For thespian Nanik Indarti, short-statured people are not a laughing matter and she believes in utilizing theater to end exploitation and discrimination of all kinds against them.

“I am a unique woman,” said Nanik, who lives with achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder that causes disproportionate dwarfism. 

For the 34-year-old, dwarfism is not a disability. The limitations she faces in life are caused by the attitude of able-bodied people who view her condition in a demeaning way.

Nanik, who is 125 centimeters in height, is the founder of the Unique Project Theater, a community of dwarfs in Yogyakarta who use theater to speak out about the stigmatization, stereotyping and discrimination they face in society, with the aim of encouraging inclusion. 

On Nov. 6 last year at the Yogyakarta Cultural Park, the community staged a play titled Kahanan, a Javanese word that means destiny. Participated in by five dwarfs, it centered on a short-statured woman called Sumirat (Nanik) who is broken-hearted after her average-size boyfriend, Panji Sosrosuroso, tells her that he cannot marry her due to the absence of his mother’s blessing. She is afraid that her grandchildren will have dwarfism. 

The play is based on a real-life story of a Unique Project member, said Nanik, a graduate of the theater department at the Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI).

“Humans are physically diverse, but we all deserve equal opportunities. It is normal for us to have a family, but why is the willingness of little people to get married problematized just because of a physical issue?” she said, explaining that a couple can have a normal baby even if both or one of them has dwarfism. 

Two years ago, the idea of engaging people with achondroplasia dwarfism in theater resulted in Nanik winning a Cipta Media Ekspresi grant worth Rp 72 million (US$5,178) from the Ford Foundation and Wikimedia Indonesia.

She used the money to stage a play titled Sepatu Yang Sama: Kisah Jiwa dan Angka (The Same Shoes: Story of Soul and Number) on Nov. 16, 2018, with 11 dwarfs as cast members. 

For the same reason, the National Development Planning Agency named Nanik a winner in the art and cultural performance category at the Indonesia Development Forum in July 2019.   

Despite all the achievements, Nanik sometimes faces derogatory slurs, such being called a cebol (midget). However, she no longer takes offense. 

She recalls being mad at God in the past. The fact that her parents were of normal stature made her feel that He had been unfair to let her be born with dwarfism. Her sense of self-worth and self-acceptance began to emerge from within after she became a theater student at ISI in 2006, thanks to art.

Nanik said she was grateful to be an actor because, in the art scene, she was fully accepted for who she was. 

Nanik Indarti

“When I was little, my dream was to be a flight attendant. I later realized that it was impossible to realize because I am short. However, I can be a flight attendant on stage,” she said with a chuckle.

Before working with Unique Project members, Nanik was a workshop facilitator at Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja (Bagong Kussudiardja Center for the Arts) for six years. Bagong is the father of noted actor and musician Djaduk Ferianto, who passed away on Nov. 13, 2019.

After she resigned from the center in a bid to focus on developing the Unique Project, she was surprised to find that Djaduk still cared about her. He even gave her a donation to help finance Kahanan.

Nanik said she was thankful that Djaduk had taken the time to watch her performance amid his tight schedule.   

“After he watched Kahanan, we had a chat backstage. He told me he appreciated me for empowering people with dwarfism. He asked me to continue this activity to open doors for other dwarfs to participate in my future plays,” she recalled. 

Nanik said she still felt sorrow. According to Djaduk’s wife, whom she met at his funeral, he had wanted to chat with her again, but unfortunately that was not to be.

Nanik is upbeat about the future of the Unique Project. She said the community’s upcoming play in 2020 would present something different as its members would play people of average height.

Nanik said she preferred to work independently with the Unique Project to avoid exploitation. She recalled being overworked with tasks that could have damaged her well-being when she was hired by an American director to play in an indie film production in Yogyakarta five years ago. 

Without consultation, Nanik had been instructed by the director to wear a sexy dress on the film set in her role as a short-statured prostitute. Playing a dead prostitute, she was told to lay down on a grubby bathroom floor. She was shocked when cow blood was suddenly rubbed on her body without her approval.

“The blood had decomposed and contained a lot of maggots. It resulted in an itchy rash all over my body. As I was furious, I attacked the director using abusive language,” she recalled. 

Nanik then decided to quit. She also rejected the Rp 500,000 wage that the director offered her as she knew that it was only a 10th of what an average-size actor would be paid in the same role. 

“These kinds of stories are important to tell because harassment and discrimination like what we experienced in the past still happen today. The purpose of our plays is to positively change society’s behavior, so they can respect diversity and differences,” she said.  

Unique Project’s plays also boosted the courage of more little people outside Yogyakarta to speak up. They contacted Nanik through WhatsApp and Instagram, telling the thespian stories about disdain and hostility that average-size people had directed at them. 

Their sad stories were revealed by her in her first book, titled Aku Perempuan Unik (I am a Unique Woman), released in 2018.  

Her second book, which she will work on in 2020, will highlight success stories of short-statured women who have realized their dreams in various professions, from teacher and banker to lecturer, despite all the discrimination they have faced. 

“I want to show that short-statured women also have potential. Please don’t underestimate us,” she said.

Broken-hearted: In a play titled Kahanan in November last year in Yogyakarta, Nanik Indarti (left) played short-statured woman Sumirat who falls to pieces after her average-size boyfriend Panji Sosrosuroso tells her that his mother disapproves of their plan to tie the knot.

— Photos by A. Kurniawan Ulung.