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Sang Sinxay: Inheriting Folk-Literature, Building on Community Based-Theatre

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Sang Sinxay: Inheriting Folk-Literature, Building on Community Based-Theatre 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences “ASEAN 2015: Challenges and Opportunities” (Proceedings) Sang Sinxay: Inheriting Folk-Literature, Building on Community Based-theatre 1. Pachaya Akkapram , full-time lecture, Applied Drama,Department of Performing Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Thaksin University, Thailand, [email protected]. Abstract Sang Sinxay has been a masterpiece literature composed in the era of the Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang. It has still been told year-after-year generations until the present. From our study and site visits, it was revealed that in Dongbang Community, Dongbang Sub-district, Nadoon District, Mahasarakham Province, there are perfect and beautiful mural paintings depicting the Sang Sinxay on the walls of a temple hall. These mural paintings are the prototypes to make leather puppets for shadow play, to create poetry songs for folk singer (Mor Lam), and Isan shadow play (Pramotai Shadow Puppet) of Petch Isan Performance Show (Isan Diamond). Nevertheless, the villagers in Dongbang Community clearly lacked understanding of the gist of Sang Sinxay. Subsequently, this research was aimed at finding strategies in order to create and present the theatrical performance and process which is involved with Sang Sinxay as the essence, and to develop the production and performance under cooperation with the participating villagers, i.e., 15 youths from the Petch Isan Performance Show. The community theatre activities were divided into three phases, namely, Phase 1, to study and analyze Sang Sinxay, Phase 2, to gather and collect concerned community information from the community in order to create new Sang Sinxay, and Phase 3, to practice the play and perform in front of the community. From the research, the production and presentation of the theatrical performance and process “Sang Sinxay” brought up the main issues of “Liars for their own interests” among teenagers, linked and compared the roles of Kumarn Ha(Prince V) – Kuman Hok(Prince VI), and the new version Sang Sinxay was created to represent real individuals, families and community of Dongbang, and the play could communicate existing issues/problems and bring up the lights to the audiences. In addition, the participants could study more Sang Sinxay and deeply learn, understand and realize community problems, leading to the development and changes themselves in a better way. Keywords: Sang Sinxay, community-based theatre, process-drama, participant, Pramotai (Isan Shadow Puppet) Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University, June 5-6, 2015 205 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences “ASEAN 2015: Challenges and Opportunities” (Proceedings) Background Sang Sinxay was praised as the invaluable masterpiece literature which Prakhong Charoenchit (2519) expressed his point of view that “this story was valuable in terms of ruling, and social practices/principles, teaching and morals, most of them can be used in any period of time”. The aim of the story was to encourage the people to live in the society peacefully. As born as Isan region, the researcher has deeply bonded with Sang Sinxay and found that each communities or locals have adapted, modified and transformed the written form of Sang Sinxay in to various forms of cultural arts, such as, folk singing, preaching, Isan shadow play (Nang Pra Mo Thai), mural paintings (Hoop Taem), including the guidelines to lay down the community development strategic planning, and the historical and knowledgeable sources of Thai and Laos. The researchers had an opportunity to visit Dongbang Community, Dongbang Sub-district, Nadoon District, Mahasarakham Provicne and see the mural painting depicting Sang Sinxay on the temple walls at Potharam Temple, which belongs to the community for almost 100 years. This was also the source to produce shadow puppets of Sang Sinxay of Petch Isan Performance Show. The researcher had inquired the villagers about Sang Sinxay and learned that the locals did even not know that the mural painting on the walls was portraying Sang Sinxay, or some locals used to hear Sang Sinxay, but do not have clear pictures or ideas of the story. Therefore, the researcher would like to study on how to convey the food of thoughts, morals, and principles of Sang Sinxay to the community, and make them recognize the value of this literature, enabling them to use the gist of the story in their daily life by comparing the surrounding backgrounds, problems, situations, and bringing up analysis and solutions. As a result, the researcher brought up the drama-process in a way of community- based theatre as a research tool in order to create the process-drama among the teenagers, artists, and villagers as the participants. Through such participation, the participants would be encouraged to learn the value of Sang Sinxay and also link the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University, June 5-6, 2015 206 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences “ASEAN 2015: Challenges and Opportunities” (Proceedings) thoughts from the literatures and then realize the social issues existing in their community. Objectives of Research 1. To find out strategies to manage the community-based theatre activities by introducing Sang Sinxay as main story to create and develop a play, co-worked with community participants. 