A Buffalo group is bringing the sights and sounds the Indonesian island of Java to life as a unique orchestra plays to help the story along for over 200 shadow puppets.

Unpacking hundreds of years of that Javanese culture, thousands of miles away, is Matthew Dunning.

“This is the army puppet, marching off to battle,” Dunning described, as he held one up.

He brings these arts to students and audiences through Nusantara Arts.

“This here is our big wayang screen,” he said, gesturing.

Wayang shadow puppetry is an art form that dates back to before the 10th century. It tells the stories of legends that traders brought from India to Indonesia.

“There’s humans, there’s gods, and there’s also characters called raksasa, which are ogres,” Dunning explained. “If you're familiar with Indian mythology, this will be Krisna, but in Indonesia is Krushna.”

A total of 217 puppets make up this collection and they’re harder to work than you might think.

“I studied in Indonesia with a puppeteer for about a month and all I could really do is walk them across the screen," laughed Dunning. "It's very, very difficult and takes years to master.”

Light and shadow brings these 2D characters to life.

“People can learn a lot about different types of art from around the world and different ways of cultures expressing themselves from this,” Dunning said.

Part of this performance is music.

“The puppeteer is essentially in charge of the whole show and they're doing their story, they're moving the puppets around, and they're also making cues," Dunning said. "The ensemble actually has to be prepared for just about anything to happen in the story.”

It’s an art form you can’t usually experience.

“We're very lucky to have it here,” Dunning said.

He's grateful to the grants, including one from the National Endowment for the Arts, which help bring in experienced puppeteers.

“We want to keep doing more performances and we really want our audience and our local community to know more about this art,” he said.

With classes in the gamelan ongoing and potential puppeteering classes coming, Dunning is excited for what’s next.

“It's wonderful music and the collaboration with the puppets here results in an amazing performance,” Dunning said.

As part of their grant funding, Nusantara Arts will catalogue all the puppets in their collection. That means detailing their biography, family, adversaries, and more, all on their website.

More information on the group, the classes, and their next show, which is June 23 and 24, can be found here.