The ICN (Indonesian Cultural Night) production this time bypasses mythical folklore and historical tales and takes just a few steps back to a more contemporary time in the 70s; the culture, clothes and customs reflect a time when Indonesia was starting to be influenced by western mores and the protagonists must make difficult choices about staying on to live in the capital city or go back home
| SHOW CREDITS Producer Jason Jovi Brata Artistic Directors Billy Muliorahardjo Andrea Adriana Prawono Main Actors Richard Fernando Joanna Chen Sharon Tjipto Santoso Hartawan Surya Santoso Stephen Edbert Ardi Syahda Ahmad Hakim Margaretha Exaudi Siahaan Script & Lyrics Muhammad Rafi Adzikra Sujai Music Directors & Composers Gerren Owen Limantara Rachel Evelyn Nathaniel Teopilus Vanness Valentino |
JASON Jovi (pictured left) is the producer of the latest musical production (in English) to be staged by the student group of Indonesians at Nanyang Technological University (PINTU). The cast and crew come from diverse backgrounds from all over Indonesia and many are from the engineering and business faculties but their yearly productions are polished with a professional-like sheen that attracts hundreds, if not thousands to support their annual productions.
And as expected these productions always touch on various aspects of Indonesian life and cultural heritage. But this year is a little different. Jason, who has already graduated with an engineering degree, says “Of course, many Indonesians including those in the diaspora and students here will not miss seeing the story’s allegory to their own situation in coming to Singapore and whether they will stay here or go back home.”
Push and pull factors, the relationships and attractions (and distractions) of the city play to sets, music and fashion of the Seventies – all brought to life with original script, music, lyrics and choreography created and performed by the 150-member cast and crew who call themselves the Committee for the play titled Kaharsa which means finding joy in living our passion in Sanskrit.
“We actually started planning this production at the beginning of 2023 with the script and much research from the cultural side, whether it be the sets, the costumes, the music and how people behaved in that era; then throughout August to December our Committee members have done many rehearsals to prepare for the presentation itself on 3rd February 2024 at the National Library Drama Centre Theatre,” said Jason.
Challenges
The biggest challenges said Jason was that “We are a community of Indonesian NTU students so most of our practices, rehearsals and events or any other activities related to Kaharsa have to be done around our academic schedules and each ICN we have many uni students who have no prior background in performing or have been part of a musical performance. So we need to come together as a community to overcome this by learning and practicing these new theatre skills from more experienced members for us to be able to present a coherent story and structure in the performance that is also entertaining. At the core of what we want to share is how Indonesian culture used to be back in our home country but as we are young we had to do much research for the 70s period.”
This is Jason’s third time participating in an ICN production (he dealt with props and sets in the past productions) and the NTU engineering graduate expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the show and shared with anyone who is going to see the show in February that Kaharsa will make its mark as being different from past productions, “We are trying to make this performance into not just a traditional cultural showcase but also more relatable to a modern society. That mix of tradition and modern is something new that was not seen so much in past productions that audiences can look forward to watching.”
For the full synopsis of the musical visit: https://show.icnmusical.com/
Kaharsa Note: Follow IndoConnect website and Social Media pages as IndoConnect brings regular updates on the latest information and behind-the-scenes news on ICN 2024
Venue: Drama Centre Theater
National Library Building Level 3
100 Victoria Street Singapore 188064
Date: 3rd February 2024
Shows: Matinee 2 pm – 4.45 pm
Night 7 pm – 9.45 pm
Tickets: https://show.icnmusical.com/store
Sneak Peeks at First Rehearsal
