ECHOES IN DRAFT - PROGRAMME
Creative Development Showcase
Friday, 8th August 2025 // 6:30PM
Fremantle Town Hall
Audience Post-Show Survey
blue joy theatre company was created and continues to operate on stolen land. We acknowledge the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which we live, create, and perform. We pay our deepest respects to Elders past and present, and to the ongoing strength, resistance, and creativity of First Nations communities.
We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land. As a company committed to diverse storytelling, we understand that meaningful representation and cultural respect begin with truth-telling and accountability.
Echoes in Draft is a table-read-driven creative development program designed to amplify emerging voices and in-progress works across performance and theatre. Built on the belief that storytelling begins long before the spotlight, this program offers writers, performers, and creatives a space to breathe life into scripts by hearing them aloud—raw, evolving, and full of potential.
This is where dialogue finds its rhythm, characters start to pulse, and narratives echo with the truth of collaboration.
The Stranger
by Oliver Hughes
Here For You
by Jean Riki
A Study in Occultery
by Anna Quercia-Thomas
The Pitch
by Patrick Kankanange Gunasekera
we are blooming.
by Mohammed ‘Ayo Busari’
Director
Rachel Adams
Performers
Jean Riki
Oliver Hughes
Patrick Kankanange Gunasekera
Rali Maynard
Sean Mudariki
Taonga Sendama
Creative Producer & Curator
Mohammed ‘Ayo Busari’
Producer
Briannah Davis
Writing Mentor
Donna Hughes
The running time for this production is approximately 90 minutes (including a short Q&A)
Echoes in Draft is proudly presented in 10 Nights in Port: Walyalup Fremantle Festival and supported by the City of Fremantle.
The Stranger by Oliver Hughes
Family. Place. Justice. Connection.
A family's life is turned upside down when a stranger unexpectedly invades their treehouse and begins to invade their lives too.
Here For You by Jean Riki
Dreams Have A Price
Blindsided by a breakup and losing her job, a drifting early thirties Māori female illustrator navigates heartbreak, homelessness, and ruminates on the price to be paid for an artistic dream—finding unexpected strength in the love of her family/whānau and the reckoning with her past. Ana breaks up with her boyfriend of five years and is forced to redefine purpose on her own terms. This premise drives the narrative through Ana’s journey of self-discovery mapping across friendships, family relationships, nostalgic memory of childhood, displacement in an expensive city, and creative struggle. Things reach resolution after a visit with salt of the earth Aunty Ro who helps Ana reconnect with her Maori culture and reminds her of the innate gift of strength that her indigenous heritage has bestowed upon her.
A Study in Occultery by Anna Quercia-Thomas
Dark academia comedy
A Study in Occultery is a comedy about how desperation manifests when there are traumas in the way of acknowledging what you really want. The play is inspired by the styles of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward and follows a pair of eccentric friends who fail to fit into the strict social structures of late Victorian London.The story sees them overcoming these barriers via comical, supernatural means and finally acknowledging the truth behind their feelings of desperation and lack. More straightforwardly, this is a play about two friends who want to go to a party to see the boy they both like and accidentally summon an Eldritch God.
The Pitch by Patrick Kankanange Gunasekera
Naturalistic playwriting amidst racism.
Housemates Arthur and Ramona are emerging writers of colour, used to being told their voices are too different for industry success. When Arthur seeks established director Neil's advice on how to stage a play he's written, he's encouraged to apply for a playwrights' mentorship program at Neil's company. Amid a promising openness toward underrepresented voices, Arthur wants to make the most of the program – only to find his play’s themes of everyday racism aren’t understood by his white mentors. This leads Arthur into advocacy fatigue as he struggles to balance authenticity with assimilation in the hopes of improving his script. Eventually Arthur realises the program can’t support his creative visions and he leaves. Arthur and Ramona celebrate setting boundaries with white spaces, then reflect on feeling powerless in the industry.
we are blooming. by Mohammed ‘Ayo Busari’
Chant. Grieve. Resist. Bloom.
we are blooming is a poetic ensemble theatre work about a group of teenagers grappling with the emotional weight of the climate crisis. As grief and rage threaten to consume them, they turn to one another - to art, protest, and memory - as acts of resistance. Together, they process loss, confront despair, and imagine a more just and sustainable world. Through chants, stories, and spoken word, they honour what has been lost and nurture what is still possible. we are blooming is a love letter to youth, to collective action, and to the blooming that follows devastation.
