Bundanon

Cymbeline Buhler King has worked as a theatre artist for thirty years, creating original work and participatory art experiences with professional and community collaborators. Cymbeline’s work has shown internationally, receiving awards from the Liverpool International Theatre Festival (Canada) and from the Yakumo International Theatre Festival (Japan), and the SER Foundation (Switzerland). She has held Artistic Director positions at Backbone Youth Arts in Brisbane and Western Edge Youth Arts in Melbourne. She founded `Theatre of Friendship’ in 2006, an ongoing peace-building theatre project in Sri Lanka.

Cymbeline holds a PhD in social sciences, which investigated peacebuilding in Sri Lanka using participatory and performing arts. She is currently a Research Officer with the Challenging Racism Project, investigating environmental and psychological factors that support or threaten voluntary intergroup contact. Her current research is a collaboration with Riverside Theatres, investigating the role of drama educators in facilitating young people to make high quality original theatre.

In Residence at Bundanon

I will use this residency to advance a junior fiction novel called Short Cut Home. The story is about Van and Vya, who are ten-year-old twins. On their way to a wedding, there is a wild storm with upwards lightening. The twins become separated from their family, stumbling into a parallel reality, inhabited by giants. They spend the rest of the story trying to find their way home and in the process, untangling the mystery of parallel realities.

During my Bundanon residency, I will do structural work on the novel using the Snowflake Method to refine the story structure and more effectively layer the core elements of plot, character and world-building. I will also use Ursula Le Guin’s instruction manual `Steering the Craft’ to refine clunky parts of the story.