Behind Stages: NATUH hadir di Jakarta! - Part 1

Hi! Kembali lagi dengan cerita di balik panggung. Hari ini pengen banget cerita bagaimana akhirnya kami - Flying Balloons Puppet - bisa hadir di Jakarta minggu lalu. Entry blog ini akan saya bagi menjadi 3 bagian, semoga betah ya bacanya dan menunggu kelanjutan cerita ini.

Nggak saya bayangin sebelumnya, NATUH bisa kami bawakan di Galeri Indonesia Kaya, Grand Indonesia West Mall, Jakarta. Tepatnya pada tanggal 25 Maret 2018, perjuangan berlatih dan mengeksplorasi kemungkinan - kemungkinan dari pertunjukan ini terbayar dengan energi positif yang diberikan oleh penonton. Ini adalah pengalaman pertama saya fully sebagai Pimpinan Produksi sebuah pertunjukan teater boneka. Latar belakang pendidikan politik dan terjunnya saya ke dunia pertunjukan cukup membingungkan. Tapi, kecintaan saya pada seni sudah ada sejak saya kecil. Seperti yang selalu saya percaya bahwa ada jalan - jalan yang akhirnya kita ambil untuk menghidupkan kembali mimpi masa kecil saya, bergelut di dunia kreatif.

NATUH hadir di Jakarta, perjalanan ini di mulai jauh sebelum kami memutuskan untuk memberanikan diri mendaftarkan proposal pertunjukan NATUH ke Ruang Kreatif Seni Pertunjukan. Pada bagian ini saya akan cerita tentang lahirnya NATUH sebagai sebuah pertunjukan teater boneka.

NATUH pertama kali dipentaskan pada Pesta Boneka #5 yang diadakan oleh Papermoon Puppet Theatre 2 tahun yang lalu, tepatnya bulan Desember 2016. Kami ingin menampilkan pertunjukan yang bercerita tentang alam, namun cukup lama kami tidak menentukan konsep seperti apa yang akan kami bawakan untuk Pesta Boneka. Suatu hari Rangga bercerita pada saya dan anggota kami yang lain, tentang mimpinya membagikan bibit tanaman kepada setiap orang yang lewat di hadapannya. It was like his Aha! Moment. Dan kami pun setuju dengan ide Rangga. Saat itu kami beranggotakan lima orang termasuk saya dan Rangga, serta dua teman kami Maisarah dari Malaysia dan Nano adik kelas Rangga. Jujur sih, saya lupa proses di Pesta Boneka ini karena di saat yang bersamaan saya juga bekerja dan mengerjakan tugas akhir saya. Banyak pikiran bertumpuk.

Namun yang paling saya ingat dari proses ini adalah, keegoisan saya yang berujung pada bentuk boneka yang sama sekali tidak menguntungkan di atas panggung. Tidak ada volumenya sama sekali. Pertunjukan berjalan apa adanya, bahkan bisa dibilang sangat jauh dari apa yang sekarang teman - teman lihat saat di Galeri Indonesia Kaya. Meskipun kami mendapatkan energi yang baik dari Pesta Boneka, namun kami menyia-nyiakan kesempatan baik yang dibuka untuk kami. Pesta Boneka punya cerita sendiri bagi perjalanan kami sebagai grup teater boneka. Setelah Pesta Boneka berakhir, kami mendapatkan evaluasi dari Papermoon mengenai pertunjukan kami. Di saat bersamaan juga, kami dapat kesempatan untuk menampilkan NATUH pada acara yang diadakan oleh Institut Francais d’Indonesie bernama La Nuit des Idees or The Night of Ideas. Tawaran ini diberikan oleh Christine Moerman yang saat itu adalah Direktur IFI Yogyakarta, serta oleh Monsieur Christian Gaujac, attache kebudayaan Perancis yang saya wawancarai untuk tugas akhir saya.

Kesempatan ini kami jadikan sebagai batu loncatan untuk pertunjukan NATUH. Kami ingin berusaha lebih dan kami yakin ada hal - hal yang masih bisa dikembangkan melalui pertunjukan ini. Mengawali tahun, kami mementaskan untuk kedua kalinya NATUH di Auditorium IFI Yogyakarta pada bulan Januari 2017. Pertunjukan berjalan cukup baik, lebih baik malah dibandingkan saat pertama kali kami pentaskan di Pesta Boneka. Banyak hal yang kami kembangkan dan perbaiki serta elemen yang ditambahkan. Bentuk boneka jadi berubah signifikan hingga kami menemukan nama untuk masing - masing tokoh dalam NATUH. Mereka adalah Tok Bomoh, Taran, dan Tala, serta Luta sang penjaga keseimbangan kehidupan di NATUH.

