For many creatives, the idea of starting a theatre company is a pipedream or an unattainable goal. For multidisciplinary artist Ayo Busari, creating his theatre company blue joy came almost out of necessity.
At the start of 2025, Ayo was the recipient of grant funding to produce his first solo works under a single program. He quickly realised he needed an entity under which to develop the program, New Beginnings.
“We had our first creative development in May last year, it was a test program, an experiment.”
The success of the program prompted Ayo to think about expanding blue joy into something beyond his own work. “People have a lot of stuff they want to put out there, but they don’t have a place to produce it. Some theatre companies are very niche, and if you don’t fit into any of those, you really have nowhere to go.”
Inspired by a new mission to fill “as many gaps” as possible, Ayo set his sights on developing blue joy theatre company into something bigger than himself. This meant bringing on other artists and creatives to support the company’s growth.
Ayo Busari Artistic Director & Creative Producer.
Fellow theatre maker Anja Starkiss joined the team, initially engaged to produce Better Late Than Never and the next edition of New Beginnings, both coming to Fringe World this month.
“From doing both of those projects together, we realised we work well together. Ayo has gotten a lot of interest from people wanting to put on works with blue joy in 2026. He needed somebody to support the delivery of that program, and that’s where I came in to help.”
Kicking off their 2026 program is better late than never, which Ayo describes as the company’s first “proper production” following a series of developments. Exploring younger onset dementia, Ayo says he initially wrote the work to examine the relationship between three best friends, from childhood into young adulthood.
Anja Starkiss Program & Production Coordinator.
Anja adds that the show has an extra layer of depth. “It goes further than a love triangle exploration and looks at the complexity of friendships, especially the ones you make when you’re young. With younger onset dementia, your earliest memories are often the last to go, so there’s something powerful about those early friendships being the ones you remember, and how those people show up and support you.”
Since its initial development, better late than never has expanded from a 15-minute piece into a full-length work, with an almost entirely new team. “It has pretty much a completely different team, apart from Ayo and our lead actor, Nathan. One of the things Ayo has said he values with blue joy is working with a different team each time, so each new artist can be exposed to different processes and ideas.”
better late, than never Campaign Shoot – Image by Mohammed ‘Ayo Busari’.
New Beginnings 2026 is the company’s other Fringe offering, directed by Ayo and Shelby McKenzie, who are melding their interdisciplinary backgrounds and styles to guide a showcase of four unique works.
Anja explains that the focus of New Beginnings is cross-cultural collaboration on devised works between BIPOC and non-BIPOC artists. “The four projects we’ve ended up with examine ideas of identity. You can see the way the artists are embracing culture while also interrogating it.”
The program also brings together artists of varying ages and levels of experience within Perth’s creative community. “When we get them all in a room to talk about their ideas, they’re exposed to so many different visions, and there’s a wide range of experience to draw from. We’ve also been really lucky to pair all of these artists with mentors, helping to form new communities.”
This collaborative approach extends beyond their first productions of the year and into blue joy’s broader ethos, with collaboration and “uplifting underrepresented voices” at its core. “We’re looking at ways we can make art accessible and inclusive for a wide range of communities,” says Anja.
New Beginnings’26 – Image by Mohammed ‘Ayo Busari’
As part of this initiative, the team has established an artist advisory group of 14 diverse early-career artists to help inform blue joy’s programming, industry approach and efforts to break down artistic silos.
Another key focus for the company is artist development. “We want to create spaces where people can share and learn,” Anja explains. “You jump into the world as an artist, and as soon as you start making things you realise there are so many things you don’t know. We’re trying to fill those knowledge gaps.”
For Ayo, collaboration also means working alongside other emerging companies. “A lot of big theatre companies do co-productions. Why are smaller companies not doing the same? I think we need to do more together as emerging companies, pool our resources and our brains, because there’s so much we can do.”
It’s the beginning of an exciting journey for Ayo, Anja and blue joy theatre company, and they’re keen to bring you along with them. Check out blue joy theatre company here.
New Beginnings 2026 is on at Subiaco Arts Centre for one night only Friday Feb 6. better late than never is on at Subiaco Arts Centre 29 Jan-31 Jan.