TRADITIONAL THEATRE LONGSER AS THE CREATIVITY BASE FOR PRODUCING MODERN THEATRE

Abstract

The study describes the creativity process of a theatre work entitled Menjelang Senja(Toward the Twilight) which is based on West Java traditional theatre Longser. In the development of Indonesian theatre history, modern theatre is defined as a theatre work referred to western dramaturgy. Meanwhile, the western dramaturgy refers to Aristotelian theory in which the dramatic structure and the plot should have presumption of cause and effect (causality principle). Being aware that Indonesian modern theatre should have specific identity showing Indonesian culture, the Indonesian dramatists like Rendra, Putu Wijaya, Arifin C Noer and Suyatna Anirun, have tried to produce modern theatre alluded to Indonesian traditional theatre in their respective regions since 1970s. The result of the study shows that the essence of Longser performance should cover dance, music, song, and a story presented by improvised dialogues and source taken from daily life. Meanwhile the structure of the performance is standard, the artistic design is simple and the nuance is humorous or comedy. The essence of Longser becomes the creativity idioms to produce a modern theatre. However, there are still problems in the process. Most of the modern theatre actors do not have adequate skills of dancing, singing, playing music, and joking in their acting.

Keywords: Traditional theatre, creativity, modern theatre, western dramaturgy, Indonesian culture