One of the chief organisers of this weekend's spectacular opening of the new Shakespeare North Playhouse has a background marked out by challenges he has had to conquer.
Ashleigh Nugent, who grew up in Rainhill, suffered police harassment in his teenage years and even spent time in a tough Jamaican prison before fleeing the country. Now an award winning author, playwright and rapper, Ashleigh, 45, works in prisons and in communities delivering cutting edge arts programmes that aim to change lives for the better.
It was this background which led to him being asked to co-curate the opening weekend of events for the new £38m Prescot theatre.
READ MORE : Merseyside's new £38m Shakespeare North Playhouse theatre opens its doors
Ashleigh, who now lives in Moreton, Wirral, said: "We needed to make it clear this is not for stuffy, middle-aged, middle class Shakespeare heads. This is for the people of Knowsley and the wider city region.
"I don't have the usual theatrical, literary background but I've managed to make a living from the arts. I left school with no qualifications and was harassed by the police. I got my degree at the age of 30 and I want to inspire people that they too can achieve anything.
"I came to understand the reason Shakespeare has lasted 400 years is because it's pure genius. It says everything about the human condition in so many ways. I'm a fan now but I'm still trying to understand it."
Growing up in the 1980s on the outskirts of Liverpool as a child with a mixed heritage background, Ashleigh Nugent found himself experiencing racism at an early age. After several run-ins with the police, and disaffected with school, the teenage Ashleigh, whose dad was from Jamaica, decided to travel there himself to understand more about his roots.
But within days of his arrival, still wearing his boots from St John's market, Ashleigh found himself in the "Strong Room" of a tough Jamaican prison for young men. He spent his 17th birthday inside what he describes as an "underground dungeon", eventually getting bail and fleeing the country while the Jamaican authorities searched for him at the airport.
Ashleigh now runs his own company Rise Up, working in prisons helping offenders to turn their lives around, and has also published a book called Locks, based on his experiences.
Ashleigh's Jamaican-born dad was a successful consultant, but that didn't stop his son being targeted.
Ashleigh told the ECHO in 2020: "I was a mixed race kid in a white leafy suburb on the outskirts of Liverpool.
"There were hardly any Black or mixed race people about, there was racism in school, no Black or brown history and racism from the police, getting stopped all the time by them and harassed in the street. I got arrested three times although I committed no crime and my parents had to come out of work to get me."
Ashleigh also found few avenues to explore his curiosity about Black history and culture, and this was behind his decision to go to Jamaica in 1993.
He said: "I had no Black role models growing in in the 80s. When I was growing up there were John Wayne movies slaughtering black-faced baddies on the TV. The most exciting moment in our house was when Trevor McDonald came on TV for the first time.
"I went to Jamaica looking for a sense of belonging, looking for this thing everyone said I am. I was always being told I was Black but I didn't understand why I'm different, I couldn't see why people said my dad looks different. You have this identify foisted upon you.
"You get angry about racism, harassment and get rebellious and then angry then you're told, 'you Black lads have a chip on your shoulder.' I wanted to know what is this 'Black lad'?
"I thought that in Jamaica I will find out, they will have this thing I am told I am, so I started getting some black culture, getting into reggae and I went to Jamaica."
In Ashleigh's book, the character is a rebel who soon gets into a fight, gets mugged and then arrested while just being 16.
Ashleigh, who experienced exactly that, spent his 17th birthday imprisoned in the mountains of Jamaica.
He said: "I got caught with spliffs and ended up banged up, then to court and then put in the Strong Room in the mountains, which was basically an underground dungeon.
"There was lots of crazy things happened, I got knocked out, people wanted my shoes. I was locked up with lads who didn't have shoes and I walk in with my nice boots from St. John's market.
"The place was for lads 21 and under and I spent my 17th birthday there. There was no running water, toilets that don't flush."
Ashleigh caught a lucky break and was bailed out of the prison. He immediately took the opportunity to flee the country - illegally.
He said: "I ended up having to escape, to get out of the country illegally. I knew there's nothing they could do outside of their jurisdiction, but they did get into the airport terminal looking for me.
"It seems it was the person who signed for my bail, he worked for the American Embassy, and he was in the terminal with the cops looking for me. Once on that plane, in the air, it was over."
For Ashleigh, one of the strangest aspects of his experiences related to his quest for identity.
He said: "In Jamaica I was the white boy. For me this is one of the most interesting parts - isn't it fascinating having an identity foisted upon you in one country as a Black lad and 4000 miles away now you're the white boy?
"It wasn't a slur - there were different systems of racial classification there but it was about having your identity stripped from you.
"It's about what are you under these signifiers, these pseudo-scientific categories? When they are stripped away, who are you really?"
Ashleigh says his experiences in Jamaica shaped him and aged 21 he decided to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.
He said: "When it was happening I thought once I survive this I always wanted to be a writer. But I hated school and left with nothing. The whole education system and figures of authority were my enemy. I was in trouble, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy - becoming the thing they tell you you are.
"I was 21 when I decided to admit to myself I wanted to write and went to college and met others into creative stuff. I met a guy who persuaded me to join a rap band at 21, and we're best friends to this day."
Ashleigh went on to perform with local rap groups, and carried out projects with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, working with both classical music and rap. He also became an avid reader.
He said: "I'd never read a book but I started reading voraciously every day, I found myself in a different world, around creative people, studying, changing my mindset and taking control."
Going on to university, Ashleigh achieved a first class degree in literature, getting work published during his course.
He said: "School made me feel thick, and at university I was determined to leave top of my class and I did. I got published with an academic journal while I was there and it gave me the confidence that I can write.
"I didn't realise I would then be on an eight-year journey to write a book - I messed it up, entered competitions, learnt and then got to the point where I felt I had produced something of worth."
Ashleigh also runs Rise Up, an organisation working with inmates in prisons across the country, using his own story alongside music to help prisoners find ways to transform their experiences into a driver to move forward with their lives in a positive way.
He said: "I work in prisons engaging with prisoners using mine and similar stories to understand how people become that self-fulfilling prophecy and how to control thoughts and behaviour and get what you want out of life."
His book, Locks, was also the inspiration for his one-man play of the same name, which he has performed at the Unity Theatre, as well as in prisons including HMP Walton.
He said: "There's a story we all keep telling as people, over and over again. It's the hero's journey, a story of how to get the most out of life, to overcome the strictures and structures of the society we live in and how to give back by being the most honest version of yourself, becoming your potential.
"It's a story where everyone benefits, that's why we love these stories so much, and that is what Locks is about and that is what the work I do with prisoners is about. We all have a story, what are we going to do with it?"
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