We are delighted to announce today the two playwrights selected as part of the South Asian Playwrights’ Programme. Following a call out for two Scottish South Asian playwrights, Surya Elango and Niall Moorjani will each have the opportunity to develop a new play. 

The writers will develop their plays with support from professional dramaturgs, actors and directors, ahead of the plays being licenced and further developed and produced by Glasgow Lunchtime Theatre, in a future season of A Play A Pie and A Pint (PPP). 

Surya Elango is a Glasgow-based radio producer and presenter in long form narrative audio, currently exploring inflections in global history. She is part of the Wyrd writing collective and her work explores the colonisation of the psyche, dogma, fate and missed moments. After ten years in-house at the BBC, Surya is entering the world of theatre and freelancing.

Niall Moorjani is an award winning and critically acclaimed Scottish-Indian, non-binary and neurodiverse writer, storyteller and theatre-maker. Niall creates for both children and adults, dealing with themes of queerness, anti-colonialism, myth and legend. Their work has been published with Bloomsbury/ Methuen Drama, ‘Kanpur: 1857’ (2025), and Lantana, Rajiv’s Starry Feelings (2023). 

This programme recognises that South Asian writers face specific barriers to developing their craft and accessing a ladder of progression to professional production opportunities.

South Asian Playwrights’ Programme is a collaboration between the National Theatre of Scotland, A Play, A Pie and A Pint,Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland  and Bijli Productions .

The South Asian Playwrights’ Programme forms part of a long-term commitment from the National Theatre of Scotland to develop South Asian theatre artists and platform their work.  You can find out more about the programme here.