Children exposed to puppet show in Wayang Week

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Still clad in their uniforms, a number of elementary school students attentively watched the stage as a puppeteer told an entertaining story about the adventures of Si Kancil (Deer Mouse).

The children became quiet when a tiger tried to capture the smart little deer mouse, burst into laughter when Kancil cleverly managed to escape the tiger's trap and clapped their hands when the deer mouse finally outwitted his stronger foe.

"I like the story...," Ayu of SDN Cilangkap 03 elementary school in East Jakarta told The Jakarta Post after the puppet show, better known as wayang, ended.

When asked whether she was bored watching the hour-long show, she said: "No... it's very funny."

The performance on Tuesday, staged at Gedung Pewayangan Kautaman in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta, was only one of the activities scheduled for the seventh Wayang Indonesia Week '99. The event, which will run until Aug. 14, was officially opened by President B.J. Habibie at the State Palace on Sunday.

Various activities -- ranging from exhibitions, an international wayang festival, discussions and performances -- are scheduled for the event, which is organized by the Secretariat of Indonesian Wayang once every five years. This year's festival has as its theme The Development of Wayang in the 20th Century Entering the Third Millennium.

Each day's program, including the puppet performances, begin at around 10 a.m. However, on Tuesday there were very few people in the audience enjoying the show.

The organizing committee's financier, Sarosa Sosrodiprojo, said few people attended morning performances because they had to work.

"But there are plenty of visitors coming at night to watch the performances," he told the Post, adding it was financially impossible to have the event only at night to attract enough visitors. Evening performances usually end around 4 a.m.

He also blamed the low attendance on the lack of publicity, saying most of the advertisements for the festival were targeted at younger people, who were expected to come and develop their interest in wayang.

"We realize that most, maybe 90 percent, of puppet show fans are from the older generations, but we're expecting younger people to come too so they can appreciate the shows," Sarosa said.

In order to reach its targeted younger audience, the organizer is inviting school students to the festival and holding introduction programs to acquaint the children with wayang.

"We invite students to watch the performances so they are at least able to see, get in touch with and learn about wayang at an early age, so they can develop their interest when they grown up," Sarosa said. "And who knows, they might end up fans..."

Due to limited funds, however, the organizer is currently only able to invite school students from East Jakarta. Sarosa declined to say how much money was used to finance the event.

School students are the core of the audience for the festival, packing the building for a puppet show by a troupe from Singapore, comprising four students from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Presenting a story based on a famous 14th century novel, Journey to the West, the performers managed to make the children laugh with their fight scenes and funny accents, although the children did not understand a single word of the show, staged in English and Chinese.

According to the director of the academy's School of Performing Arts, Chua Soo Pong, it is important to introduce puppet shows, which he referred to as a dying art, to children.

"We go to around 80 schools a year to introduce puppet shows to children," he said. "By raising the children's interest, they will appreciate their own cultural heritage more."

There are around six to seven puppet shows, from both local and international troupes, scheduled each day of the festival, which each show lasting from between one to seven hours.

Noted local puppeteers include Ki Manteb Sudharsono and Ki Anom Suroto of Surakarta, Ki Ida Bagus Sutiksa of Bali and Ki Asep S. Sunarya of West Java. Foreign puppeteers include Gregorea Davidson, Mike Burns and Helen Pausuckers of Australia; Sandra Philips of Canada; Sarah Bilby of England; Kathy Foley, Marc Hoffman and Tamara Fielding of the United States; and Matthew Cohen of the Netherlands.

A seminar featuring international speakers was organized on Wednesday, taking Traditional Arts Facing the Challenge of Globalization as its main topic of discussion.

Another highlight of the event is the exhibition in Gedung Pewayangan Kautaman's auditorium, presenting various types of puppets, both local and international. Some of the puppets on display are on loan from private collections and palaces, including the palaces in Yogyakarta and Surakarta.