Ada beberapa catatan yang harus saya ingat setiap memulai dan terlibat dalam sebuah pertunjukan. Take a deep breath and let go. Melepas ego dan menerima hal yang baik yang datang dengan bijaksana.

Sampai jumpa di cerita selanjutnya ya!

Cheers,

M

Travel Diary - Barcelona: 3 days 2 nights

Hola Todos!

I would like to share about my short trip in Barcelona. My flight back was on 31st January 2016. I went to barcelona on 27th January by train from Castellon de la Plana. I said goodbye to Ianthe, because she was also getting back to Belgium on that day. For anyone who wonder about Spain long distance and short distance train, I could make another post dedicated on how to commute from one place to another place in Spain.

The memorable part of the journey was our luggage. Like, seriously. We need to brought our luggage back and forth, get on and get off from one metro to another. I actually did not really bring too many stuff when I went to Spain, but when I got home, I filled my medium suitcase with gifts and souvenirs for my family and friends. My own belongings only in one cabin suitcase and one backpack! [check my packing adventure post here]

We stayed in an affordable airbnb accommodation. For a room of 3 people, we only paid around 60 euros for 3 days stay. The place is neat and clean and the owner is really friendly even though we went to the wrong floor when we first get there. I was glad that after an early morning train, jump from one metro to another one, grabbing our dear luggage, we could rest our body to a comfy bed. After took a rest and took a shower in a communal bathroom, we headed to the city center! Yeaah!

It was right the time of Rebajas! So, we went shopping! I bought several souvenirs from local shop, not to mention another postcards for me to collect and for people I knew. Rebajas is actually a time when discount held in almost every stores all around Spain for approximately three months. You will get super cheap Pull and Bear tees [I bought some for my family, cost around 1 euro for 1 tee! Can’t you imagine!]. Most of the items that is on sale is the last season items. But it is okay since in Indonesia, we only had two seasons, wet and dry, all the clothes fit all year round.

There is two things that stand out the most during my trip in Barcelona. First, Kebab Alhamdulillah, it is a MUST TRY. I said, a must try! I am so in love with foods from this restaurant. The places is always packed and the food is in huge portion. It is another restaurant that makes me wants to go back to Barcelona. The price is affordable and the service is quite good. If you are super hangry, you will find this place a safe haven. Second one is the city. Barcelona is known for super blocks, where city divided into bigger blocks where it allows more priority to people and pedestrian within the super blocks. Because the blocks, it is easy to getting to know the city, you know it is hard or I don’t know maybe it does not exist in Indonesia [correct me if you know more about city planning in Indonesia]. The atmosphere is nice, like Castellon but more crowded.

I should definitely going to back to Spain someday, and I could go to any other stores and places I wish to see when I am there for example such as Montjuic, La Playa, and Gothic Quarter, also going back to Park Guell and Sagrada Familia. There are several things I need to reconsider everytime I travel, less stuff to brings is way better. You can explore more when you less worry about the things you bring with you. See you in another post about my old travel story!

Cheers

M

Behind the Stages: Numb between my toes as I cannot help you no more

Courtesy: Nurul Fatimah

The curtain closed, Sunday was the last day of My Friend Has Come to be performed in Jogja Contemporary. It was magically sad and devastating actually. Like,  As the world turns so incredibly fast, there is no time for people to reach out. 

When you feel left out, no one would care.If you feel lonely, it is inevitable. The world has no interest in your life and misery. It will go round as it should be, whether you are alive or not.

But, do you know when exactly you die or dead? Do you feel it? It is like the life of persimmon tree. You keep guessing if it dies or not because it is still standing whether it dies or lives. I think that how "Me" questioning the persimmon tree or how "Me" and "My Friend" debating about a seed of persimmon tree they found on tatami are like human questioning the future.

