23rd Anniversary Celebration: Petra Theatre Staging Readings of Four New Works

Established on November 27, 2002, the institution began as Petra Little Theatre (PLT).

Since celebrating its 20th anniversary, PLT transformed into Petra Theatre and now claims to have the first Black Box Studio facility in East Java.

Petra Theatre serves as an educational theater and a practical laboratory for ECI students.

As mentioned on its official website, the institution upholds five core values: Artistry, Professionalism, Collaboration, Diversity, and Education.

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The name change was not merely symbolic; it reflected an expansion of audience reach and an increase in the scale and quality of productions.

The moment also marked the institution’s maturity phase, encompassing artistic direction, program structure, and the formulation of more mature values.

Petra Theatre began to establish its identity as an art institution oriented not only towards education, but also towards professionalism and sustainability.

In the past, PLT performances could not accommodate more than 50 people and relied on the projection of actors’ voices without microphones.

“At that time, the performance could take up to a week and run twice a day because the capacity was limited,” Sara recalls.

She compares this to today’s productions that are more concise and feature more effective marketing strategies, as evidenced by the successful productions of “11 Questions” and “What If”, two plays performed in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

Despite those changes, Petra Theatre’s artistic character remains the same, as it is influenced by its academic context.

Being under the ECI study program, which is based on the English language and global creative culture, the performance style developed tends to adapt Western theatrical traditions.

"We are indeed adapting Western culture, so we rarely create traditional ones," Sara explained.

She added that this approach is a differentiator between Petra Theatre and other theaters in Indonesia, which mostly feature local folklore or traditional forms.(*)

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