Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 15:52:13 +0100
Subject: AW: PUPT: Re: The Latest in Balinese Wayang


This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--Boundary_(ID_ZKanlvKab1GrhjAIzjA26Q)


  Dear friends,

  I cannot tell you how much fun it is to work with Made SIdia and his

  creativity.

  We are doing this Wayang Kontemporer to take into the schools, banjars and
put

  on TV which talks about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I believe I"ve
already

  described it. But let me describe what happens in the show! Unbelievable.

  First the screen is 3 meters long. No blancong, damar or any kind of

  lights. THe

  only light source comes from the projector which is projected power point

  images.

  Sidia is sitting perhaps 2-3 meters back from the screen. On a skateboard.

  Five other dalangs plus two little kids (mini dalangs) are closer to the

  screen. The five adults are all on skateboards.

  I kid you not. THe musicians are scattered around: two l6 keyed genders

  (played by Gusti Sudarta and Made SUbandi), 3 flutes, a plethora of gongs

  and bells, two kendang, one tabla and a keyboard

  (Andy McGraw can write about the music as he's one of the musicians).

  Those of you familiar with Larry Reed's work will recognize some of the

  tecniques altho

  there's no additional lighting, only the light from the projector.

  When they performed at the PUra Dalem in Bona, they hadn't raised the

  screen high enough so all the dalangs had to keep lowering their heads.

  Sidia was smacking them with the kayon and the flute player was hitting

  them with his suling as they whizzed by.

  Sira, Sidia's brother has made a number of new puppets for this show out
of

  (oh no, you're not going to like this) plastic. But they move beautifully,

  are quite flexible and are cheap. He's done some

  great stuff with double puppets, like an old woman who turns into a witch

  but it's one puppet with two dimensions and the dalang simply flips her

  back and forth to get the different images. A man on a giant bicycle

  chased by a monkey, a crocodile (that's made out of old Aqua boxes), a

  lovely flamingo, a tiger (he's the pride and joy) and a number of other

  animals. You'll just have to come and see for yourself. Or bring them

  over to your country!

  So here's Sidia, sitting in the back holding one, sometimes two puppets,

  speaking for sometimes up to seven puppets on the screen, being
manipulated

  by someone else (not a mean feat!). The best scenes from backstage are

  when the demons are paraded and go from stage left to right and the
dalangs

  are pedalling their skateboards so they get a smooth run for the puppets.

  Seeing all five of them at once doing this and not colliding with one

  another is just "too cool". We watched the video outtakes this morning

  and the stuff from backstage was awesome: Sidia, the actual kayon, the

  shadow kayon and loads of fluffy clouds bubbling up on the screen (as

  projected images). It's very exciting stuff for us folks down here in the

  village. The villagers watching the shoot were fascinated by it; in fact

  the old grandpas stayed to watch us do the second and third shoots. It's

  the skateboards.

  We hope to eventually make a version (digitalized) with English subtitles

  (we're working on the INdonesian subtitles now) which will be made

  available outside Indonesia and then proceeds will go to assisting artists

  in Bali survive (school scholarship funds for their children perhaps? I

  don't know, we need ideas so please send them to me privately). If any of

  you have access to video distributing outside, would you contact me

  privately please? That would help us with getting funding to do it

  actually.



  Next performance: l2 December, Kuta. At the new beach road by the Padma

  Hotel. Around

  8 pm (there will also be a Barongsai, Bondresan with Pak Kodi and friends,

  Batuan Ethnik Fusion,

  all women's joged (yup, musicians as well).

  Woman who wants to be on wheels,

  Bu Ru

--Boundary_(ID_ZKanlvKab1GrhjAIzjA26Q)

HTML VERSION:

Dear friends,

I cannot tell you how much fun it is to work with Made SIdia and his

creativity.

We are doing this Wayang Kontemporer to take into the schools, banjars and put

on TV which talks about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I believe I"ve already

described it. But let me describe what happens in the show! Unbelievable.

First the screen is 3 meters long. No blancong, damar or any kind of

lights. THe

only light source comes from the projector which is projected power point

images.

Sidia is sitting perhaps 2-3 meters back from the screen. On a skateboard.

Five other dalangs plus two little kids (mini dalangs) are closer to the

screen. The five adults are all on skateboards.

I kid you not. THe musicians are scattered around: two l6 keyed genders

(played by Gusti Sudarta and Made SUbandi), 3 flutes, a plethora of gongs

and bells, two kendang, one tabla and a keyboard

(Andy McGraw can write about the music as he's one of the musicians).

Those of you familiar with Larry Reed's work will recognize some of the

tecniques altho

there's no additional lighting, only the light from the projector.

When they performed at the PUra Dalem in Bona, they hadn't raised the

screen high enough so all the dalangs had to keep lowering their heads.

Sidia was smacking them with the kayon and the flute player was hitting

them with his suling as they whizzed by.

Sira, Sidia's brother has made a number of new puppets for this show out of

(oh no, you're not going to like this) plastic. But they move beautifully,

are quite flexible and are cheap. He's done some

great stuff with double puppets, like an old woman who turns into a witch

but it's one puppet with two dimensions and the dalang simply flips her

back and forth to get the different images. A man on a giant bicycle

chased by a monkey, a crocodile (that's made out of old Aqua boxes), a

lovely flamingo, a tiger (he's the pride and joy) and a number of other

animals. You'll just have to come and see for yourself. Or bring them

over to your country!

So here's Sidia, sitting in the back holding one, sometimes two puppets,

speaking for sometimes up to seven puppets on the screen, being manipulated

by someone else (not a mean feat!). The best scenes from backstage are

when the demons are paraded and go from stage left to right and the dalangs

are pedalling their skateboards so they get a smooth run for the puppets.

Seeing all five of them at once doing this and not colliding with one

another is just "too cool". We watched the video outtakes this morning

and the stuff from backstage was awesome: Sidia, the actual kayon, the

shadow kayon and loads of fluffy clouds bubbling up on the screen (as

projected images). It's very exciting stuff for us folks down here in the

village. The villagers watching the shoot were fascinated by it; in fact

the old grandpas stayed to watch us do the second and third shoots. It's

the skateboards.

We hope to eventually make a version (digitalized) with English subtitles

(we're working on the INdonesian subtitles now) which will be made

available outside Indonesia and then proceeds will go to assisting artists

in Bali survive (school scholarship funds for their children perhaps? I

don't know, we need ideas so please send them to me privately). If any of

you have access to video distributing outside, would you contact me

privately please? That would help us with getting funding to do it

actually.

 

Next performance: l2 December, Kuta. At the new beach road by the Padma

Hotel. Around

8 pm (there will also be a Barongsai, Bondresan with Pak Kodi and friends,

Batuan Ethnik Fusion,

all women's joged (yup, musicians as well).

Woman who wants to be on wheels,

Bu Ru