When he died, Terry O'Leary was left without money, without a job and without a home, since she was not allowed to go on living in her brother’s council flat.

Whether you're a clown, a singer, an actor or simply a member of the audience, you have an impact on the world, Mary Lean discovers.

Actress Julia Varley uses theatre to empower. She talks to Andrea Cabrera Luna. by JULIA VARLEY

A new comedy drama, Rhubarb! Rhubarb! by Hugh Steadman Williams, was premièred in a church-based arts centre in London recently. That was appropriate enough: the play is set in the home and family of a Church of England vicar.

When a group of Ugandan children was asked to put on a play, they chose war and reconciliation as its themes. Mercy Mirembe Ntangaare worked with them.

'La Marelle' is French for hopscotch, one of the oldest children's games still in use, going back to ancient Greece and beyond.

What can a play about a reclusive American poet tell us about ourselves? Quite a lot, if the experience of its creators is anything to go by. Edie Campbell and Jack Lynch talk to Mary Lean.

Theatrical success didn't make Vendela Tyndale-Biscoe happy. Nor did drugs and partying. Mary Lean finds out more.

John Burrows is an English-born freelance conductor, based in New York City. He has been Music Director for many shows in London's West End and, in 1983, co-founded the Lyric Opera of Dallas

What happens when people with a common cause disagree about the way forward? Trade unions, political parties, churches, lobby groups and charities all face this dilemma from time to time. Some groups delay a decision and become absorbed in internal wrangling; others split. Mary Lean explores the experience of MRA in Britain, which has recently sold the Westminster Theatre.