Refection on Kata Orang Tua-tua

 

A recent poll by the National Youth Council (NYC) found that about one in two respondents feel that intergenerational differences are an issue here, with higher agreement seen among youths. Two in five agree that they could affect not only familial relationship, but workplace relationships as well, between colleagues and hinder common goals for Singapore’s progress. Rather than adopting the divisive practice of stereotyping each generation, individuals can instead focus on the commonalities that they share in order to bridge the gap. Asst Prof Ang said: “Older cohorts need to fight against the tendency to infantilise younger cohorts, while younger cohorts need to fight against the tendency to demonise older cohorts.” To facilitate this, opportunities to allow meaningful cross-generational interactions must be created — whether in school, the workplace or at home, and also beyond these spaces. As such, as an artist, I would want to create this performance in which we can facilitate the younger generation’s understanding of the different saying or idioms that had been coined by the older generation. Beliefs such as “do not cut your nails at night or you will be haunt by spirits” are probably created to discourage one from doing such an activity at night as it may have been dangerous in the old kampung days—there may not have been enough light source and doing it will result to the individual hurting themselves. As such, these sayings and beliefs are deeply based on the intention of preventing injuries and harm, which could also be reflective of how much they care for the individuals. Though it may not make sense to the younger generation now, it will be great if we can help the younger ones to see the rationale behind the sayings and facilitate their understanding towards the older generation. What I hope to achieve, through the performance, is for the younger ones to, at least, understand why the older generations are saying the things they say, and hopefully open up a discussion or discourse about it. Kata Orang Tua-Tua is a production for young audiences that delves into the many sayings of the wisemen in the yesteryears. The production aims to create an understanding among the young audience as to why certain superstitions are created, so as to bridge the intergenerational gaps between the young audience and their grandparents. After all, these old sayings are created with the young audiences' interest at heart. They are created in the hope to safeguard the young audience from making a mistake that they might regret and caution them of the dangers they might face in the future. While Kata Orang Tua-Tua was created with the young audience in mind, it can be enjoyed by the whole family, as it created talking points for parents and grandparents to discuss with the young audience.   Audience reception For this project, I have classified it as theatre for young audience and as such my target audience were; Target audience (primary) : Students in the age range of 6 to 12 years old. Target audience (secondary): Grandparents and parents of the students This will then coincide with one of the project’s primary objectives, which is to create opportunities to allow meaningful cross-generational interactions so to bridge the intergenerational gap. I am glad that the students enjoyed the program and we received raving reviews from both parents and teachers alike. I have attached the audience feedback forms as well as screenshots of the messages from the teachers and parents.   Artist’s takeaway When I was pursuing my Master in Education (Drama), I theorised that in order to create a highly educational and engaging theatre piece for young audience, the story in which the performance is based on, has to allow for both imaginative exploration through the fantastical characters and settings, as well as role model exemplification through human characters and real-world settings. During the production of Kata Orang Tua-Tua, I used human characters, Danial and Puteri, to reflect on what needed to be learned and the importance of empathy and familial relationship. They act as the outer frame to the imaginative world that is symbolised by the mystical forest and the fantastical characters- a talking cat, a “kakak cantik” as well as “nenek kebayan”, which allowed the students to explore imaginatively, creating a more relaxed and livelier atmosphere, facilitating the interactions between the young audience and the performers. In such a setting, the process of learning is made more conducive. While the young audience were having fun, they were also actively listening to the dialogues of the different characters and following the journey of Danial and Puteri. To facilitate the learning of the young audience further, I have also included pre-performance, during performance as well as post-performance activities in the programme e-booklet. The activities will encourage the young audience to continue their discussions about the story presented in the performance, even outside of the performance space. In this way, their learning and their enjoyment of the production, goes beyond the performance space.   These are the two things that I will definitely continue to incorporate in my future productions.