Laboratory Theater of Ciputat (LTC) has initiated a creative program that will be conducted regularly—annually—to strengthen the competencies of LTC members, called Un-loading. This program is a continuation and refinement of the "Actor Activation" program. It involves exploring various materials (drama scripts, literature, journals, essays, and relevant issues) as sources of creation. This effort aims to break the stagnant situation in theatrical creation and address the scarcity of drama scripts that discuss current and relevant issues. The selected creation materials will be examined and analyzed by the initiators, then recreated into new works. This program consists of two main activities: Un-loading Creation and Un-loading Performance.
These two main activities serve as the foundation for the ideas that are pursued and formulated to create communicative, avant-garde, and experimental performances capable of discovering new forms, spirits, or patterns. Within the designated timeline each semester, each actor will seek to find the methods used in the creation of works. Agility as a creative actor is the primary asset in creating a work.
The dichotomy between creation and performance makes this Un-loading program target two important sectors: the emergence of new scripts and performances. The Un-loading program serves as a medium to capture events, process them, and present them to the audience in the form of theater performances, with the hope of leaving a sense of awareness or unease in the minds of the audience. In the first semester, several actors will present and develop their own ideas with the involvement of supervisors from academia and/or professional practitioners, namely: Putu Fajar Arcana, Rita Matu Mona, and Bambang Prihadi.
The mentorship process by the supervisors is conducted as a form of work idealization, aiming for artistic presentations that are communicative, avant-garde, and experimental, capable of discovering new forms, spirits, or patterns. This is done to break the rigidity of conventional performance forms, transforming them into fresh and current stage events, both in content and form. From the results of these two stages, we (LTC) refer to it as the lingua franca of works, which constitutes the communication tools of text, verbalization, and visual staging.
The Un-loading program will be conducted in stages, meaning it is a long-term program referred to in terms of semesters. In the first semester (held in July), five actors will perform works based on drama scripts, novels, and short stories. These include: a free interpretation of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" translated by WS Rendra; the script of "The Plague" by Albert Camus; the script of "The Chairs" by Eugène Ionesco translated by Yudiariyani; and the short story "Jalan Sunyi Kota Mati" by Radhar Panca Dahana. This creative work is scheduled to produce new scripts, either inspired by or containing new elements. This effort is made as a form of literary contribution, aimed at breaking the limitations of the low birth rate of new drama scripts.
Furthermore, Un-loading will continue in the second semester in November, featuring several creative actors. The preparation process for the actors in the second semester has been carried out simultaneously with the first semester, but with less frequent and less intensive meetings and discussions. This means that the duration of discussions and analysis is not as deep and frequent as in the first semester. However, the creative process will be carried out concurrently, with actors supporting one another.
