Theater group touches lives of rural children

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.