The Arts

Activity 1: Wayang puppets and performance

In this activity, students will:

• view images of wayang puppets
• investigate the performance and design of the puppet theatre
• create a physical or digital poster of wayang puppets.

Key inquiry question: What are the various elements of wayang puppet theatre?

About wayang shadow puppet theatre

1. Read the notes to the class about the wayang shadow puppet theatre (below).
2. Ask students make notes about what they already knew and what information was new and interesting. Ask students share their notes with another student.
3. Ask students to examine the images of different wayang puppets.
4. Ask students develop a physical or digital journal or poster with the names of the puppets.
5. Show the video, The Wayang Puppet Theatre:

6. Ask students to describe what they found out about the puppet theatre.
7. Have the whole class design 12 questions that explore aspects of wayang puppet theatre, including puppets, performance and design.
8. Divide students into groups of four and find the answers to three of the questions.
9. Students share their group's answers with the rest of the class and discuss what they liked best about the puppet theatre.

Activity 2: Performing and producing a wayang play

In this activity, students will:

• learn how to develop characters
• write and perform a play.

Key inquiry question: How do you create and perform a wayang play using the appropriate dramatic conventions and design elements?

Create and perform a play

1. In groups, have students read the wayang play (below), Cicakand Kancil. Cicak is a lizard and Kancil is a smart, sly mouse deer.
2. Follow this by having them explore the interactive digital object Indonesian Online: Wayang kulit. You need to login to Scootle to access this resource.
3. A puppet master, dalang, is then nominated. The dalang will conduct the puppet show and designate other jobs to the group members. This could include characters, musicians, prop makers, a storywriter or light controller.
4. In groups, students decide what their play is going to be about. This could be a story from the Ramayana. In this case students will have to write their own script. Or they could choose the traditional tale Cicak and Kancil. Each member of the group and their character should have a speaking part.
5. Developing characters:
   • Guide students in developing an appropriate voice for their character that is recognisable by the audience.
   • 'Bad' characters should speak slowly in a deep voice and should be accompanied by deep, slow music whenever they appear in the production.
   • 'Good' characters have a higher pitched voice and are accompanied by music that is faster and lighter.
   • Both characters are exaggerations or stereotypes of 'good' and 'bad'.
   • A single voice or a chorus of voices can be used to produce the accompanying music.
6. Rehearse the production repeatedly so that the group can acquaint themselves with the script, timing of their entrances and exits, the interactions with other characters and their movements and gestures.
7. Rehearse the music accompaniment and how it can make the story more impactful for the audience.
8. As a group, students should share their ideas with the rest of the class and explain the decisions they made to create a dramatic puppet production. Have the class suggest ideas for improvement.
9. Develop a design for the theatre stage, props and audience area. The most important area is the screen and the light that shines behind the screen. The size of the puppets is controlled by how close and far they are from the light. The further away they are, the less detail the audience will see.
10. Construct the props, stage, lighting, audience areas and music.

Activity 3: Designing a wayang puppet

In this activity, students will:

• learn about the design and decoration of wayang puppets
• make their own puppets
• perform a play. 

Key inquiry question: How are wayang kulit and wayang golek puppets made and used in a performance?

Make a puppet

Students make wayang puppets according to the instructions below. Ask them to decide whether they will make a wayang kulit or wayang golek puppet and choose the appropriate instructions.

Wayang kulit puppets

Materials

• heavy duty cardboard
• gold, black, white, red paint
• scissors and/or paper knives
• textas for outlining
• something to punch holes through the card, for example, hammer and nail on a block of wood if supervised, or a large eye blunted needle, or a sewing machine with a large needle
• wayang kulit templates.

Procedure

1. Trace puppet outline using the template.
2. Use it as a stencil on a piece of cardboard to cut out a sturdy version.
3. Mark in major lines using a felt pen.
4. Punch holes along all lines to create dimension within the shadow.
5. Colour both sides of the puppet. Pay attention to the face colour.
6. Make arm segments and join using wing clips.
7. Attach arm segments to the body using wing clips.
8. Attach pieces of dowling rod or other stick-like objects to the hands to manipulate the arms.
9. Attach a thicker piece of dowling rod or long ruler to the length of the puppet body with sufficient length at the bottom to hold the puppet comfortably so the hand is out of sight during the performance.

Wayang golek puppet

Materials

Procedure

Body: Paint the milk cartons gold, ensuring complete coverage.

Arms:

1. Paint sheet of A4 paper gold, ensuring complete coverage.
2. When the sheet is dry, cut it in half and roll diagonally round each pencil. Glue the paper and remove the pencil.
3. Cut hand shapes out of cardboard.
4. Attach string to hand, thread the string through the two arm rolls and attach the string near the top of the milk carton.
5. Repeat with the other arm.

Head

1. Make papier mâché nose and glue to the foam ball.
2. Paint the head, using white paint for the face and black paint for the hair.
3. Use fine black felt-tip pens to draw on the eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth and ears.
4. Other decorations may be added such as a moustache or curls.

Headpiece

1. Paint strips of cardboard and leave to dry.
2. Cut out triangle shapes from coloured paper: two small and one large.
3. Measure the head of the puppet and glue the strip of cardboard to make a crown.
4. Glue the triangles onto the crown.
5. Glue headpiece to head.

Yoke: Cut yokes from black felt and decorate with sequins, fringing and braid. These should be decorated in symmetrical patterns rather than randomly placed.

Sarongs:

1. Dye cotton cloth earthy colours. Tea or edicol dye can be used.
2. Cut rectangles of cloth large enough to dress the puppet.
3. Cut foam blocks into a number of different shapes and, using gold and black paint, print patterns onto pieces of cloth.

Assembly

1. Assemble all parts of the puppet using sticky tape and glue.
2. Push a stick through the milk carton and head.
3. Wind an elastic band around the neck to prevent it from pushing though.
4. Tape sticks to the hands.

Create a performance

1. Prior to creating a performance, students design an aerial view of the performance space and include labels where the audience sits, props are stored, the orchestra performs, and the light is distanced from the screen.
2. Students may wish to advertise their performance for others classes to come and see it.
3. Students could design an advertisement, either for the internet or as a poster or handout.
4. Students rehearse their play a number of times to perfect and refine the performance.
5. Perform the play for an audience.
6. Following the performance, students reflect on and evaluate their parts and how they played it.

Activity 4: Reflection

In this activity, the class develops a blog where all students can upload their designs for the performance and photographs or film of the production.

The blog provides an opportunity for other students to question the performers on the intended representation of their puppet character and how they interpreted voice, expression and other production elements.

The blog will reveal students' assumptions about the activity and how others agreed or disagreed with the way they addressed the task.

Students write their own reflection about the performance within the group and their success in designing an authentic puppet and other production elements.