I saw from the performance and conclude that someone hands mean so much for other who try to reach out and speak their hearts out. But, it is too late for them. "Me" cannot hold "My Friend"'s hands or drag him out of his own solitude. When "My Friend" cried a little, pull himself together, and start riding his bicycle away from "Me". He felt it is the time to say goodbye. When "Me" comeback with a glass of barley tea, he found out that "My Friend" is no longer there. No one in the room but him and empty photos of his own face. Goodbye is always difficult. I cried inside but no more tears falling out if my eyes. Only regret like what "Me" felt most of the time. 

As I reflect to the script itself, I always wondering how Toshiro Suzue-san could write a beautiful story that we could connect with. It is absolutely different from how Japanese and Indonesian felt about the issue, but like it or not each one of us would ended up on that stage. The technology that develop too fast, of course, give us the side effect. We become more and more ignorant. 

During I translated the script, I always imagined how it happened. How each scene overlapping one another. How the sound of cicadas played softly but intensely emerged on the set. But, when the script was played on the stage there are more factors need to be consider such as director, actor, time and space, even the budget of the performance need to be calculated and whether you like it or not will influence the performance itself. But, I knew for sure that Mas Enx, Rangga, and Anwar always gave their best to performed this script and the performance was brilliant. I have to admit that, Rangga and Anwar finally could control themselves and "be" the characters. Even though they found the inside of each character on the last minute, but I am proud of what they bring to the set. 

All I could give is a standing ovation for Mas Enx, Rangga, Anwar, and all the team that made it happen. To all the audiences that were coming and enjoying the moment with us. To audiences that gave us their honest opinion and share their writings about the performance, it was an honour and we believe that are more things to come. 

For me, a stranger that accidentally jump and dive in into theatre, performance is not only about people who do the work behind and on the stage, but all of elements that give their energy to experience and share the stories. 

I am looking forward to see a great and positive circle of people on another great chance.

Regards,
M

Personal: I start bullet journaling to welcome 2018!

Yaaaassss!

I prepare this entry to welcome 2018!

New Year

New Adventure

Thank you to merciful God for all the blessings, healths, and gifts I had in 2017. Without it, I doubt I could face today's sunlight in the new year. There are more journey and experiences to explore. There are people that I want to meet. And of course there are goals I want to achieve every year. 

The goals and tasks need to done properly in this new beginning and I choose bullet journal to guide my way!

I have been checking all those wonderful bullet journal on the internet and I want to have one! So, yeah I plan to start my bullet journal starting this year, 2018. Time of revival! I know, too many exclamation sign will means nothing. But, I am super excited!

There are a lot of plans and works I need to do this year and I think I am ready to take the organization of my life into the next level (read:journal). I have been start writing weekly starting on October. I want to make it a habits actually, because you know all the way there must be a time when even to crawl out of the bed is hard to do. I have gathering supplies as well for my bullet journal. And here it is!

I bought it customized from my friend, she has handmade notebook business named Palka Kreatif, you should check on it. Mine is around 150,000 rupiahs and for the pen I just use all pens I could find gather round my place. Nothing fancy really. The size of my bullet journal is A6, quite small compare to original bullet journal by Leuchtturm 1917 which is also expensive for me. The price is approximately 400,000 rupiah, can you imagine it is the same amount of my lunch budget each month. I know for sure that, I would probably too afraid to use it or even make a terrible mistakes on it. 

This is my bullet journal. Pretty neat, isn't it? Finally setting up my life for 2018 in advance. 

As you can see, the inside of this bullet journal is like midori traveling journal so I could fill in more notebooks inside and change it while it is already full. So, I think it is a good investment for me to start this year. The notebook inside is plain, so I decide to cover it with origami paper my friend's bought for me after travelling to Japan. It fits well, and even more personalized. I love it! I think the quality of leather and paper of this journal is good. I will custom another fill with thicker paper so I could use my watercolor in it. Yeay! So, bullet journal is one of goal I will have in 2018. But, to make it more new year vibes entry, I will list down below my 2018 goals.

2018 goals

Yoga and other physical exercise twice a week at least

Read 52 books a year

Savings for future travel adventure

Write 5 blog entries at least each month

Bring Flying Balloons Puppet to be one of performance group in Indonesia

Bullet journaling

Pray 

Take a deep breath before starting anything

Learn Spanish and Japanese again

Finding and seizing opportunity to study again

Be a humble individual

Be more patient

I actually put some of these goals on my bullet journal. I hope everyone of you have a great and amazing year ahead. Let us embrace a new year with a big dream and lot of hard work.

