Children exposed to puppet show in Wayang Week

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.