Hello everyone, I hope you beautiful people are doing just fine!

First of all, I just wanna say sorry if my article is lame because the only time I write is to finish uni’s 3000 words essay about media and human’s behaviour. Please do understand my lack of capability to entertain you guys huhu.

So, give a round of applause to my very first post that I dedicated to… as can be seen from the title (and sorry for the 5 months major throwback)… Temu Lawak!

If you guys have never heard of it, Temu Lawak (Teater Muda Langkah Awal Merdeka) was a musical drama 100% composed by Indonesian students in Melbourne from different universities and hosted by the only Ppia Victoria. Its purpose was no other than to celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day as well as to become a platform for Indonesian students to create something together even when they are far away from their home country. Temu Lawak took place at Athaneum Theatre (which is a huge historical theatre located in the heart of hectic Melbourne CBD) on 20th of August 2016.

The venue, Athaneum Theatre (Source: photosynth.net)

I was very blessed to be the part of it since I got to work with such talents (either those who were performing on stage or behind the stage). I’d like to call it more than just a musical drama, but rather a memorable production because we had amazing teams beside the performers and the creators such as marketing team, logistic team, sponsorship team, and many more that I cannot list one by one!

Opening Speech by President of PPIA Victoria, Alvin Haryono (Source: PPIA Victoria)

Documentation Team (Source: PPIA Victoria)

The Mascots of Temu Lawak by Suhendy, Disja, and Jundi (Source: PPIA Victoria)

A glimpse of the storyline, there was once a girl named Aisyah who used to appreciate the culture of Betawi when she was a kid. She grew up with her grandfather, Karno who loved her wife so much (I played as the wife!). Later on her teenage life, Aisyah went to study in Melbourne and her tremendous love for Betawi culture (and even Indonesia’s culture) was slowly fading. She started to compared every single thing in Melbourne with Indonesia such as the buskers (I played as one of the buskers too!), the foods, the weather, and everything! She became considerably westernized. Aisyah loved Melbourne so much that she wanted to stay there after she graduated! As a result, Karno was really upset with her behaviour and they got into a big fight. Long story short, Aisyah finally realized that Indonesia was her place, where she truly belong, and it was her job to create a better Indonesia as the future generation.

Karno starred by Hadyus and Aisyah starred by Denisa (Source: PPIA Victoria)

I forgot to mention our hard work, blood, sweat, and tears on the preparation of this drama. The first audition for the casts (I don’t know with other division) was in 18th of May and announce on 21st of May. We started to rehearsing intensively around the middle of July 2016 until the performance day. It took approximately 4-5 hours for rehearsal a day for 1 1/2 months straight. It would be a total lie if I claim that there were no fights during the process but it makes the better person we are now.

Salsabila Saika when pucing pala barbie

It was such a blast to know these people!

There was one other thing that I will not forget to mention, that Temu Lawak was not only consist of an hour of musical drama but we got the opportunity to be fully entertained by the well-known stand up comedian from Indonesia, Pandji Pragiwaksono. I have to say that he was really brave to criticized Indonesia’s development and his humour was considerably bold and straight-forward. Overall, his humour was full eye-awakening messages!

Pandji Pragiwaksono delivering his comedy (Source: PPIA Victoria)

At last, I think Temu Lawak was such a big wrap! We could hear people laughing (terpaksa apa engga geng ketawanya) and enjoying their time which means a lot for us  Some also found that the story was relatable which is really good (cheers for the script writers!).

Last but not least, I want to say THANK YOU HEAPS for all of the people who watched Temu Lawak and made it unforgettable! See you when I see you!

Btw you can hear our original soundtrack on Spotify and on iTunes! Just simply type “Budaye Kite” and I swear, get ready for eargasm!

Here are some other photos of Temu Lawak on the play day taken from PPIA Victoria’s official Facebook.