Teen students have fun with theater

Teen students have fun with theater

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Director and founder of Teater Koma group, N. Riantiarno, now has
a clear idea of what it is like to deal with hundreds of junior
high school students.

For the past six months or so, Teater Koma along with
organizer [ki:] communication have been holding a special
workshop on the theater, in a program called Karya Kita, Teater
Kita (Our Creation, Our Theater) for the students.

The program -- ironically sponsored by cigarette producer
Sampoerna -- is aimed at increasing arts appreciation among
teenagers. They were also given the opportunity to create their
own plays and perform at the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta in Central
Jakarta.

The program started in Jakarta and will continue in other
cities.

As a pilot project, two junior high schools were picked: SLTPN
19 and SLTPN 37, both are public schools located in South Jakarta
that do not have theater as an extracurricular activity.

"Some 100 students from each school signed up for the program.
We brought them together at the Bulungan youth center in South
Jakarta, where we performed a short play. Afterwards, we had
discussions about the theater," said Riantiarno, popularly known
as Nano.

From that point, the adventure began for Nano and his group.

"The students sure had lots of energy! They just couldn't sit
still, and I wasn't sure if they listened to what we said as they
kept talking while we briefed them," Nano said.

The lack of discipline continued even after reducing the
number of students to 98, with some absentees.

For SLTPN 19 located on Jl. Bumi in the heart of elite
Kebayoran Baru, which has many wealthy kids -- the program was
interrupted by the students' many activities from Spanish lessons
to choir practice to holidays abroad.

In contrast, students from SLTPN 37, located in suburban, less
wealthy Cilandak, showed more effort and a willingness to work,
perhaps due to their background as they are a bit more limited in
the range of activities they can afford.

Regardless of background, both groups tested the patients of
the instructors.

"It was a bit of a headache. But later on, however, the
students were stricter than us," laughed Nano.

Dara Larasati, the group leader of the SLTPN 19 students, said
it took her a lot of effort to organize her friends.

"If we were not strict, they wouldn't be serious... They
talked with each other when they were supposed to be rehearsing
and sent SMS messages," said the student at the last year of the
junior high school.

Ari Sutamti, who directed her classmates from SLTPN 37, even
vetoed Nano's choice of a leading actor as the student was often
absent.

Although Nano and his group taught them a lot of skills,
spanning acting, management, lighting and much more, they let the
students do most everything themselves.

"They chose their own directors, actors and managers because
they knew more about their friends than we did. It turned out
that their choices were very accurate.

"We underestimated their capabilities at first but, God, they
were amazing. They created the music, the story, the set,
everything. We only assisted them. And look at the results, isn't
it amazing?" Nano said.

It was indeed surprising to see the performances of the two
groups last week. In the musicals, the performances were very
clean, and flowed smoothly and the acting was natural and often
sparked laughter.

The plots, however, were a bit like well-worn cliches.

It was interesting, though, to see how the different socio-
economic backgrounds seemed to influence each of their themes.

SLTPN 19 opted for a classic urban situation: A rich kid with
fighting with parents, and later on the kid takes refuge in
drugs. As for SLTPN 37, they portrayed vendors in a traditional
market who were fighting a local hoodlum. Although the actors had
some minor glitches with their lines, the students managed to
portray their respective settings accurately.

According to actress Ratna Riantiarno, Nano's wife and Teater
Koma's manager, the adults made a deliberate effort not to
interfere with the content of the story.

"We don't really think about the quality of the story. The
important thing is they learn more about theater work. The
theater is not merely acting, there are many other aspects to
make it work," she said.

But everyone seemed to be happy with the performances. All of
the students said it was a great experience and they wanted to be
involved again.

Students from other schools who watched the performances asked
a lot of questions after the show, and also asked Teater Koma to
do the same program in their schools.

Parents praised the performances and the schools' headmasters
said they would maintain the program at their schools.

Nano was happy too, as he and the rest of the group received a
gift from the students of SLTP 19.

"Take a look at this," he said, shaking his head and smiling,
as he showed off his new Italian leather belt.