The Co-Directors of Rideout are Saul Hewish and Chris Johnston

Saul Hewish was a founder member and former Director of Geese Theatre Company (UK) between 1987 and 1994. Geese UK was established as a franchise of the highly successful Geese Theatre USA with a remit to develop performances, workshops and residencies for prisoners and ex-offenders. Saul was instrumental in the development of a number of long-term partnerships with the Probation Service in which drama was used as the key methodology for challenging and dealing with offending behaviour. In 1994 he left the UK for America where he spent a couple of years working exclusively with Geese USA and its founder and director, John Bergman, MA, RDT/MT.

Upon retuning to the UK in 1996 Saul began working under the name Acting Out Company, developing drama-based projects and programmes for young people looked after by local authorities, children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties, and young people subject to supervision by Youth Offending Teams. In addition to co-running Rideout he also teaches a module on Theatre in the Community at the University of Warwick, is a visiting drama specialist at Broadmoor Hospital, and a visiting artist to Wolf and Water Arts Company. He is a co-author with John Bergman of Challenging Experience: An Experiential Approach to the Treatment of Serious Offenders, published by Wood 'n' Barnes in 2004.

Chris Johnston was the founder and Director of Insight Arts Trust between 1989 and 1999. Insight was established to work with the Probation Service in the London area and to run events and projects for those on probation. It extended its work over this period to develop a theatre company, Insight Theatre which took a number of plays featuring ex-offenders in the cast, into prisons and arts centres. These included 'The Art of Being in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time' with Richmond Trew and Emilio di Girolamo that used sound and video in a mixed-media production. The company also worked in Europe with a range of other organisations in a project funded under the Leonardo Scheme by the European Union.

Chris is also the Director of Fluxx and Research Fellow in Creative and Performing Arts, based at Warwick University. He is the author of House of Games: Making Theatre from Everyday Life, published by Nick Hern Books in 1998 and The Improvisation Game, published in 2006. He is also the author of a number of plays and the Director of Fluxx. Each year in Southern France he runs a course based on House of Games for all those interested in developing skills in project management and drama facilitation.

In 2005, Saul and Chris were recipients of a Butler Trust Certificate Award. The Butler Trust is a national charity which identifies and celebrates the achievements of people who work in the UK Correctional Services who have shown exceptional skill or initiative in their work with offenders.

Rideout has a pool of freelance practitioners with whom they work on a regular basis. These include:

• Sylvan Baker (former Education Director for London Bubble)
• Sally Brookes (former practitioner and Artistic Programme Director for Geese Theatre UK)
• Simon Day
• Jayne Dickinson
• Ali McWhirter
• Mark Robinson (former practitioner with Geese Theatre UK)
• Matthew Runham
• Richmond Trew (former practitioner with Insight Arts Trust)