When is it done?
Wayang kulit performances can last from dusk till dawn. Exciting battle scenes are usually staged shortly after midnight. It is performed the whole night commencing at about 09.00 PM to 05.00 AM, just before the sunrise. It needs around eight hours to perform a plot of stories from Ramayana or Mahabrata epoch.
Wayan Kulit performances are held for religious occassions, purification ceremonies, or when some transitional event occurs within the life of the people. But the art is also called upon for other tasks too. It can also be devised as a means of getting messages about public health and hygiene across to the villagers of the area in rural Bali.
In the darkness the insects have already begun to fly around unsteady flame of the oil lamp, which casts its dazzling light on the large white screen of the stage. at the lower part of the cloth-screen, the beautiful leather puppets (wayang kulit) are neatly arranged, their body-sticks firmly planted in banana-stems, placed beneath the screen itself.
On the right hand side are the good characters, on the left hand side the bad. The open space between them, about two meters wide, represents the stage.
Here the puppets will come to life and, like human beings, will each in his own way pursue the endless path to human happiness."
From Ramayana, Sunardjo Haditjaroko
Shadow plays
In Java, these plays are performed in villages and towns on public holidays, religious festivals, weddings, birth celebrations and the traditional muslim event of the transition from childhood to teenage. In Bali, they are also staged at cremations.
Where is it done?
The STAGE
It is needed to accommodate the performance, sometimes it is an elevated stage around 0,5 to 1 meter higher than audience's chairs.
On stage there is a white cotton screen illuminated by blencong (an oil lamp, hangs above the dalang), nowadays, a spotlight is used. From behind the scene, some audience watch the performance. They see the shadow of the puppets. Shadow in Javanese is wayang, from here the words of wayang kulit come. The mass of the audience sits in front of the screen to watch the wayang played by dalang.
On the right and left side of dalang, the wayang figures were arranged stuck to a banana tree poles. And at the left and right ends of the screen, banquets of bananas and leaves tree are decorated. Behind dalang the gamelan music instruments are arranged and played by the wiyogo (gamelan players).
The chorus of some pesinden (woman singers) as well as male singers are sitting there too. Next to the left side of dalang, there is a wooden box used by dalang to beat his instruments. The 'keprak', several pieces of small size iron plates hit by dalang by using right foot. From time to time, dalang during narration hit the wooden box with his hand by a 'cempolo' (wooden mallet).
This was an open air performance under the stars. A temporary bamboo platform had been constructed in the village square. It had a raised stage on which the puppeteer and musicians of the 'Gender Wayang' orchestra sat cross-legged. A fine cotton screen, called 'kelir', separates the dalang from his audience. This screen represents the universe and the light from a bronze oil lamp, called 'blencong' just in front of the dalang throws magical flickering shadows onto it.
The puppets are stored in line, in a banana tree trunk, behind the screen and in front of the puppeter. The dalang manipulates the puppets, sings and taps out signals to the orchestra. He also speaks the parts for all characters; he must be able to render the shy sweetness in the voice of a princess, the spiteful whine of a lackey and the righteous but controlled anger of a noble hero.
DALANG (The Puppet Master or The Story Teller)
After deciding the title of wayang story, a dalang (puppet master), a dalang to perform the show must be appointed. Dalang position is very important, as he is the leader of the performance. Sometimes dalang could be chosen first, afterwards a consultation with him could be held to choose an appropriate title.
Dalang comes from the words juru udalan (juru : an expert, a skillful man - udalan abbreviated to dalan, then becomes dalang means to tell stories), so dalang is a story teller.
The audience, from the very young to the very old, including one white man, was held spell bound by the skills of the dalang and the stories he told. Little children, cradled in their parent's arms, stared wide-eyed at the screen, transfixed by its magic.
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