Theater group touches lives of rural children

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

At the beginning and end of the show Cerita dari Kampung Anak Wayang (Stories from Puppet Children Village), the children say in harmony: "Greetings of friendship, love and peace."

The recent two-hour performance by children from the Indonesian Puppet Children Theater at the Indonesian-French Institute (LIP) in Yogyakarta transported the audience back to their childhoods.

The children's theater group, which recently left to the Netherlands to perform for two weeks at the Mondial Festival in Tilburg until June 16, brought a peaceful village atmosphere to the stage.

In the performance, village children gather at night, playing and learning together in front of their houses. They play traditional games like Jepungan, Jamuran, Jathilan and Jaelangkung. There's also happy moments when the children take baths in the river, play around with ducks or tease one another.

Theatrically presented, the various children's games, now rarely found as most children prefer watching TV or playing video games, were quite interesting to watch.

Despite the simplicity, the unique features of the children's games are obvious, as they bring happiness and togetherness among the children.

Take Jamuran, for example. In this game, the children form a circle and then dance and sing together. At the center of the circle a child serves as the mascot. He will be replaced if he successfully teases one of his friends. In short, this game provides children with happiness, jokes and friendship.

Other games, like Jepungan and Jaelangkung, teach children to be brave and creative.

"From this community of shadow puppet children, we wish to give an example that it is now time to build villages as basic centers for children's education. Today's reality is that villages have been made mere objects by the upper class," said Gembong Sigit Nugrahanto, director of the Indonesian Puppet Children Theater.

Every time political parties begin an election campaign, he said, village people became objects of contention among the parties.

"The activities of the Indonesian Puppet Children Theater are expected to promote education and culture from a very early age."

The Indonesian Puppet Children Theater is a non-profit organization set up in Yogyakarta on Nov. 10, 1998, by a number of youths concerned by the moral and cultural decadence of the country, as well as the country's political and economic problems.

Through artistic activities, the theater group expected to develop and promote the values of friendship, love and peace.

In the past four years, these children have performed about 12 plays in several cities.

And their performances at the festival in the Netherlands will mark the children's first shows abroad.

The art mission is supported by 11 elementary and junior high school children, plus four assistants. Apart from their shows at the festival, the children are also scheduled to perform at a number of local elementary schools there, presenting subjects like theater, traditional games and pantomime.