The Arts

Activity 1: Malaysian wayang puppets and performance styles

In this activity students view images of Malaysian wayang puppets and investigate the variety of performance styles. They will use this information to discuss the reasons why shadow puppetry performances may differ throughout the countries of South-East Asia.

Key inquiry question: What are the origins of wayang in Malaysia and why are there different performance styles?

About Malaysian puppets

1. Ask students to read through the information below and conduct a Know, Want, Learned (KWL) focusing on Malaysian shadow puppetry.
   • What do I know?
   • What would I like to know?
   • What have I learned?
2. Ask students to look at the images of the Malaysian shadow puppets and describe them using the following headings.
3. Complete the activity by discussing as a class why they think there are different forms wayang performances in Malaysia and throughout countries in South-East Asia.

About wayang kulit

Kulit means skin or leather. A wayang kulit puppet made of skin or leather is the most popular form of puppet used in wayang puppet theatre throughout Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia. A performance combines music and drama and is a celebratory ritual involving elements of Hindu, Islamic and Indigenous Javanese stories brought to Malaysia.

Map of South-East Asia

Varieties of wayang

Malaysian shadow puppetry was originally performed to entertain after a hard day working in the rice paddies or looking after the family. Today these wayang performances are still influenced by Hindu, Thai and Malay traditions, and can also have added elements of contemporary life.

There are four types of shadow puppet performance in Malaysia. These include:

• wayang kelantan (siam) – a Malay form of shadow puppetry performed in the states near the Thailand/Malaysia border
• wayang kulit melayu – a Malay court form of shadow puppetry that concentrates on Panji stories
• wayang gedek – a Thai and Malay folk style performed near the Thai border and strongly influenced by the Thai version of the Ramayana, and Thai and Malay folk stories
• wayang kulit jawa –  performances focus on the Javanese forms of the Mahabharata is performed in Selangor and West Johor.

Today only two of these are performed – the wayang kelantan and wayang gedek.

Puppet characteristics

The features of the puppets display good traits that are valued by the Malaysian people such as loyalty, courage, purity, wisdom, compassion and emotional control. During the plays the characters face certain trials in which these traits are tested. The colours of the puppets do not have symbolic meanings as with Javanese puppets.

Activity 2: Performing and producing a wayang play

In this activity students will learn about wayang performances, write a play using either a traditional Jataka or a contemporary short story and practise their characterisations.

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

Write a wayang play

Explain to the students that they will be writing a wayang play. The story needs to be scripted in their own words and can be based on the following Jataka story or a contemporary story such as Star Wars. 

1. Divide the class into an even number of small groups. Half will write a wayang play based on The elephant and the forester and the other half will write a play based on a contemporary story.
2. Each group nominates a puppet master, tok dalang. The dalang will conduct the puppet show and designate other jobs to the group members. This could include characters, musicians, prop makers, a storywriter, light controller.
3. Once each group has chosen their story, each member of the group will write their own script. There should be enough characters so that each member of the group has a speaking part. Once the scripts are written, read through each one and decide as a group which script will be used for the performance.
4. Explain to students that they will have to develop an appropriate voice for their character.
   • '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
5. Students then 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. They should also rehearse the music accompaniment and how it can increase the impact of the story for the audience.
6. As a class, students share their performance 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.
7. Develop a class 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 it is, the less detail of the puppet the audience will see.
8. Construct the props, stage, lighting, audience areas and music in preparation for the final performances.

Activity 3: Creating an animated wayang puppet play

In this activity students will learn about the design and decoration of Malaysian wayang puppets so that they can make their own puppets, perform a play and create an animated version of the performance. 

Key inquiry question: How are puppets constructed and operated?

Create wayang puppets

1. Students are now going to make wayang puppets.
2. Remind them to look at the images of the various Malaysian wayang puppets in Activity 1 prior to making their puppets.
3. Discuss the procedure and identify the steps to assist students with the creation of their 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.

Create an animation

Students will now create a digital performance of their play using Toondoo. Explain each step:

1. Delegate roles for each member of the group.
2. Divide their performance into key frames and draw a storyboard.
3. Provide a digital camera or phone so that photographs can be taken of each scene. Explain that these images will be uploaded to a computer and will be used to create their digital story.
4. Upload the images to the computer and open Toondoo.
5. Upload each image into the 'imaginer' application and save each one.
6. Create a new Toondoo maker and use the images in imaginer plus speech bubbles to create their digital performance.
7. View each digital performance as a class and ask students to reflect on and evaluate the effectiveness of their animation and the part they played in producing the resource.

Create a performance

Students complete the learning sequence by creating a performance of their play.

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 other classes to come and see it.
3. Students could design an advertisement either for the internet or as a publication such as a poster or handout.
4. Students rehearse their play a number of times to perfect and refine the performance.
5. Students perform the plays for an audience.
6. Following the performances ask each student to reflect on and evaluate their own role.

Activity 4: Reflection

In this activity, the class will develop a blog where all class members can upload their designs for the performance, their animation 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.

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

Students complete the activity by writing their own reflection about the performance within the group, their success with designing an authentic puppet and creating an animation.