We believe that the arts can make a substantial difference to people's lives, whether you participate in them casually or professionally.

The core of our work is about changing lives: A number of people working for Escape Artists have spent a long time in prison, and have had their lives changed through their engagement with the arts. It is their experience of the role that the arts can play in transforming lives that they now wish to pass on, especially to young people at risk or in prison.

If you would like to book a talk by an ex-offender about how the arts can change a person's life, please get in touch. You can either contact us directly on 020 7655 0909, via email, or by filling in our online enquiry form.

You can see interviews with a number of ex-prisoner company members on the Arts on the Out website.

Is an actor, trainer and workshop leader who is passionately committed to supporting marginalised young people in fulfilling their aims.

He has trained widely at B.A.D.A., The Actors Company and the Tavistock Rep Company as well as a spending a year with Insight Arts.

His acting credits include roles in productions such as Julius Caesar at The Barbican, directed by Deborah Warner; a UK tour of Clouds by Micheal Frayn starring Lloyd Owen and Tara Fitzgerald; as well as a successful one-man show Trash by R Monge-Rafuls performed at the Arcola Theatre in London, the White Bear Theatre in Kennington and the Teatro del Lido in Rome.

Chris regularly gives talks, performances and workshops in schools, YOIs and prisons. He has a Community Sports Leader Award, a Basketball Leader Award and continues to train as an amateur boxer. He has recently published his first book, Letters To A Young Person

He has two subjects close to his heart - acting and assisting young people from excluded backgrounds to achieve their aims in life; be it basic skills, anger management, poetry or even set designing; helping these young people into a more stable and fulfilling lifestyle, achieved by changing their attitudes towards society and themselves.

For Escape Artists Chris is currently presenting Trash and is also studying for a role in The Bach and Mozart Project

Richmond is an actor, musician and workshop facilitator and has been involved in community arts projects since the early '80s. He has many film and theatre roles to his credit. Since the early '90s he has worked extensively within the criminal justice system, designing and delivering workshops and theatre pieces that are designed to help break the offending behaviour cycle. This has seen him working in prisons nationally and internationally. He also leads a group of freelance practitioners under the name of Journeyman Arts, using the arts to share and pass on knowledge. 

He has toured for many years with Insight Arts, and worked on a number of projects with Escape Artists, including running drama and pre-employment training programmes in young offender institutions. For Escape Artists Richmond is currently running a programme on Fathers in Jail which he has devised himself.

Steve has experience of working in the theatre stretching back 25 years in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. He strongly believes in the transformational potential of the arts.

As a former inmate, he has experienced first hand the empowerment of individuals and groups through the arts. Steve is an experienced workshop leader, specialising in devising plays based on group input and experience. Most recently, he has devised two one-man plays around crime and punishment themes, Outsiders and Pappy's Game; both having been performed for Escape Artists.