Indonesian @ Chicago, Midwest Region dan sekitarnya: 17 NOV - Javanese Shadow Puppet Wayang Kulit

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

17 NOV - Javanese Shadow Puppet Wayang Kulit

Wayang Kulit
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Family Matinee • 2:00 p.m. • $5
Evening Performance • 5:00 p.m. • $7
Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637. Click for direction

With guest artists Joko Sutrisno and Midiyanto

Wayang Kulit is an Indonesian art form in which two-dimensional painted leather puppets are made to cast shadows onto a screen lit from behind. The flat puppets of wayang kulit are beautifully gilded and painted, and in any single show there may be dozens of them representing gods, kings, warriors, hermits, ogres, and clowns. All are manipulated by one puppeteer, who sits behind the screen and supplies voices for all the different characters. Javanese wayang kulit is accompanied by gamelan, traditional Indonesian music which incorporates an ensemble of "hammered" metal percussion, drums, strings, bamboo flutes, and vocals.

On the program is the story of Bima and Dewa Ruci which comes from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. The Mahabharata has been adapted over centuries to the Indonesian context. While the stories are essentially old and predictable to the audience, a significant part of what the puppeteer does is to adapt them creatively to political and cultural events happening in the present day.

Sponsored by: University of Chicago Department of Music, Arts Planning Council, Friends of the Gamelan, Inc., Hyde Park Union Church, and Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, Chicago.

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