Cheers!

Behind The Stages: Pertemuan dengan Temanku

Pertemuan dengan Temanku adalah judul yang tepat untuk memulai tulisan ini. Setelah sekian lama tidak menulis dalam bahasa Indonesia di blog ini, akhirnya tulisan curhat kecil tentang pengalaman menerjemahkan teks teater berhasil mendobrak kebiasaan saya. Sebenarnya menulis dengan bahasa Inggris menjadi salah satu metode saya untuk belajar bahasa Inggris, yah, walaupun mungkin masih ada saja grammar yang tidak tepat, tapi usaha kecil juga pasti berdampak pada diri, bukan.

Bukan suatu hal yang asing ketika akhirnya Rangga berada pada titik ia harus menyelesaikan studinya, dan saya dengan senang hati membantu. Bantuan pertama yang bisa saya berikan adalah menerjemahkan teks yang akan dia gunakan dalam pertunjukan tugas akhirnya. Judul naskah asli yang akan digunakan untuk pertunjukan tugas akhirnya adalah Tomodachi ga kita, sebuah naskah Jepang, tapi saya tidak begitu mahir dalam bahasa Jepang, jadi kami memilih menerjemahkan teks bahasa Inggrisnya dengan judul My Friend Has Come terjemahan James Yaegashi, seorang aktor Amerika keturunan Jepang. Penulis naskah ini adalah Toshiro Suzue-san yang dengan sangat ramah menyambut permintaan saya untuk menerjemahkan naskah beliau. 

Awalnya sangat susah mencari sumber informasi mengenai beliau dan naskahnya dalam bahasa Indonesia, bahkan dalam bahasa Inggris. Karena sampai saat ini, baru naskah Kunang - Kunang yang telah diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia. Dengan bantuan teman saya bernama Yoko, saya berhasil menemukan website resmi Toshiro Suzue-san. Tanpa ragu dan bahasa Jepang seadanya, saya menghubungi beliau melalui email. Mungkin ini adalah jalan semesta, niat baik saya untuk menghubungi beliau disambut hangat, bahkan beliau bersedia menjawab pertanyaan saya seputar naskah tersebut.

Saya sebelumnya pernah menerjemahkan naskah Monolog untuk Rangga yang kita ambil dari film Bronson, dengan mengutip bagian - bagian dialog dari film, kami menyusun naskah monolog tersebut. Selain itu, disaat yang bersamaan juga saya menerjemahkan naskah Hellen Keller untuk tugas akhir Lala. Namun, menjadi tantangan tersendiri bagi saya menerjemahkan naskah ini. Naskah ini terdiri dari sembilan adegan, atau sekitar 30-an halaman. Bercerita tentang tokoh Aku, di suatu siang saat Musim Panas. Latar tempat adalah ruang tengah tokoh Aku yang menghadap ke halaman belakang. Saya harus membaca teks dalam bahasa Inggrisnya berulang - ulang, meski kata - kata yang digunakan cukup sederhana, namun Toshiro Suzue-san sangat detail menuliskan setiap laku yang dimainkan oleh tokoh. Bahkan ketika pertama kali menyelesaikan membaca naskah ini, saya merasa terpukul dan seperti ada beban yang menghantam dada saya. Benar, bahkan untuk memberikan pertolongan pun sudah tidak sempat. Ini pengalaman pertama saya membaca naskah teater dan dibuat menangis.

Naskah selesai dalam waktu kurang lebih 2 bulan. Setelah selesai, saya memberikan keleluasaan bagi Rangga untuk menyesuaikan kata dan kalimat yang ada di dalamnya. Karena tidak mudah memilih kata yang tepat untuk mewakili sebuah ide dari bahasa yang bukan bahasa Ibu kita. I feel so honored bisa menyelesaikan naskah ini dan memberikannya kepada Suzue-san. Saya merasa banyak sekali keajaiban di tahun 2017 ini. Akan ada cerita lanjutan tentang pengalaman ini di blog, I will not tell the story here, it will be a surprise. If you wonder how it turns out on stage, please do come and feel the moment.

Silahkan datang menemani kami membicarakan hidup sebuah pohon kesemek di halaman belakang sambil menikmati segelas teh barley dingin.

Info tentang pertunjukan silahkan klik di sini: bit.ly/2AYfUmC