A NEW theatre and community engagement project at Natimuk aims to bring the art of bamboo building back to the town.
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Y Space's Jillian Pearce is behind the project Styckx Theatre, which she said was really three concepts in one.
"It has a long history, starting from 2006 when my company Y Space commissioned another company Bambuco to design a bamboo structure," she said.
"We wanted a structure that we could build ourselves, and build repeatedly so we could tour with it."
The structure is 35-metres long, 25-metres wide and 16-metres high and includes a story of Mr Styckx, a bamboo being, that lives there.
Ms Pearce said the structure had been built three times in the past, but not since 2008.
"It's all about playing with bamboo and making theatre out of bamboo," she said.
"We have now combined forces with the Nati Frinj and we want to re-introduce the skills of bamboo building into Natimuk through Styckx Theatre." As part of the 2019 Nati Frinj festival, there will be workshops around bamboo building.
There will also be three 'playground' performances during the festival.
"The philosophy of Y Space is always to encourage people to play a role in the production and
performance of the theatre works," Ms Pearce said.
"Working alongside the professionals, people can learn aerial theatre performance, bamboo construction techniques, bamboo instrument making and music composition."
Ms Pearce said the series of community workshops would be presented leading up to the Styckx Theatre playground performances.
The Styckx Theatre project is also looking for funding to cover the cost of the bamboo.
"We have a crowd-funding campaign going and every dollar helps towards the bigger project," Ms Pearce said.
"We need money for the bamboo - we need about $10,000 and anything we get is greatly appreciated."
Ms Pearce said people could donate online at https://australianculturalfund.org.au/projects/styckx-theatre/
Ms Pearce said the program from the 2019 Nati Frinj festival would be released this month. The festival will run from November 1 to 3.
Ms Pearce said Natimuk had a long history with bamboo.
Arts company Bambuco was previously based in the town. The company built bamboo installations and took them to Europe and Asia.
"Back in the early 2000s there was an incredible culture of building bamboo out of Natimuk," Ms Pearce said.
"At the time there was a skilled workforce in Natimuk around bamboo building."
Bambuco director Simon Barley died in 2007 and the company went into hiatus.