Wintachui

HERE I TELL YOU WHAT IS WAYANG?

An extraordinary evening featuring the Royal Holloway, University of London Sundanese Gamelan Ensemble, celebrating the music of Indonesia and the Javanese shadow puppet tradition of Wayang kulit will be held on Wednesday 25 January in the College's Picture Gallery.

Wayang kulit, or shadow puppet theatre, is an ancient form of Javenese art dating back more than 1000 years. The puppets are made of brightly painted buffalo hide and are manipulated by a solo puppeteer in front of a lamp, so that they cast shadows on a white cotton screen. As one of the world's most sophisticated forms of dramatic storytelling, Wayang kulit combines the themes of ancient mythical gods with nobles, heroes, clowns and demons and ogres with the realities of today. The show is a tale of the perils of coeducation and cohabitation set in ancient Java.


Puppeteer and Senior lecturer in the Drama and Theatre Department, Matthew Isaac Cohen is one of the very few non-Indonesians to regularly perform Wayang kulit in both English and Javanese. He will be performing with a Gamelan musical ensemble under the direction of Simon Cook and Dr Henry Stobart. Simon Cook has taught Gamelan at Royal Holloway since 1999. Matthew Isaac Cohen has a certificate in puppetry from Ganasidi, Indonesia's national puppetry association, and has studied puppetry at the conservatory Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia Surakarta between 1988 and 1991.


"Wayang kulit is a multi-dimensional art that is simultaneously classical and popular. Its combination of rough humour, high theatrics, Islamic philosophizing, light music and social dancing appeal to a broad spectrum of people," says Matthew Isaac Cohen.
The drama is accompanied by the percussive, interlocking tones of the Gamelan, a form of Indonesian traditional music. Each Gamelan is slightly different from the other; however, they all have the same organization, which is based on different instrumental groups with specific orchestral functions. The instruments in a Gamelan are composed of sets of tuned bronze gongs, gong-chimes, metallophones, drums, one or more flute, bowed and plucked string instruments, and sometimes singers. The most popular forms of this music can be found in Java and Bali.
HERE I TELL YOU WHAT IS WAYANG?

hello............
I am Dwinta Fitrianty from Indonesia.I am a Student of senior high School nuimber 17 Palembang,SUMSEL,Indonesia.Its pleasure for me if i have a lot friend, so i join opera.

I am now 3th grade.its not too long for me to go to The Dream University.......

Oh god please bless me to take medical science for my major.