Female theater workers demand recognition in history books

Evi Mariani The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Many Indonesians recognize the names of stage prima donnas like Fifi Young, Miss Tjitjih, Miss Ribut and Miss Dja Dardanella.

Theater news and documents also mention names like Ratna Sarumpaet, Ratna Riantiarno, Sari Madjid and Tuti Maliyati as actresses, directors or playwrights.

So, what is the problem with women in the theater actually? Aren't the days where women were banned from the stage over? What's the fuss?

"For Indonesian women, the history of Indonesian drama/theater is a long journey that is hollow, silent and mute. There is no data about women's roles on the theater stage," Ratna Sarumpaet, the chairwoman of Jakarta Arts Council, said in the opening of the four-day Gathering of Women on Indonesia's Theater Stage.

Sarumpaet said that as a playwright and director, she did not get the justified recognition in history books.

"During 12 years of my theater work in which I wrote eight plays, several books on theater history were published. But my existence as a playwright, director or even an actress was never mentioned," she added.

Ratna, who wrote "Marsinah: The Song from the Underworld", later insisted that author Jakob Soemardjo, a writer of several theater history books, who became one of the speakers at the gathering, to recognize women in his next books.

Some other women like Ratna Riantiarno, who were at the gathering concurred.

After amiably trying to defend his lack of recognition in his previous books he written, Jakob finally relented.

"Ok, ok, I have unpaid dues to Ibu Ratna," he admitted, chuckling.

Ratna said that she only wanted to have proportional recognition in the history books.

"We have Fifi Young, Tuti Indra Malaon, Sylvia Nainggolan, Lena Simanjuntak, Ratna Riantiarno, Cok Sawitri and more," she said. "Who are they really? What was their role? We need to know."

The gathering, which began on Aug. 2 and concludes on Aug. 6, offered seminars and workshops as well as plays directed or written by women.

The Jakarta Arts Council invited about 160 women from the theater world across the archipelago to join the seminars and workshops.

They came from Padang, Makassar, Surabaya, Palembang, Banda Aceh and several other cities to meet at Taman Ismail Marzuki in Central Jakarta.

Ratna said that such an event was a kind of affirmative action to give women a chance to have greater contribution to Indonesian theater.

She acknowledged that Indonesia had a very limited number of women playwrights.

Previously, the council organized a workshop on writing plays, and that resulted in 99 submitted plays, of which three were named the best.

Four of the plays were staged during the gathering and the best three were published in a book that was scheduled to be launched on Saturday.

Although not directly related, the meeting was a part of preliminary process ahead of the 7th Women's Playwright International Conference that is planned to be held in Jakarta next year.

The conference will assemble about 300 women playwrights from all over the world.