Cynthia Troup

Cynthia Troup
writer

Cynthia Troup is a founding member of Aphids; a writer, editor and researcher, her publications include essays, articles, and interviews in the fields of contemporary art and music. 2011 saw the publication of A Site of Convergence: Celebrating 10 Years of the Monash University Prato Centre, the result of collaboration with photomedia artist Jo-Anne Duggan.

Cynthia's script Care Instructions was honed for its opening season at Melbourne’s La Mama theatre in 2008 through creative development with Margaret Cameron at Melbourne’s Malthouse and La Mama theatres. In July 2009 Care Instructions was seen in a second Melbourne season at the Malthouse Tower Theatre. Also in July 2009 Aphids published Care Instructions: Script for Single or Multiple Voice (foreword by Alison Croggon) as a limited edition, in collaboration with letterpress artist Carolyn Fraser at Idlewild Press. Care Instructions toured to the Transit VI Festival at Odin Theatre, Holstebro (Denmark) in August 2009.

Care Instructions builds on the collaborative approach taken to A Quarreling Pair; directed by Margaret Cameron, performed by Sarah Kriegler and Caroline Lee, A Quarreling Pair: A Triptych of Small Puppet Plays was first presented by Aphids and the Melbourne International Arts Festival in association with La Mama in 2004. In 2006 it was part of the Malthouse Tower Theatre program, and in 2007 it toured as part of the Castlemaine State Festival. The triptych comprises Jane Bowles’ A Quarreling Pair (1945 or 1946), Mr Peterson’s Milk (2003) by Lally Katz, and Cynthia’s And When They Were Good (2003). In 2009, following a personal invitation from Artistic Director Ellen Stewart, the production toured to La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in NYC; reviewer Philipa Wehle described 'the Aphids triptych' as 'beautifully written, masterfully performed, and skillfully staged'. In 2011 the work toured to Rome as part of the Festival dei Mondi at the Teatro Patologico.

The piece Val Camonica—An Excavation is an example of Cynthia’s non-fiction lecture/performance work; this was written for the project Val Camonica Pieces (May 2007), presented by Aphids in association with Libra Ensemble as part of the Victorian Arts Centre’s inaugural Full Tilt season. For more information click here.

Cynthia was a contributing writer for Barbara Campbell’s durational, online performance project 1001 nights cast from August 2005. The short story ‘Trifle’, first written for that project, has been published in the international anthology of women writers Nuestra Voz, Notre Voix, Our Voice (Salta: Editorial Biblioteca de Textos Universitarios). Cynthia’s reflective essay on 1001 nights cast, titled ‘Weightlessly home, safe’, can be read here.

Cynthia has held writer’s residencies at Queen’s College Tower Studio (Melbourne, 2003), at Les Bains::Connective (Brussels, 2004), and at Bundanon (Southern NSW, 2007). She is a committee member of Melbourne PEN, and a full member of the Society of Editors (Victoria).