Performance-lecture by Matthew Cohen with Video by Ben Hagari: “Wayang, Sea Offerings, and Me”

The debut of a lecture-performance co-created by puppeteer-professor Matthew Cohen, and the award-winning artist Ben Hagari titled "Wayang, Sea Offerings and Me." This performance looks back at Cohen’s training as an apprentice puppeteer in the Cirebon area of Java, Indonesia in the 1990s, when he accidentally became a shaman of sorts. The performance interpolates a puppet drama (Budug Basu) about the cursed union of the rice goddess and the embodiment of fish, sponsored annually by fishing communities. Throughout the work there is autobiographical commentary, ecological reflections, comedy, and video shot in the Cirebon area in 2024. The video features the adornment of a buffalo head with female makeup, the making and processing of miniature ships, and the casting of the buffalo head into the sea.

This event, held in the Sterling Divinity Quadrangle's Great Hall, serves as the conclusion of the full day ISM symposium symposium Wayang, Ecology, and the Sacred: Engagements with Indonesian Puppet Theatre. Although the full symposium event requires registration, this concluding lecture-performance is free and open to the public with no need to register.

Co-sponsored by the ISM’s Religion, Ecology, and Expressive Culture Initiative and the Yale Council on Southeast Asia Studies.

Contact: Katya Vetrov