Australia sponsors workshop for Indonesian actors

Antara News, Monday, December 13, 2010

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Australia has sponsored a one-week "Mind, Body and Soul Acting" workshop at Teater Popular in Jakarta for emerging Indonesian actors.

The Australian Embassy in a media release in its official website on Monday said the workshop was provided for the actors to explore creative exchange of cultural, traditional and contemporary practices between Indonesia and Australia.

The workshop was conducted from December 6 to 12, 2010 by Indonesia`s leading stage and film director Slamet Rahardjo Djarot (Teater Popular Jakarta) and Australian theater director and trainer Robert Draffin (Liminal Theatre), who has particular expertise in the Asian region.

The workshop is part of a larger production by Teater Populer Jakarta and Melbourne`s Liminal Theatre to create a new piece of theatre drawing on cultural and universal perspectives of the story of Oedipus entitled The Ghost of Oedipus: Universal Eye of the Future.

"This theatre performance will draw on contemporary practices of multi-media theatre and performance, interwoven with traditional Indonesian practices of song, dance and shadow puppetry producing a unique Indonesian and Australian collaboration. We are delighted this workshop will develop further the cultural exchange between artists from both countries," said Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Greg Moriarty.

The project, which is sponsored by the Australian Government through the Australia- Indonesia Institute, will build on strong people-to-people relationships between Indonesian and Australian theatre specialists and artists.

"This close cooperation at a cultural level is just one of the practical ways in which Australia and Indonesia are working together as close neighbors," Moriarty said.