre Company in 1987 and is the company's CEO/Artistic Director. His work involves overseeing the artistic integrity of the company’s work, devising theatre performances for criminal justice settings and developing and delivering creative projects with people in secure and community settings. He delivers training events for professionals and is a guest lecturer on applied theatre, criminology and forensic psychology courses at a number of universities. He has delivered projects in Azerbaijan, Australia, Sweden and South Africa and was appointed MBE in the 2018 New Year Honours list for services to arts in criminal justice settings.

Jason York is Kestrel Theatre Company’s core Associate Artist for Acting, working across multiple projects since 2017 as co-director, associate director and artist support. Helping bring together a wide range of projects from plays to short films.

Jason is a professional actor on both stage and screen, with credits such as the BAFTA winning BBC drama Mood, feature film House of Spoils by Blumhouse for Amazon and has most recently finished filming a new BBC One drama called Wild Cherry.