'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.