Sitti Nurbaya Novel: Love Doesn't Come Modern In The Nurbaya Musical Series

JAKARTA - The classic novel Sitti Nurbaya: Love Not Until by Marah Rusli was born again in the form of the musical series Nurbaya. This musical was composed by Garin Nugroho, the Nusantara Musical Theater group (TEMAN), and BOOW Live. This series is a continuation of 6 Indonesian folk stories adapted in the #MusikalDiRumahAja program in 2020 by IndonesiaKaya.

The Nurbaya Musical series consists of 6 episodes which will premiere on Thursday, July 1, 2021 at 19.00 on the IndonesiaKaya YouTube channel and one episode will be uploaded every week.

In contrast to other productions, the Nurbaya Musical Series will entirely be filled by art workers who take part in a series of online programs to search for talented young Indonesian artists, which began in December 2020 through the Search Siti online program.

These art workers have gone through detailed and intensive vocal, choreographic and acting training to present the story of the adaptation of this Indonesian literary work in a new packaging without leaving the regional elements of the Minang community.

“The Nurbaya Musical series is a long process for all involved in its production. There were many interesting stories during the process of making this online musical, starting from the first time we did an online audition, the selection of casting from so many talents who participated to the implementation of health protocols where all crew and cast were required to have antigens twice a week to ensure that all crew involved free from Covid-19. The set and spatial arrangement in the Nurbaya Musical Series were carried out by experts in an empty studio, until it finally transformed into a Nurbaya world full of stories and songs,” said Renitasari Adrian, Program Director at www.indonesiakaya.com.

The script for this story was written by Chriskevin Adefrid (TEMAN) in collaboration with Latifah Maurinta, Veronica Gabriella, Ilya Aktop, who were selected through the workshop Looking for Writers and attended an online masterclass with Garin Nugroho and Nia Dinata at the end of last year.

The three main characters in the Nurbaya Musical Series were selected from the second stage of the audition participants who had followed the audition process or offline casting. The participants, who came from Jakarta, Padang, Bandung, Malang, and Mataram, sang songs and read two pre-determined monologues in front of the judges in person or virtual by sending videos in the form of monologues and songs selected by the Indonesia Kaya team.

“For the Nurbaya Musical Series, there is the development of creative ideas from story scripts and taking background events. The choice of Jakarta in this modern era is very suitable to be the background for the Nurbaya Musical Series because it is an online musical, so we must pay attention not only to music but also visually. With modern pop culture culture where the fashion world is undergoing major changes that change the style of dress to become more fashionable. In terms of music, that period was a new chapter for the music world in Indonesia. In addition, many events that occurred in Jakarta at that time are still relevant to today's audience. In addition, there are also additional characters to strengthen the musicality in this Nurbaya Musical Series," said Garin Nugroho as executive producer.

The Nurbaya musical series has many interesting characters, including Nola Be3 as Etek Rahma, Galabby as Isabella, Jessica Januar as Siti Alimah, and the presence of legendary Minang singer Elly Kasim. These characters enrich Nurbaya's story, which started from a stage concept which was later translated into a musical film series.