Fund Sanjay's First Fringe Show - Be Part of the Magic

We’re heading to the Edinburgh Fringe with a bold, heartfelt new show, and we need your help to get it there.

Love Me Like a Chai Tea Latte is a funny and deeply personal solo piece written and performed by Sanjay Lago, a Scottish Indian artist, proud Glaswegian, and this year’s winner of the Assembly Arts Award. Rooted in his lived experience growing up as a brown, queer, working-class person in Scotland, this show is a love letter to identity, family, and finding your voice in a world that often mispronounces your name and finding love is a struggle when you don't fit in.

After winning the Birds of Paradise Emerging Talent Award at the Neurodiverse Review Awards in August 2024, Sanjay went on to have a brilliant debut at Soho Theatre’s Soho Rising festival. After Soho Rising, Sanjay was awarded the prestigious Assembly Arts Award. This platform gives underrepresented voices from Scotland the space to shine at the world’s biggest arts festival. This award opens a vital door, but it doesn’t cover everything. To make the most of this opportunity, we need your support.

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Why We’re Raising £5,000

Taking a show to the Fringe is no small feat, especially when you’re doing it independently, and with care and access built in from day one. We’re keeping things lean, but we can’t do it on passion alone.

Your donation will directly support:

• BSL interpretation and captioning, to make the work more accessible

• Mental health and wellbeing support, including access to a support worker during the Fringe to prioritise care and sustainability

• Travel and accommodation so the team can be present in both Glasgow and Edinburgh during development and the run

• Rehearsal space and time, essential for shaping a strong, polished show

• Partial team fees, to make sure no one’s working unpaid or burning out, and to remunerate for coming on at a short window

• Documentation, to photograph and film the performance, so we can share the work beyond the festival

• Basic set, costume, and props, and yes, the chai does matter

• Social Media Marketing, to focus on promotion and visibility leading up to Fringe and during.

This isn’t about frills. It’s about making sure this story, one that rarely gets told on main stages, is shared with the care, visibility, and support it deserves.

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Why This Show Matters

Love Me Like a Chai Tea Latte is rare. It’s unapologetically Scottish, queer, brown, and tender. It speaks to anyone who’s ever had to navigate the spaces in between: between cultures, expectations, generations, between who you are and who you're told to be.

“Growing up in Glasgow and being part of the theatre scene for 14 years, I rarely saw people like me in Scottish theatre or on screen. And when we were there, the stories were often flattened into stereotypes. I created this show to give the Gaysian/Queer Asian community a voice and a space — one that’s joyful, complicated, and real. I also wanted to highlight the generations of different cultures that have shaped Scotland and the impact they’ve made.”

Bringing this show to the Fringe is about making space for honest stories, joyful resistance, and the kinds of voices the arts too often overlook.

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A Note from Sanjay

“Winning the Assembly Arts Award was a huge moment for me. It said that my story — our stories — deserve to be seen and heard. I want to honour that by showing up fully and giving this show the best shot it’s got.

The Fringe is a massive platform, and while I’m grateful for the ART Award, there are still costs we’ve identified as a team — essentials that without support, I simply couldn’t cover. Even just raising money to survive the Fringe — to live, to look after myself and my family, to avoid burnout — is a huge part of making this sustainable. I also wish to make this sustainable for the friends that have come onboard to support me as a team when time is not our friend. We don't want to have an impact on our mental healths or our creativity due to the barrier of finances. And I want to share my story so future South Asian artists can know the Fringe is for them. And I can only do that with your support and kindness.

I want to bring my best, not just for me, but for everyone this work represents. And I want to make my family and friends proud of the stories I tell.”

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Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for donating if you’re able to. Every contribution — big or small — helps us get there. We can’t wait to share a cuppa with you at the Fringe.

#LoveMeLikeAChaiTeaLatte

#Fringe2025 #QueerScottishVoices #AssemblyArtsAward #BrownBoyTheatre.