Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

INTERMINGLING OF CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY85artists and the viewing public. Other venues are availablein the main town center, such as the Wayang Museum,which features ketoprak performances, comical skitssimilar to the vaudeville, and wayang wong/wayangorang for free. Shows which have been sponsored bypoliticians even provide packed meals to their audience.Although government support can be found in thesetting up of institutions and cultural centers for theformal study and documentation of the theater formssuch as the wayang kulit, the communities’ unwaveringinterest in the production and performance of livedances, musical ensembles and dance dramas marksthe city’s collective action to preserve and developtheir traditional theater form. Aside from traditionalperformances, innovations by wayang artists who havebeen trained in the traditional mode are plenty. Theseartists are very open to sharing their experiments withother artists in the community as a way of enrichingand validating their artistic craft.Towards a repository of people’s theater memoryTheater documentation has been shaped by the role oftheater and theater artists. Thai society has been keenabout using theater to maintain the royal hierarchy;critical views about Thai society from contemporaryartists have resulted in the development of alternativetheater forms as a reaction to the state-definedtraditional forms. In Central Java, colonial historyhas taught lessons on the value of a well-maintainedculture. With the decline of monarchic rule, the artistshave realized the potent role of culture in preserving apeople’s identity. The transformation of courtly dancesand performances into people’s art has realized the roleof culture in shaping a people’s identity.The lack of a systematic theater documentation andtheater resource center among theater artists with a richtheater practice seemed unlikely at first. However, afterlooking at the theater practices of artists in Thailandand Indonesia, it was quite understandable not to findone. Theater practice is indeed a live endeavor andmost theater artists create to address pressing issuesof the time with very little concern about the need tosave the experience for posterity. The idea of leaving amark among the audience is achieved when an excellentperformance is appreciated by the audience. The idea ofpreserving is done through the continuous creation ofexcellent community theater experiences which remainin the hearts of the people. Theater documentation isthe creation of a repository of people’s theater memorywhere the continuity of traditional theater practices andthe discontinuity of tradition through innovations incontemporary theater forms are compiled through theprocess of critical interpretation and re-interpretation.The theater artists’ propensity for adaptation andinnovation of theater forms to suit the particular needsof the time and intent has defined an aesthetic quality ofAsian theater. Improvisation as a key quality for artisticcreation has created a demand for artists to identify theanatomy of their artistic creation as part of the requisitesof theater documentation.The artists’ continuous efforts towards artistic excellenceTheater artists’ untiring efforts to achieve the best artisticendeavors motivate them to monitor their work, conductresearch, rehearse, identify areas for improvement andraise their practice to a theoretical level. The artists layclaim to an intangible process through the act of criticalinterpretation by sifting through their experiences andpassing on the lessons of their craft to the next generation.Through personal diaries, rehearsal videos and informalsharing sessions with co-artists and experience papers,the pursuit for artistic excellence has been put to thefore as an important requisite in marking an importantartistic contribution. The artists’ continuous clamorfor audiences to validate their work highlights theirconscious recognition of the audience’s role in creatinga people’s theater memory. The audience’s validationof an excellent artistic experience offered by the artistillustrates the audience’s critical participation in creatingmarkers of artistic excellence.Institutionalizing community engagement in creatingmarkers of artistic excellenceCommunity engagement in creating markers ofexcellence may vary from simple attendance ofperformances and direct feedback expressed by clappingand comments after each performance to formalsessions of criticism and evaluation and publication ofreviews and academic papers by the artists’ themselvesor by scholars and critics who have been trained todocument live creative processes of artists. Schools maybe considered one of the best repositories of a people’stheater memory. Training is one of the artists’ best meansof marking artistic experiences as theater artists are ableto note down their experiences, not only through booksand articles but most especially through the success ofsucceeding generations who take on their role as artistsand bearers of the cultural heritage that they have triedto enrich. Aside from schools, other social institutionshave been mobilized in creating repositories of theatermemory. Museums, libraries, and urban planners canbe engaged in collecting artifacts and innovating ways ofpreserving artifacts using local materials and technology.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows