Ikranagara, a renowned Indonesian playwright, director, actor, writer, and painter, passed away at age 79 in Bali on March 6, 2023. He was the recipient of three Fulbright grants over his career and AMINEF was proud to count him and his wife, Kay, who also frequently helped AMINEF in various ways, as close friends and supporters of the Fulbright Program in Indonesia.

His stellar career as an artist spanned five decades, starting in theater and branching into television and films, where his versatile acting talent ranging from drama to comedy, won him awards and fame from a broad audience.

Ikra attended Balinese schools in Negara through junior high school and then went to Singaraja for high school. There he was taught by Ibu Gedong Bagoes Oka, a noted Indonesian educator, and follower of Gandhi. Ikra was a classmate of Putu Wijaya, a Balinese writer, and director who was also to become a Fulbright alumnus. After high school, Ikra and Putu Wijaya wrote plays and performed on stage together in Denpasar.

Ikra was admitted to Gajah Mada University but spent most of his time in Yogjakarta with drama groups led by Rendra and Arifin C. Noer. In the political chaos of the late 1960s, he moved to Jakarta and wrote for Mochtar Lubis’ Indonesia Raya newspaper. He also became a principal actor in Arifin C. Noer’s Teater Kecil in Jakarta.

When Arifin C. Noer left for studies in the U.S., Ikra became the director of Teater Kecil. In 1975, he started his theater group, Teater Saja, performing mainly at the Jakarta Art Center (TIM). His earliest plays at TIM were abstract and experimental and used elements of traditional Indonesian theater. After 1978, under President Suharto’s repressive Orde Baru, performances were subject to strict censorship. Most of Ikra’s plays in that period were highly political, with the political content disguised in various ways though easily recognized by the audience.

Ikra acted in several films directed by Indonesia’s noted directors, winning Piala Citra best actor twice for Laskar Pelangi and Sang Kiai. He also published volumes of poetry and taught in universities and theatre groups throughout Indonesia and the US., Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, and the UK.

Ikra’s first Fulbright award in 1978 was at the University of California, Davis, where he was a visiting artist. The following year he studied filmmaking in Los Angeles and at New York University, where he introduced pajegan, a traditional Balinese mask dance. In 1989, with his third Fulbright scholarship, Ikra taught, gave workshops, and performed with graduate students at Ohio State University as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence.

As a child, Ikra’s love of books was cultivated by his mother, and he developed a lifelong habit of acquiring books from his journeys around the world. “It is very good for Indonesian artists to [read and acquire books]. We must build libraries and cultivate our reading habits,” said Ikra, as quoted in the AMINEF anniversary publication Across the Archipelago from Sea to Shining Sea, commemorating the 60/20 anniversaries of Fulbright and AMINEF. His son, Innosanto, also a writer, fondly recalled how “every time he came to the US, he would bring an empty suitcase so that he could return with it full of books.”

We at AMINEF extend our heartfelt condolences to Ikra’s wife, Kay, his sons, Innosanto Nagara and Biko Nagara, and his grandchildren on their loss. The arts community and countless fans in Indonesia will miss Ikra as a thoughtful and passionate artist and intellectual.

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Ikranagara’s profile at the AMINEF alumni directory

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Please see also: Ikranagara’s full interview in the volume From the Sea to the Shining Sea, pages 119-121 at the AMINEF website (in English and Indonesian); a reflection by his son, Innosanto, and
two obituaries in the Indonesian press, here and here.