Writers in Residence

The Traverse is delighted to regularly enjoy the company of talented and exciting of artists, including our group of Writers in Residence. Each of them are currently writing and developing a play commissioned by the Traverse. We believe that these artists are the UK's most promising and innovative dramatic voices, helping to move British theatre into a bold new future, and we are extremely proud to count them as part of our team.

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth is working with the Traverse to develop a new play supported by the Playwrights ’73 Scheme in association with the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and the Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund.

Ciara is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her work has won praise for using comedy, surrealism and absurdism to explore tragedy. Her plays have been presented by the Royal Court Theatre, the Abbey Theatre, Dublin Fringe Festival, the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, and the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.

Her most recent play, Lie Low, (Winner Best Theatre Script 2023 Writers Guild of Ireland, Winner First Finalist BBC Writers Room Popcorn Award 2023) was presented in the Peacock Theatre in July 2023 and in the Traverse Theatre as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023. The show began a UK tour starting with a three week run at The Royal Court, London in May 2024. Lie Low has been translated into Italian, Mandarin and Turkish and is currently being adapted as an opera, composed by Alex Dowling with award-winning director Tom Creed.

Ciara’s debut short film, Slay + Prepare, premiered at the Glasgow Short Film Festival 2024 and her debut feature film development is supported by Short Circuit.

Ciara is under commission with several television production companies and theatre companies across the UK and Ireland and is represented by Curtis Brown.

Michael John O'Neill

Michael John O'Neill is the IASH/Traverse Playwriting Fellow for 2024.

Michael is a writer, producer, and cultural programmer from the north coast of Ireland. His debut play, Akedah, a poignant exploration of two sisters confronting their past within a megachurch in County Antrim, won the 2019 Bruntwood Prize for Original New Voice and premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 2023. O'Neill's second play, This Is Paradise, was produced by the Traverse Theatre in 2022, and won the BBC Writers Popcorn Award.

O'Neill is the 2025 IASH/Traverse Creative Fellow and a recipient of an Almeida Theatre Genesis Foundation commission. A former Artistic Producer at the Tron Theatre, he now collaborates with Screen Scotland on Screen Fringe, which connects TV and film producers with Edinburgh Festival Fringe writing and creative talent.

Isla Cowan

Isla Cowan was the IASH/Traverse Playwriting Fellow for 2024 and is currently working on developing a new play with the Traverse.

Isla is a Scottish playwright, performer and director, based in Edinburgh. She specialises in creating ecofeminist performance and believes in theatre that challenges both its audience and its makers.

Isla's recent work for stage includes, amongst others, She Wolf (Assembly Roxy) Alright Sunshine (A Play, a Pie and a Pint @ Òran Mór) And... And... And... (Strange Town Touring Company). Isla was selected as one of four playwrights to be mentored at Hampstead Theatre on the 2019 INSPIRE Playwrights Programme, mentored by Roy Williams, and was a Traverse Young Writer in 2021.

Isla regularly leads and facilitates workshops - particularly on environmental theatre and eco-dramaturgy - for all ages and stages.

Morna Young

Morna Young is working with the Traverse to develop a new play, supported in 2024 via the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Playwriting Bursary Award.

Morna was one of our 'UK in Japan Season 2020, British Council' Writers in Residence. She is a playwright, actress and musician from Moray. She was recipient of the 2017 Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship (hosted by Creative Learning, Aberdeen City Council), the New Playwrights Award 2014 (Playwrights' Studio, Scotland) and the ‘Tomorrow at Noon’ award for female playwrights 2018 (Jermyn Street Theatre). In 2018, she was playwright-in-residence for BATS Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand.

Lost at Sea, her debut play, premiered at Perth Theatre in April 2019 before touring Scotland. The critically acclaimed production received four nominations and won two categories at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS). Her adaptation of The Snow Queen is at the Lyceum Edinburgh in December 2023.

Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney

Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney were the 2022 IASH/Traverse Playwrighting Fellows, working on their play Union of Craic.

Michael Patrick (actor/writer) and Oisín Kearney (writer/director) are a creative partnership based in Belfast and Edinburgh respectively. Having collaborated as an actor & director several times, they wrote their first piece together, My Left Nut, in 2017 and have continued writing together ever since. They like to write entertaining scripts which sit on the knife edge between comedy and drama.

The pair were part of BBC Writers Room Belfast Voices, where they started developing their skills in writing for television. Through this they wrote sketches for BBC NI’s Soft Border Patrol, and pitched the idea for My Left Nut to Rollem productions, which was ultimately picked up by BBC Three.

Apphia Campbell

Apphia Campbell was the IASH/Traverse Playwriting Fellow for 2021 and is currently working on developing a new play with the Traverse.

She is originally from the United States, and graduated from Florida International University with a BFA in theatre performance.

In 2013 Apphia wrote her critically acclaimed piece, Black Is The Color Of My Voice and opened in Shanghai to rave reviews before performing a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014. In 2019, the show gave Apphia her West End debut and it has continued to play across the country for 10 years since it's premiere.

In 2017, her new show with Meredith Yarbrough, Woke, was presented as part of the Made In Scotland Showcase, won a Scotsman Fringe First, a Highly Commended award from Amnesty International, and was shortlisted for The Filipa Bragança Award and Scottish Art Club Theatre Award. The show then made its London premiere at the prestigious Battersea Arts Centre in 2019.

Uma Nada-Rajah

Uma Nada-Rajah has been a Traverse Writer in Residence since 2021.

Uma is a playwright based in Kirknewton, Scotland. She was one of the BBC's Scottish Voices 2020 and was most recently the Starter Female Political Comedy writer-in-residence at the National Theatre of Scotland.

Uma is a graduate of École Philippe Gaulier and a previous participant of the Royal Court's Young Writers' Programme and the Traverse Theatre's Young Writers' Programme. In 2014 Uma won the New Playwrights Award from Playwrights’ Studio Scotland. Her play Exodus premiered at the Traverse Theatre during TravFest22. She also wrote the audio play The Watercooler for the Traverse in 2020.

Uma's new play, Black Hole Sign, is being staged in Autumn 2025.

Class Act Facilitators

We are fortunate enough to work with a wide group of artists year round across many of our projects and in particular Class Act, our flagship education programme. By engaging with artists and bringing them into schools and youth group settings, we enable the sharing of skills between creatives and young people alike.