Too many clowns, says Budi Ros

Courtessy of Teater Koma/Logo Situmorang

Mon, 01/19/2009 6:03 PM | Lifestyle

JAKARTA: Too many people dream of becoming a leader even though they don't have the skills, says writer and actor Budi Ros, who plays Petruk, a clown turned king in Teater Koma's play Republik Petruk.

"There are too many Petruks around," Budi told The Jakarta Post on Friday.might realize that they are not capable but their eyes are blinded by opportunism."

Budi said the character of Petruk belonged in the realms of fiction.

"It's not easy to play the main character. It's a prestigious role that requires a lot of experience and of course I am proud I was given the opportunity but I don't want to become that kind of guy in real life. We simply don't need them."

Budi, 40, joined Teater Koma in 1985 and had his first lead role in 1994. In 2003, he won the Jakarta Art Council's playwright contest.

He developed an interest in performing arts as a child, watching wayang (shadow puppets) and ketoprak (plays with stories from Javanese history) with his father.

Hard work is needed to make theater more popular, he said.

"There was a good development of theater in the 1970s, even though the artists faced lots of oppression. Nowadays, we waste a lot of our energy just dealing with things outside our artistic skills."

Budi said more government support of the arts would be good, but that people in the field also needed to raise the image of theater.

"We might need better management, we need PR to promote the art," he said. - JP/Matheos V. Messakh