Gema Gita Mahardika: Showing Nowadays Kids Situation and What They Missed Out

It was the first time in my life that I could not tell whether the crying kid sound is from audience seat is part of performance or not

That's what came up in my mind during the show.

Gema Gita Mahardika is a musical drama that I watched last night. It was performed by students from Sekolah Otonom Sanggar Anak Akar, as part of their annual carnival and also "crowd-funding" for their new school location.

The conflict that was raised during the show is pretty simple and for sure everyone at this era can relate with it. It was as simple as whether (Mr.) Technology and (Mrs.) Online will give a positive or negative effects to everyone life, particularly to kids. But it could be elaborated further towards the issue if there are no kids at all who want to continue to be farmers, which in this show, the issue was told, but was not elaborated further.

The whole package of dance, music, props, and cute acting by them will give enjoyable experiences to audience itself. From my own opinion who did not have any stage-art performance education background, I would say that their music arrangement, which was directed by Andrie Virgo Setiawan and Albertus Danang Wiratmoko, is exceptionally good, because it gives an additional "soul" to the songs. But there are still some areas that could be improved, such as stage blocking, sound system issue, and story development, which I felt kind of flat (no climax moment) during the show.

This show is also good for parents who want to introduce their kids to Indonesia's culture, because there were a little bit here and there of culture from Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Maluku, and Papua. Also, it could be a platform to learn a "real songs" for the kids, not like the songs that available now for kids to listen to.

It was such a nostalgia moment for me when I watched this show, because there were my childhood songs, childhood games, and the understandable feeling of being performers in the stage.

If you want to catch the show, there are other two more available slots for today, 2nd March 2013, at 2pm and 8pm. Oh forgot to mention that the show is held in Pusat Perfileman Haji Usmar Ismail, Kuningan, Jakarta.

Following are some videos that I took during the show.

Nuansa'12: Canting, Was Enjoyable But ...

I attended Nuansa'12: Canting with no expectation, due to their last year show. I have been watching Nuansa Musical Show Production since 2010 and this 2012 show satisfied my eyes and ears, although there are some scenes that required my minds to patch it all together, which makes me wonder whether there are synchronization for story flow between my two friends who wrote the script. For example, I was confused from scene when the lead actress pregnant and all of sudden at the next scene, she is no longer pregnant. They should have developed the story in between first in my opinion, or perhaps there is no need to show the "pregnant scene", instead just skipped it directly to the scene when the kid already grown up to avoid momentary confusion. That's just one out of few confusing moments in the point of audience's view.

Nuansa'12: Canting ticket and handbook

As I mentioned that my eyes and ears were satisfied with this production, and I can say satisfy is underrated word to describe how I feel towards this musical. Firstly, they really have great choreography, which I found it as really a splendid item and indeed it showed great talent of dancers and choreographers from Indonesians in NUS. But, great choreographers item in this production is also a weakness of this production. Believe it or not, dancers who are supposedly serve as supporting casts for some scenes become a center of stage, which I found it is not right at all. For example during the lead actress did monologue, meanwhile there is a couple dancers did their contemporary dance item at another side of stage. In my opinion, supposedly dance item serve as support item to represent the lead actress monologue. Instead of feeling that way, my brain told me to focus mainly on the dance item.

Beside the choreography, the light and stage manager did a splendid job when they played around with the light and other visual effects. There are only few concerns for room of improvements after I discussed it with few friends. Some people who I talked to, found the visual effects background during "Dukun" scene and "Flood" scene i.e. fire and thunder visual effects respectively were not necessary. Visually, it ruins the scene awesomeness.

Moving on to musicality aspect. I found music arrangements of this production were really great. When I read the description of their Music Director, the experiences, awards, and formal education in Music justified the quality of Nuansa'12: Canting music arrangements. But, the production team should really check all the equipment, because there was microphone faulty (I think) during the show for first few scenes and it happened again somewhere towards the end of the show.

Overall, Nuansa'12 team really did a great job, with a score 4 out of 5 in my opinion, although I still prefer their 2010 show. Their strength points are their dance items and music arrangements, but the story flow and actress/actors skills should not be forgotten as the main focus in any kind of musical drama shows, not the other way around.

After the show, took picture with one of producers and lead actress!

It Is Not New Moon, It Is Second Moon!

Well, this event is nothing to do with Eclipse Saga, so if your only interest is Eclipse Saga, please do not hate me because I somehow invited you to this post.

There will be a dance play performance by Gianti Giadi and Sufri Juwahir with script writer is Agnes Christina. Personally I only knew the first name and the last name. Gianti Giadi or usually I call her Gigi is really a great dancer in my opinion. She was actively involved in mentoring dancers of Indonesia students across Singapore for most of cultural events that Indonesia student had (at least for the past 3 years I've been in Singapore). Meanwhile Agnes Christina is a good script writer in my opinion. It is not her first time that her script being played in Substation.

Well for you who are interested, yet dunno the story, here is the story that I took from substation website.

The second moon is inspired by the story of Lilith and Adam, and eventually, Eve. In the beginning, Adam and Lilith are one. As they become more aware of themselves and the surroundings, their personalities grow stronger. Lilith chooses to leave Adam in his own world, while she creates her own. They remain as moons in their own worlds. The second moon is a story about union, separation and ego. The story of Lilith and Adam illustrates the dualism of the universe, a situation where two strong elements exist and co-exist to retain a balance.

Further information, simply go to their website. Yup, I am so gonna watch this, but Saturday slot, the only free day that I have between Friday and Saturday. See you there if you are attending on Saturday! :)

The Lion King: Personification or Anthropomorphism?

It is the most anticipated musical show for 2011 in Singapore, The Lion King Musical Show!


It's being seen by over 51 million people around the world and being premiered for the first time at the Sands Theater at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore for South East Asia Region. Disney’s beloved film has been transformed into a spectacular theatrical experience which has won over 70 major international theatre awards by acclaimed director: Julie Taymor.


As for me, I had witnessed by my own naked eyes the truly amazing of the show. I am totally impressed by the cast performances (esp the dance moves), the props, musics composition, and many more.


We booked our tickets about a month before the shows date and yet we still can not get the front seats of the section that we bought (there are 6 different sections). A week after we booked our tickets, we just knew that the shows period being extended up to July 2011 (refer to sistic website). If we knew that earlier, we would rather wait for few weeks to get better seats.


Although the theater is not as big your expectation, for sure DO NOT EVER BUY CIRCULAR SEATS! You will know the reason why during the show. :)


Here are the comparison video between Lion King cartoon (full version) and Lion King Musical Show (trailer). Don't you feel it under your skin? :)

So now, back again to the title of this post. Which one do you think: Personification or Anthropomorphism? :P