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.