Artistic Director & Creative Producer’s Note
Echoes in Draft emerged while we were developing our inaugural creative development program, New Beginnings. I remember that moment - hearing my script read aloud by actors in the room for the very first time - it completely changed how I understood my work. Those few table reads we did in that program really helped me grow - not just as a writer, but as a collaborator.
I started to see what was really working in the script and what wasn’t. And there’s something powerful about hearing your words outside of your own head. You can write and read things in your head all day, but sometimes, until it’s echoed out loud, you don’t always know how it actually lands. That’s when I realised that this process is something I want to build into all my writing going forward. Whether it’s a play, a poem, or even a novel - I want to hear it read aloud, even if it’s just by friends or colleagues around a table. That act of hearing is how stories start to breathe.
That’s what Echoes in Draft is all about: it’s in the name. It’s about the drafts we’re working on, and the echoes that happen when those words are spoken aloud. The resonance. The discoveries. The cracks. The magic. And then I thought - if this has helped me so deeply, surely it could help other artists too. That’s when the seed for Echoes in Draft was planted. What if we took one part of the process - the humble table read - and gave it its own space to grow? What if we centred the draft, not the final product?
This program was created for emerging playwrights like myself, who deserve the space to experiment and evolve. To be seen not only when the work is polished, but also when it’s still becoming. Still raw. Still figuring itself out - and I think that’s where growth happens.
It’s been an incredible journey. Through the writing development day, the drafts, the readings - I’ve gotten to know the writers not just through their words, but through their ways of working. We all come from very different backgrounds and interests, but we’ve built something together. Something honest. Something held with care.
The works you’ll hear today - The Stranger, Here For You, A study in Occultery, The Pitch, and we are blooming. - come from amazing writers. They are shaped by immense heart and held by a brilliant creative team.
So, we invite you into our space this evening. There may be a few misread lines or missed cues - and that’s okay. That’s part of what Echoes in Draft stands for: process, challenge, discovery. Much of the magic happened in quiet writing hours, as well as in group writing sessions and feedback, and in generous collaborations. These stories continue to teach us, and we continue to learn from them.
Lastly, I want to say - I believe in collaboration over competition. In building safe creative spaces rooted in care, truth-telling, and joy - especially for emerging artists. We know the barriers. We’ve lived them. This is one small way we begin to break them.
To the incredible collaborators - Bri, Rachel, Patrick, Jean, Oli, Anna, Rali, Sean, Taonga, and Donna - thank you for guiding this process with generosity, talent, and love. And to the City of Fremantle and the 10 Nights in Port team - thank you for helping bring this dream to life, and for believing in us.
And to you, our audience - thank you for being here. For choosing to witness something that’s still becoming. You’re not just watching a reading - you’re helping shape a future. Our future.
With love, gratitude, and hope for what’s still to come, Mohammed ‘Ayo Busari’.
Creative Team & Collaborators
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Mohammed ‘Ayo Busari’
Creative Producer, Curator & Playwright
Mohammed ‘Ayo Busari’ (he/him) is a Nigerian-born, award-winning Creative Producer, Curator, and Interdisplinary Artist based in Boorloo (Perth). He creates immersive, poetic, interdisciplinary theatre works blending theatre, spoken word, music, and movement. Ayo is the founder of blue joy theatre co and co-founder of The Outsiders, known for An Evening of African Poetry & Storytelling and Our Stories, Our Motherland. He is also co-frontman of TAB Family, winners of the 2025 FRINGE WORLD Music & Musicals Award. Ayo works as Communications & Marketing Coordinator at The Blue Room Theatre and serves on the boards of WAYTCo and Regional Arts WA.
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Briannah Davis
Producer
Briannah is a producer, dancer and choreographer currently based in Boorloo. Since graduating WAAPA (Bachelor of Arts Dance Honours, 2018), she has been a self-producing contemporary dance artist and theatre producer for independent productions working with Co3 Contemporary Dance Company (Co3), The Blue Room Theatre (TBRT), Propel Youth Arts, STRUT Dance, Benjamin Quirk, blue joy theatre co, Georgi Ivers, Noemie Huttner-Koros, stop drop + roll theatre, Squid Vicious & Renegade Productions.
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Rachel Adams
Director
Rachel is a 2025 ThisGen Directing Fellow with Encounter Theatre. Through this program she has interned with Black Swan Theatre Company, working under Kate Champion on Never Have I Ever. She is a graduate of the Bachelor of Performing Arts (Performance Making - First Class Honours) at WAAPA. During her time there, Rachel has devised/directed the TILT shows Imelda (**4-time PAWAA 2025 nominee), was assistant director on the productions The Arsonists (dir. Melissa Cantwell) and The Day the Sky Fell Down (dir. Renee Newman). Rachel also travelled to Singapore in 2023 to study NOH Theatre at the Intercultural Theatre Institute.
