Development Presentation: Freedom

Creative Artist

Mohammed “Ayo Busari” (he/him) is a Nigerian-born, award-winning interdisciplinary artist, Creative Producer, composer, and writer based in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia. A defining voice in the state’s performing arts sector, his work spans theatre, music, poetry, and immersive live performance exploring belonging, migration, identity, and joy. He is co-frontman of TAB Family, recognised with the 2025 FRINGE WORLD Award for Music & Musicals and R&B/Funk/Soul Act of the Year at the WAM Awards, alongside a nomination for Electronic Producer of the Year. His solo practice fuses spoken word, movement, and live sound, with his forthcoming EP Joy & Balloons exploring Afro-fusion, EDM, and house. Ayo is the founder of Mobus Entertainment and Blue Joy Theatre Co, co-founder of The Outsiders, and currently serves at The Blue Room Theatre while sitting on the boards of Regional Arts WA and WA Youth Theatre Company.

Creative Artist

Shelby McKenzie (she/they) is a performer, director, and movement artist who graduated with First Class Honours from WAAPA’s Bachelor of Performing Arts (Honours) in 2022. Their published thesis Moments in Performance; developing an aid for articulation and reflection examines embodiment in live theatre and reflects their research-led practice. Shelby builds character through movement methodologies including Laban Movement Analysis and Bogart’s Viewpoints, developing extensive physiological understandings of character to support an outside-in approach to performance. A bilingual/bimodal artist studying Auslan, they are committed to inclusive and accessible theatre-making that broadens pathways for performers and audiences alike. Recent credits include Il Trovatore with West Australian Opera at His Majesty’s Theatre and The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer.

Creative Artist

Prince Attwood (they/him) is a theatre maker and musician who’s currently undertaking their third year of Performance Making at WAAPA. Becca’s current practice experiments with intertwining music, poetry, and movement to tackle themes surrounding queer identity, colonialism and belonging. Their most recent work, “BLOOP BLOOP” [Lead Creative/Composer/Performer] was developed as a part of Bluejoy Theatre Company’s New Beginnings program for Perth Fringe 2026. More recent works include: “Echolocation” [Music Director/Sound Designer/Performer], “Generator: Precipice” [Music Director/Composer/Devisor], “Confessional” [Performer], and “Stand and Deliver” [Performer]. Becca is excited to be playing live alongside Ayo after working together on “Home Frequencies: E Káàbo” for Melville Contemporary 2025.

Creative Artist

Tao Issaro (he/him) is an Indian/Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound designer and performance maker based in Boorloo, WA. As a composer/sound designer in Australia, Tao has worked for Encounter Theatre, Monkey Brain Theatre, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company, Tura New Music and Ochre Contemporary Dance Company, to name a few. Tao was nominated for 2 PAWA 2024 awards for outstanding composition and sound design for his work on Encounter Theatre's Beneath The Music. As a performer, he is currently working with Sensorium Theatre, providing bespoke sensory theatrical experiences for neurodiverse children in schools across Perth.

Creative Artist

Oliver Hughes (he/him) is a proud, award-winning, Noongar actor and writer from Perth. He began training at John Curtin College of the Arts and continued onto WAAPA in the Aboriginal Performance course (graduating 2021), followed by the Bachelor in Performance Making (graduating 2024). His credits include work with Yirra Yaakin in Ngalaka Daa (2018-2021) and Panawathi Girl (2022). Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in Wundabaa Gaay-Guwaali (2022), Hare Brain (2024), The Murmuration of Lost Birds (2024) and Reach For The Sky (2025). Other credits include Out For The Count (2025), ASK (2024), Salted Pretzels (2023)(PAWAA Nomination), BESIDE (2021).

Creative Artist

Jess Nyanda Naanod Moyle is a musician, theatre maker and writer based in Naarm. They graduated from Theatre Arts from Curtin University in Perth and once led Boorloo’s best dark-country-gay-emo-pub-rock -nostalgia band Jocelyn’s Baby. Performance credits: Crisis Actor (Vidya Rajan) Little Women (Mel & Sal Productions) Cephalopod (Squid Vicious). Sound design credits: A Doll’s House Part 2. (Red Ryder Productions) Salted Pretzels (APK Productions) small & cute oh no! (Squid Vicious). They really enjoy playing pub footy with their beloved East Brunswick Eye Gougers, writing sappy, Sapphic poetry in secrecy and watching long play Sims 3 YouTube videos.

Creative Artist

Sudanese-Australian poet, playwright and human rights advocate, Afeif Ismail writes powerfully about exile, identity, migration and hope.

Writing in both Arabic and English, his work has been published and performed internationally, giving voice to experiences of displacement while celebrating the resilience of the human spirit.