Bapak Supatman is a dhalang mocopat (storyteller and singer) and has been with the Mangun Dharma Art Center since the beginning. He is like a grandfather to many of the younger artists and at the same time their teacher. To him singing mocopat is like breathing and there has practically never been a time in Pak Supatman's life when he did not perform.

"I was born the year of Indonesia's independence - 1945 - and I was always singing in school. My teachers often sent me to competitions representing the school, and I almost always won. I got as far as fourth grade, but when I missed three days of school because I was performing as a transvestite in a local ludruk group (traditional theater), I didn't think I would pass my classes if I went back. I quit school then and there. After that, someone from the ludruk troupe used black magic on me making me go a little crazy so I quit ludruk, too. I studied mocopat singing with my dad for two years before he took me out on gigs with him. Mocopat is perfect for me: it is singing, and storytelling, and theater all in one; when we perform with just a siter I play all the different characters, and I do the drumming and gong sounds myself. I married Sunarah in 1975 and my dad died the same year. She's been my mocopat singing partner ever since."