Prasasti at Romeo and Juliet: Not a Love Story
8:08 AM
On
November 26th, everyone’s
eyes were fixed on English Department of UGM, as they
held the greatest English Department’s event, English Days 2015: Romeo and
Juliet, Not a Love Story. Around 800 people took seats on Grha Sabha Pramana,
Universitas Gadjah Mada, enjoying the
fabulous musical drama show. The English Days itself is actually an annually sequence of events held to celebrate
English Department’s Anniversary so that almost every element of English
Department’ members were
taking part on the production process. Students’ communities and the committee worked hand
in hand preparing
everything for the shows as
well as other events. It took them around 5 months to finish
all the process
and finally produce such a banging event wrapped nicely in Romeo and Juliet collaboration act as
the main performance.
Romeo
and Juliet by William Shakespeare was reproduced as the main performance that night, consisting of a
collaboration of Broadway Community and Kombantrin (band) as well as Prasasti (gamelan community)
as the
background music. It combined classic play with modern and traditional
music, which made it a
once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece. Moreover, what makes this Romeo and Juliet different, was that they take ‘Not a Love Story’ as the
tagline because they wanted to emphasize the dreadful feud between Montigue, Romeo’s family and
Capulet, Juliet’s family instead of Romeo and Juliet’s love story.
Performing
a gamelan song titled Asmaramurka,
Prasasti was chosen to do a solo performance for the opening act. Asmaramurka is
a gamelan song composed by Mas Nanang
Karbito, Prasasti’s coach. The music is melodiously fast, and even
made some people amazed and exhilarated by the upbeat. The gamelan players themselves
felt challenged to play this song since they had to get used to its fast and
breath-taking tempo. Moreover, it did take a long-time practice untill they could perfectly play the song, which made the process more challenging.
The song, as can be said, totally fitted to be played in the opening of the
show so that the audiences’ enthusiast could be fired up.
When
it came to the collaboration act, Romeo and Juliet, Prasasti was also trusted
to start the play with, again, a gamelan
song composed by Mas Nanang Karbito which was specially made for this
collaboration act. “Actually, I hardly found a right time to compose the
song at home since I just started my graduate study so I compose all the notes
in the rehearsal time. But, gratefully, everything runs quite smoothly. I deliberately
make the song quite simple but well-suited for the play. Not only to make the
gamelan players learn easily and quickly but also to highlight the act more,”
Mas Nanang Karbito explained.
Still
in the beginning of the play, audiences were suddenly shouting out when the
main actor, Romeo started the musical taste of the play by singing a Frankie
Valli song, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You. His soft voice made some girls
relaxed and some others even melted. Dancing-in-the-ball act was mellow since
audiences got a complete indulgence of beautiful body movements of Juliet and
the dancers and ambient music played by Kombantrin. Then, reaching the duel act
between Tybalt and Mercutio, audiences were tensed up. The collaboration of the
act and the seemingly horror music and vocal played by Prasasti could put a
strain on audiences’ feeling. Those made the whole play totally full of
emotion.
“This
collaboration act is simply complex. The mixture of music and acts can both
calm and tense you up,” Nadia (one of the gamelan
players) said.
At
the twilight of the play, Prasasti and Kombantrin collaborated both traditional
and pop music for the show’s
closing.
The song played was Kings and Queens by 30 Seconds to Mars. Bagas Maulana and Hasty Lutfia were working with other Kombantrin’s members to re-compose the song. “Prasasti
brings up a bodacious traditional music. I like Juliet’s death act and the
music effect the most. That is just so real. I am proud of everyone that has
made the show priceless,” Chelsy, coordinator of Event Division, stated. So
we can gladly conclude that this newest Romeo and Juliet play was an
undoubtedly amazing amalgam of dance, pop and traditional music, and drama worth
watching.
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