Theatre Excursion: Circuit of Culture of Production and Consumption of Traditional Theatre

This paper is aimed at studying the production and consumption of traditional theatre. The study is conducted within cultural studies perspective using Circuit of Culture. In the production layer the focus of the analysis will be on how the traditional theatre is produced either technically or culturally. While on the consumption, the analysis will be on the audience involving in this cultural product. The object of the study is the traditional theatre performed in Rumentang Siang Bandung. The study reveals that the practice of theatre excursion perpetuates production of traditional theatre and presents the consumption space for the audience of traditional theatre. The herds of school students organized by their teachers are having theatre excursion under the program of Taman Budaya to arouse appreciation toward tradition. The circuit of culture of traditional theatre in the context of production and consumption is articulated through the theatre excursion


INTRODUCTION
Tradition is a cultural product which seems to be in two sides of a coin, one of each is definitely different, in contrast but cannot be separated. Tradition is 'sweet' because of its 'bitterness'. It is challenging to be studied when it is threatened to be left behind or disappeared as times evolve. That's more or less the way it is with traditional theatre.
Theatre itself faces many difficulties related to production, resources, staging elements, or audience aspects that cannot be compared to other cultural products such as film or music.
Moreover when theatre is then paired with tradition, it seems that it is combining the two problems.
Statements asserting that traditional theatre is in problem can be seen in some media writings: Tribun Medan (2017)  Theatre as a cultural commodity is probably best understood as the result of its conditions of production and reception (Bennet, 1997). In other words, every production is designed to induce audience participation (Meyerhold in Bennet, 1997). Regarding the phenomena illustrated previously, the two terms, production and reception which is related to audience, become the issues discussed in this study. More specifically, this study is aimed to study the production and consumption of traditional theatre in the meantime. In the production layer the focus of the analysis will be on how the traditional theatre is produced either technically or

Production
The production of the two traditional theatres performed in GK Rumentang Siang as the objects of this study is fully sponsored or Wayang). However, the proposals granted are also given the term "pemerataan" or "equalization" considering the budgets they provide. Meaning that they will choose the groups which haven't got the chance to be supported rather than those who have. Besides, they will also consider the recommendation  Regarding this, Taman Budaya facilitates the need for the process as well as the publication.
As part of their objective in holding the program to be attended by audience or appreciators, Taman Budaya cooperate with schools and kinds of arts community. More specially, they negotiate with school teachers to mobilize their students to attend the theatre event for the sake of appreciating traditional theatre.

Consumption
The following pictures portray the audience of the traditional theatres observed in this study while watching the performance.  The "Free Ticket" information is also found attracting the audience to attend the event. This is caught by the researchers while observing the site, there is one woman coming closer rather hesitantly asking (in bahasa Indonesia), "can I watch this? Is it free?". Being certain that the event is free, the woman enters the room calmly. Thus, besides the school students coming in herd, it is also found some audience who are not school students.   In this study, the term theatre excursion is also used to name the theatre trip of school students or the attendance of school students to traditional theatre. It is stated by Sinclair (2014) that family plays the powerful role in the theatre-going behaviours of young people.
However, it is also found that the school excursion was critical in providing access to theatre experiences especially for young people who did not have childhood experiences of being taken to the theatre (Sinclair, 2014).
While in the context of this study, the theatre excursion organized by the schools plays a very significant role in maintaining the production and thus the consumption of traditional theatre. The production team of traditional theatre should make sure that their performance will be attended by the targeted audience. Therefore, the production team already has arranged in advance the lists of schools that can be linked and negotiated to organize their students to attend the traditional theatre event. In this case, the target is mostly school students who will come in large groups like doing a study tour or excursion to the museum or historical sites as parts of teaching learning process. The difference is they are