Ramayana
From the epic by Valmiki
Created & directed by
Lane Savadove, Maria Tri Sulistyani, & Ibed Surgana Yuga
June 2024
The Navy Yard
A trans-cultural retelling of an ancient epic.
More than 28 years in the making, EgoPo presented the world-premiere re-telling of the ancient Hindu epic in collaboration with two of Indonesia’s vanguards in the performing arts: Papermoon Puppet Theater (Java) and Kalanari Theatre Movement (Bali). This performance took place in The Navy Yard, under a giant open air tent. The staging integrated the puppetry, dance, theater and music expertise of the three companies to tell one of the world’s oldest stories about the unbreakable power of the human spirit.
Ramayana was sponsored by Ed and Susan Hoffman
Ramayana has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and the Tri-M Foundation
Opening Night was sponsored by Gail Ehrlich
Creative Team
Dirk Durossette … Scenic Designer
Tim Martin … Lighting Designer
J. “Mo’ong” Santoso Pribadi … Composer
Chris Sannino … Sound Designer & Engineer
Dane Eissler & Retno Intiani … Costume Co-Designers
Kiran Grace … Costumer
Abby Leyh … Stage Manager
Angelina Canavan … Assistant Director
Dawn McCall & Joey Valenzuela … Assistant Stage Managers
Devon Roberts … Production Manager
Anna Seigel … Production Photos
Cast
Andika Ananda, Ross Beschler, Anton Fajri, M. Dinu Imansyah, Melanie Julian, K. O’Rourke, Annette Kaplafka, Mugiyono Kasido, Agus Margiyanto, Paradox Polluck, Pambo Priyojati, Kinanti Sekar Rahina, Gusbang Sada, Retno Sulistyorini, Damien J. Wallace, Davey Strattan White, & Ontaria Kim Wilson
Musicians
Jay Ansill & J. “Mo’ong” Santoso Pribadi
EgoPo’s Journey to the Ramayana
EgoPo has been training and collaborating with Javanese theatre and dance companies since 1996. In 1997, our first exploration of the Ramayana opened with a workshop production at the National Cultural Center in Surakarta (Solo, Java) following a year-long residency. Our organization has held long-term residencies with artistic and cultural exchanges at its root.
Through collaboration with Papermoon Puppet Theatre and Kalanari Movement Theatre, EgoPo brought American actors to Indonesia to train with multidisciplinary artists for 5-weeks in July 2023. Most recently, this in-process work had a showing at Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja (Yogya, Java). The Ramayana stands as the most ambitious work EgoPo has done to date with this project reaching fruition in Philadelphia in June 2024.
The sharing of Ramayana tradition with American audiences, many of whom have yet to see or read it, is an act of conscious gift-giving by our artistic team and an invitation to view the world from a new perspective of radical kindness.
About Papermoon Puppet Theater
Papermoon Puppet Theatre was founded in April 2006 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia by Co-Artistic Director Maria Tri Sulistyani (Ria). She has since nurtured, developed, and expanded the company together with Co-Artistic Director Iwan Effendi, a visual artist and Papermoon’s puppet designer. Among other close collaborators, we work with a collective of puppeteers, which includes Anton Fajri, Pambo Priyojati, Beni Sanjaya, Muhammad Alhaq and Hardiansyah Yoga.
To date, Papermoon Puppet Theatre has created more than 30 puppet performances and visual art installations and exhibitions, which we have toured to more than 10 countries. In 2008, we launched Pesta Boneka, an international puppet biennale that welcomes puppeteers from around the world to our home city, where they can share their work in a community setting.
About Kalanari Theatre Movement
Kalanari Theatre Movement is a culture movement institution through theatre. Kalanari using theatre as the entrance (and the exit) to study, interpret, explore, and represent the culture of a society.
Theatre is neither for performances creation only, nor for artistic works only; it has noble vision and mission to develop the society culture by emphasize the humanity values. Established on March 8th, 2012, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, our internal objective (to the theatre) is to reaffirm the bond of performance and society; and the external objective (to the society) is to inspire the people to develop their culture.