Wayang Bocor Goes to United States

Wayang Bocor Goes to United States

Wayang Bocor Process – Part 1

Songs and Forms Exploration

September 2016

On September, Wayang Bocor team started the process of a new work that will be specially presented for Asia Society in New York, USA. The script is titled “In the Name of Semelah” by Gunawan Maryanto, who also acts as the director for this performance. “Semelah” is the Javanese pronunciation of the Arabic word “Bismillah”. Semelah becomes a symbol of a strong acculturation between Javanese culture and Islamic teachings that live in harmony. For Muslims, bismillah means “in the name of God (Allah)”, a prayer that is said every day before starting activities. Muslims believe that by saying bismillah, their daily lives will always get blessings from God.

In its previous works, Wayang Bocor tends to present performances in dialogues. However, in this new work, Wayang Bocor tries to do an exploration in the forms of visual, body movement, and songs to present a more universal language and more easily accepted by broader audience. This new style of performance requires Wayang Bocor team to be more creative in their exploration.

The team’s early process is doing an exploration of the scenes and music/songs, as well as on how body movement can be a symbol for meaning. In the meantime, the team also explores how javanese-islamic music and songs reference can be strongly presented. This early exploration is the first step for the next step, which is artistic and visual exploration of wayang by contemporary artist Eko Nugroho as the initiator of idea and visual maker.

Photo by Gogor Seta Dewa