Top Awards for Shoreham director as drama inspired by young offenders takes offenders arts prizes.

A top prison and offenders Arts award has gone to a Shoreham drama and production company for its work with youth offenders in Brighton.  Company Paradiso Productions, whose interactive radio drama Legsy Gets a Break, performed on BBC Southern Counties Radio and live at the Ropetackle Arts Centre last year , drew inspiration from real life stories from a number of young offenders.  The stories were compiled into an interactive play, written by Bill Writer Phil Gladwin.

Out of over 5 thousand entries across 49 different art forms, The Koestler Trust prestigious 1st prize Koestler Award 2008 for Radio Drama went to the young people in Brighton  involved in the Legsy Gets a Break Project together with a Highly Commended Award for Spoken Text and a Merit Award for Non-Fiction.

It was performed by actors but told the real life struggles of young people living life on the edge. One young participant, who was the inspiration for the main character Legsy , ran away from care homes to find his family at  the age of 13 and lived as a missing person in Brighton.
 
The certificate and £80 prize money has been given to him in recognition of his commitment to the project.
 
The airing of the drama on BBC Southern Counties radio brought a stream of moving phone callers to the Neil Pringle show, who added their own poignant story to that of Legsy.
 
Jon Potter Company Paradiso founder and director who instigated the project says “ What inspired us with ‘Legsy’ was the idea that we know people best when we understand their stories.  Many people caught in a cycle of offending don’t know their own stories, their own lives.  It’s often only when you start to understand your own story, and the part others play in it, that you can move forward positively.

You can listen to the episodes on line at www.companyparadiso.co.uk
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