'Awesome' action kids venture into opera
'Awesome' action kids venture into opera
By Parvathi Nayar Narayan
JAKARTA (JP): What happens to relationships when you move to a
new country? When you and the friends you leave behind,
inevitably grow in different ways and make new friends? Is there
a common bond that will unite you? How do you cope with jealousy,
dislocation and feeling out of place?
These are some of the surprising questions explored by the
opera Choosing Between Two. Surprising because this original
opera was written, composed and staged entirely by children from
the third grade of South Jakarta's Pattimura School, which is
part of the Jakarta International School. It is not that strange,
really, that the questions tackled by these children have such
adult resonances. After all, most problems are so universal; it
is only the context and perspective that vary.
The story is simple, and starts in Canada where Lisa (Anna
Ogawa) and Chrystal (Chelsea Theridault), inseparable best
friends, are celebrating the Christmas spirit along with
Chrystal's brother Daniel (Eric Segreti). Lisa has to leave
because her parents move to Indonesia. Soon, her two friends come
to visit her there.
To Chrystal's dismay, Lisa now has a new "best friend" Jill
(Stephanie Saundh). Jill in turn feels threatened by this
invasion from Lisa's past. Lisa is pulled in two directions and
level headed Daniel is uncertain how to cope. There is
unhappiness all around until the girls' natural friendliness
asserts itself. With some help from Roald Dahl -- a shared love
for his books -- everyone is reunited in friendship.
The opera, staged on Thursday evening, was created within The
Creating Original Opera Program, by the Metropolitan Opera
Education Guild from New York. The teachers training was
sponsored by the Office of Overseas Schools. It is a specially
devised process whereby the trained teachers act as facilitators
for the 40 children involved in the program.
Through an extensive process of brainstorming, group
discussion and group consensus, the essential plot is derived.
With the third graders this year at Pattimura, the theme actually
evolved from personal experiences, and the problem of dislocation
that many had experienced.
The children decided to call themselves the Awesome Action
Kids Opera Company. Then came the division of labor. Everything
was produced from scratch, including wiring and building stage
lights, hammering together two flats and a drop that constituted
the backdrops, and painting these. Apart from all this physical
activity, others were busy hammering away at a script, composing
music and assembling props.
Interestingly, there was even a Public Relations Department,
that created specially designed T-shirts for the opera company,
and sent out invitations. Practice for the half hour long
production started in January.
"It was so rewarding because it combined all their classroom
skills and the arts," said Wrensen, one of the facilitators.
The result was a thoroughly charming and entertaining
performance. It had obviously been carefully thought out, with
great care paid to detail in all aspects -- from character
delineation to painting backdrops. The Indonesian backdrop for
instance, was a window with a little gecko crouched on it,
framing an exterior view of a bajay (three-wheeled motorized
vehicle) and coconut trees. This love and attention to detail is
uniquely the vision of a child.
In today's world of cutthroat competition, it is reassuring
that idealism has some place, for the production was a result of
team effort rather than competitive activity. Not to say, though,
that along the way they did not learn useful lessons about
professionalism and survival. The children learned to accept
deadlines and keep to them, solve problems using their own
initiative, and deal with the unexpected.
For example, in the performance I noticed that the forks
needed to eat noodles in a scene were misplaced. But the
performers, after the briefest of hiccups, took it in their
stride and scooped the food with their hands instead.
No matter at what level, education should be more than a
process of memorizing dates and totting up numbers. There are
incredible opportunities available today, such as those offered
by The Creating Original Opera Program, and it would be short
sighted not to exploit these to their full potential. Educators
are uniquely positioned to combine theoretical and formal studies
with creative, non-linear and experimental forms of learning to
equip today's children with a larger understanding of life and
the world we all live in.