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Anna Quercia-Thomas
Playwright
Anna Quercia-Thomas is an award-winning Hispanic American writer and academic based in Boorloo. Their poetry and speculative fiction has appeared widely national and international publications. Anna’s play “Still here, still talking,” produced by the Writers Collective, was part of the 2025 Summer Nights season at the Blue Room Theatre. They work as a dramaturg, most recently for an ongoing development of “A Magical Guide to Fighting Fascism” by Asha Cluer, which had a showing at the Blue Room Theatre in 2024, and on the 2024 Sydney-based production of “All Boys” by Xavier Hazard.
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Oliver Hughes
Playwright & Performer
Oliver Hughes is a proud Ballardong Noongar award-winning actor and writer from Perth. Having just graduated from WAAPA in the Bachelor of Performing Arts, Oliver is an energetic and in demand emerging talent. His training began at John Curtin College of the Arts in the specialist drama program then furthered in the Aboriginal Performance course at WAAPA (graduating in 2021), before completing his Bachelors in WAAPA’s Performance Making (graduating in 2024). His performance credits include work with Yirra Yaakin, Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, WAYTCO and has recently premiered his own work Out for the Count at The BlueRoom Theatre.
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Patrick Kankanange Gunasekera
Playwright & Performer
Patrick Kankanange Gunasekera (he/him) is a Sri Lankan-Australian independent artist, producer, and cultural safety mentor, based on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar. He practices in theatre, dance, music and writing, and his work often subverts western art canons with queer, disabled, and brown contexts of community care, collaboration and resilience. As an actor, dancer, pianist, and singer his performance practices revel in the dynamic embodiments of marginalised people. His collaborative, creative leadership and teaching practices are drawn from his background in peer education, and centres bodily autonomy, emotional safety, and non-hierarchical facilitation.
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Jean Riki
Playwright & Performer
Jean has a background in short fiction and poetry publication. She started writing theatre and screenplays over 10 years ago as a hobby. She has worked in so-called Australia and London on independent productions. In 2024 when she lived in Gadigal / Sydney she produced and directed independent theatre. She staged a two night run in Surry Hills at the Tom Mann Theatre of a series of monologues. As a teenager to the present day she has been an avid theatre lover who enjoys the magic of the dark transformed to light by story, acting and stage design.
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Rali Maynard
Performer
Rali Maynard is a proud Palawa/Trawlwooway woman and graduate from the Diploma of Acting at WAAPA in 2024. Outside of WAAPA Rali has been in a variety of shows including ‘Democracy Repair Services’ directed by Andrew Sutherland’ and ‘The Comprehensive A-Z of Missing Persons Australia’ directed by Amelia Burke for WAYTCO. She is looking forward to making these staged readings come to life!
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Sean Mudariki
Performer
Sean Larry Mudariki is a Perth‑based theatre‑maker and third‑year WAAPA student. His work includes the award‑winning Dance After Death, the one‑man show Playing Ashley at Subiaco Arts Centre, and performances in Frontier Generator, Matters Out of Space, and Katzenmusik, reflecting his commitment to dynamic, character‑driven storytelling on stage.
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Taonga Sendama
Performer
Taonga is a spoken word performer and multimedia storyteller who champions explorations of vulnerability and intersections of identity. She was previously a participant of The Blue Room Theatre’s ‘Assembly’ program (2019) led by Zal Kanga-Parabia. She has collaborated with sound artists as part of ‘Symbiosis’ hosted by Tenth Music Initiative, and alongside Perth musician Jack Davies. Most recently, she featured as part of the Boorloo Heritage Festival at The Blue Room Theatre with a hybrid monologue that explored migration and connection.
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Donna Hughes
Writing Mentor
Donna Hughes is an award-winning playwright based in Fremantle, Western Australia. Her plays have been developed through Playwriting Australia, The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Australian Plays Transform’s National development program. Her play for teenagers, Disconnected, is published by Australian Plays Transform. Trackers, was the recipient of an Australian Writers Guild award (AWGIE) in 2021 and is published by Currency Press. Trackers has been performed by schools around Australia and is currently shortlisted for the WA Premier book awards. Donna is a member of Black Swan State Theatre Company’s emerging writers’ program.
