The first theatre company I worked with was Broadside Mobile Workers Theatre. (1980.) Their methods of interviewing people as part of the research for their plays stood me in good stead, and it was refreshing to be performing in English.

My last appearance as Maria Rocca was at the Edinburgh Festival in the one-woman play "Ada Rules ok" – a mixture of song and narrative. After this, there were things I wanted to say, so I took to writing my own songs. I needed a new name. My ex-husband was now married for the third time and I felt there were far too many 'Mrs Roccas' around, so as Tollington Place was where I had been born, I reckoned 'Tolly' would do.

(I shant be changing my name again. 'Maria Tolly' is the 'real me'.)

Between 1984 and '86, I made 3 albums of original songs. I performed in festivals in Belgium, Holland, Sweden, France, Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Cyprus and the USSR, and wrote articles about the people and the places I was visiting, which were published in various newspapers. I ran song-writing workshops in Art Centres and Universities, and was song-writing tutor at the Arvon Arts Foundation at Hebden Bridge.

It all came to an end in 1989 when I was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Algo Dystrophy in my hands and arms, brought on by tension, and aggravated by continuing to play when I should have been resting. The damage was made permanent by too late a diagnosis, and my guitar was put in its case for good.

I turned to making music with computers, studying Electro-acoustic Music Composition under Jeremy Arden at Morley College, and winning the music competition for the opening of the Innova Science Park in Enfield. I was awarded bursaries for two years running, to study Computer Music and Musical Theatre at Dartington Summer School, after which I concentrated on more experimental music.

In the year 2000, my daughter was working as a dance specialist in schools, and for the next ten years I made the music for her projects. I studied Music Technology under Andy Perkins and Karina Townsend at City Lit, and received the Niace Senior London Award.

Currently, I am interested in cross-over art forms, using visuals, song and narrative.

So now – Who knows?