Change the world, just the little bit around you

“Change the world, just the little bit around you” is Emma Morley’s formulation of a modest but active ideal: meaningful change need not begin with the whole world, but can start among the people immediately within reach. First spoken to Dexter Mayhew in Edinburgh, the idea later takes practical shape in Emma’s work with educational theatre, where she imagines change happening one child at a time.

The phrase in Edinburgh

On 15 July 1988, in a room on Rankeillor Street, Emma tells Dexter that what matters is making some sort of difference and actually changing something. Dexter tests the ambition against the sweeping phrase “change the world”; Emma narrows its scale: “Not the whole entire world. Just the little bit around you.” Their exchange turns a grand aspiration into a local one, and its serious intent is softened by their laughter and shared recognition that the sentiment sounds corny.

The thought belongs to a moment of uncertainty as much as conviction. After university, Emma faces independent adult life without knowing how she will fill her days or what she should do. In her private attempt to find a guiding philosophy, she returns to courage, hard work, writing, friendship, principles, and living fully. She imagines changing lives through art, while conceding to herself that this is not a polished or easily shareable creed. The expression gives that unsettled list a direction: purpose can be pursued without pretending to have a plan for remaking everything.

From principle to practice

By 15 July 1989, Emma has joined the Sledgehammer Theatre Co-operative and has spent four months devising, rehearsing, and touring Cruel Cargo, an Arts Council-funded Theatre-in-Education production for children aged eleven to thirteen. The play addresses the slave trade through story, folk song, and mime. Emma describes its central lesson plainly: slavery was a bad thing. She also says that workshops with schoolchildren are exciting and that she has enjoyed writing the production, which has given her ideas for other plays.

In her letter to Dexter, Emma connects this work directly to the earlier ideal. She insists that she believes theatre can change things, then gives that belief a specific scale and target: banishing colour prejudice in the West Midlands “one child at a time.” The claim is ambitious, but its method is incremental. Rather than imagining influence as a single sweeping achievement, she locates it in performances, workshops, and what individual children might learn about history and cultural heritage.

Meaning and limits

The expression’s force comes from the contrast between its modest scale and its large moral purpose. Emma begins by laughing at how corny the idea sounds; a year later, she is defending work she considers worthwhile even while acknowledging its rough edges and the frustrations of touring. The phrase does not promise that theatre will immediately overcome prejudice. It records Emma’s conviction that local, sustained work can matter, and that making a difference is a practice rather than a claim to have changed the entire world.