Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Tim debat pemula kami akan mementaskan drama pendek di teater kota. - Our beginner debate team will stage a short drama at the city theater.

In tim debat pemula kami, the speaker is talking about our team, but the listener is probably not part of that team, so kami is correct.

If the listener were also a member of the team, you might hear tim debat pemula kita.

Could I say tim debat kami yang pemula instead of tim debat pemula kami?

You can, but the nuance changes slightly.

tim debat pemula kami sounds like a set phrase: our beginner debate team (this is the label of the team).
tim debat kami yang pemula literally: our debate team that is beginner, stressing the fact that our team is the one that is a beginner (for example, compared to others).

Both are grammatical, but tim debat pemula kami is more natural if beginner is part of the team’s type or category.

What is the function of akan here? Does it mean future tense?

akan is a particle that marks future or planned actions. In this sentence, akan shows that the drama performance is in the future: will stage / is going to stage.

Indonesian doesn’t have tenses like English; time is usually shown by time words (kemarin, besok, tadi, etc.) or by context. akan is the most common way to explicitly mark a future or planned action, especially in more neutral or careful speech.

Can akan be omitted here? Would the sentence still be correct?

Yes, you can omit akan:

Tim debat pemula kami mementaskan drama pendek di teater kota.

This is still grammatically correct. Without akan, the time reference depends more on context. It can mean stages, is staging, staged, or will stage, depending on when you say it and what has been said before.

Using akan here simply makes the future meaning clear and explicit: will stage a short play.

What does mementaskan mean exactly, and what is its root word?

The verb mementaskan comes from the noun pentas, which means stage (as in performance stage).

Morphology:

pentas (stage)
mementaskan = to put something on stage / to present something on stage / to stage a performance

So mementaskan drama pendek = to stage a short play, to put on a short play, or to present a short drama on stage. It’s normally used for performances (drama, dance, music, etc.) that are presented on a stage.

What is the difference between mementaskan drama, memainkan drama, and bermain drama?

All are related to performing a drama, but the focus is slightly different:

mementaskan drama – to stage / present a drama (focus on organizing and putting it on stage as a production).
memainkan drama – literally to play a drama, can mean perform a drama (often focusing on interpreting or “playing” the piece).
bermain drama – to act/play in a drama, or to do drama acting (focus on the activity of performing, usually from the participants’ point of view).

In this sentence, mementaskan is natural because we are talking about the team staging a performance at a specific venue (the city theatre).

Why is it drama pendek and not pendek drama?

In Indonesian, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

drama = drama / play
pendek = short

So:

drama pendek = short drama / short play
pendek drama would be ungrammatical in standard Indonesian.

Other examples:

buku tebal = thick book
rumah besar = big house

What does di teater kota mean? Is teater kota a specific place?

di teater kota literally means at the city theatre or in the city theater.

di = at / in / on (location preposition)
teater = theater
kota = city

teater kota is understood as the city’s theatre or the municipal theatre (a theatre that belongs to / is associated with the city). Often this refers to a specific, known venue in town, similar to the City Theater as a proper place. Context or capitalization in writing might clarify if it is the official name.

What is the difference between di teater kota and di teater di kota?

di teater kota suggests a specific city theatre (a particular venue run by or identified with the city).
di teater di kota literally means at a theater in the city and is more general: some theater building located within the city, not necessarily the city’s official theatre.

So:

di teater kota ≈ at the (official) city theatre
di teater di kota ≈ at a theater that is in the city (as opposed to in the village, suburbs, etc.)

Could I use pada instead of di in di teater kota?

In everyday modern Indonesian, di is the standard preposition for location: di rumah, di sekolah, di teater kota.

pada is more formal and less natural for physical location with a noun like teater kota. You might see pada in very formal writing, often before abstract nouns or pronouns (for example: pada hari Senin, pada kami), but di teater kota is the normal and idiomatic choice for at the city theatre.

Is the word order of the whole sentence flexible? Could I move kami or akan around?

Some parts are flexible, others are not:

Tim debat pemula kami akan mementaskan drama pendek di teater kota. (original)

You can move kami to the front for emphasis:

Kami, tim debat pemula, akan mementaskan drama pendek di teater kota.

You can also put akan immediately before the verb, which is already the case here; it normally stays there:

… akan mementaskan … (this is the natural position)

You cannot freely move akan to the very start of the sentence, like:

✗ Akan tim debat pemula kami mementaskan… (sounds wrong in normal Indonesian).

So you have some freedom for emphasis, but not total flexibility.

How would I change this sentence to talk about the past instead of the future?

Indonesian often just relies on context to show past time, but if you want to be clear, add a time word, or use sudah or telah. For example:

Tim debat pemula kami sudah mementaskan drama pendek di teater kota.
= Our beginner debate team has already staged a short play at the city theatre.
Kemarin tim debat pemula kami mementaskan drama pendek di teater kota.
= Yesterday our beginner debate team staged a short play at the city theatre.

You normally drop akan when talking about the past.

There’s no plural marking on tim or pemula. How do we know it’s more than one person?

Indonesian usually does not mark plural with an ending like English -s. Number is inferred from context.

tim can mean team (singular concept) but it implies multiple members.
pemula can mean a beginner or beginners, depending on context.

If you want to be explicit, you can add a number or word like para:

para pemula = the beginners
tim debat para pemula kami = our debate team of beginners

But in most situations, tim debat pemula kami is clear enough.