2. To create and present the performance of drama-process “Sang Sinxay which was developed from the process of community–based theatre Research Methodology This research was divided into three phases which consist of: 1. Review the concerned literature. The researcher studied and analyzed the relevant information as follows: 1.1. From study of Sang Sinxay, it was found that the origin of Sang Sinxay was in forms of both oral and written literature, which was based on were two assumptions. Firstly, Sang Sinxay had been an oral literature without the sources of author, it had been a folk tale which had been told generation after generations of Thai – Laos. This story had been mostly found in the middle of North East. The inheritors had been mostly local artists or local wise man. Secondly, Sang Sinxay was a written literature which had been recorded on palm leaves with Thai-Noy language and made for tied book. It was assumed that the author was Thao Pangkham (Princess Pangkham) who had written it in 1650 in the reign of His Majesty the King Suriyavongsa Thammikarat of the Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang. The story had been duplicated in writing and rewritten in Middle Thai language and publicized until now in the provinces of Khonkaen, Mahasarakham, Roi-et and Kanlasin. The researcher selected a written Sang Sinxay which was rearranged by Man Chongrian as the proceeding of the story was chronologically run along with the concentration of events. Based on the study and analysis of the folk structure pattern of this literature, it was noted that there were interesting motifs which included “abnormal born/charisma-being slandered/misfortune-elimination/banishment– setting off the journey-adventure-fighting-prove oneself”. Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University, June 5-6, 2015 207 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences “ASEAN 2015: Challenges and Opportunities” (Proceedings) 1.2. Applied Drama and principle of community-based theatre are new academic notion, but not well-known in Thailand. They are used for describing theatre and drama-process which are not followed the conventional theatre in a theatre, as per the description given by Nicholson (2005) “a shorthand to describe forms of dramatic activity that primarily exist outside conventional mainstream theatre institutions, and which are specifically intended to benefit individuals, communities and societies”. The applied drama has expanded the theatrical arts open wide to bridge the other fields such as education, social development, medicine and public healthcare, etc. There are two paths to introduce “theatre” to apply outside the conventional frame. The first one is to apply for academic purpose, and the second path is to adapt the play for a community, mostly involved with dramatic activities to develop individuals, and concerned the people in urban and rural communities, leading community-based theatre, as quoted by Pornrat Damrung (2555) “the community- based theatre is co-working between the theatre people outside community and the locals in community to create a new drama in order to form knowledge, realize a problem and lead to self development of participants, or development in organization in community in a beneficial way”. Therefore, the production of drama-process based on the community theatre would aim to search for issues-problems in a community in order to expose them to the community locals, and make them pay heeds and realize the importance, as well as to create a platform to exchange and express their discussion and opinions among the participants, who have never taken part in the discussion in their daily lives. It is said that the community-based theatre is a theatrical activity to focus on learning and self development of the participants, aimed for changes in individual and community levels. 1.3. According the study at Dongbang Community, Dongbang Sub-district, Nadoon District, Mahasarakham Province, by studying the research works and interviews with the community leaders, locals, scholars and teenagers, it was revealed that in the past, people in Dongbang Community had lived in expanded families with interdependence or kinship ties, respect to seniority and community leaders. The local lifestyles are related with Buddhism, Brahman, spirits. The locals mostly respect to Buddhism and believe in superstition and spirits. There is shaman who will perform the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University, June 5-6, 2015 208 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences “ASEAN 2015: Challenges and Opportunities” (Proceedings) spiritual functions. The community has also followed the traditional practices of Heat Sib Song Khong Sib Si, which is northeastern tradition for good conducts, and has continued from their ancestors and men will play more political roles than women.
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