There is something very pure and innocent about a grown man ‘playing with marionettes and puppets'. As a hobby, Mohamed El-Sawy is originally a professional puppeteer. What makes it more amazing is that he is also a very sharp businessman and manages his Culturewheel staff with a soft glove too, but somehow combines his passion for this refined art, while promoting and juggling other types of art at his Culturewheel center. Not only does he craft most of the puppets himself and performs in the ongoing puppet shows, he also writes and produces all the marionette plays, such as Om Kalthoum, Abdel-Halim Hafez and Farid El-Atrache, along with various comedies. Q. When did your love of puppets and puppetry first start?” A. It was at the German school in Cairo, and I was about15 years old. I would say that small puppet show announcements on the school walls put the first seeds of interest in me, and shaped my mind. The classes would prepare marionette shows at the end of each school year, and since then I was really committed and my love for puppetry is in my veins. Q. What type of puppets? A. There are many types of puppets, as you probably know, such as the gloves, the sticks, the strings, shadows, and many other types of puppetry. We used the string marionettes. I call myself a puppeteer because I have been doing this now close to 38 years. Q. I made a research about the various types of marionettes and puppetry, and their origins, which was already published in an article. But, are you still are involved in this craft? Do you make the actual puppets? A. Yes, and I still do the shows as well as craft the puppets in by myself. I also write the scenarios and am on stage for the performance of the marionettes. Q. When do you have time to do this, and do you have a special workshop? A. I am physically involved since two years now, and we have a Sakia workshop for this. Q. Have you ever been to the Puppet Theatre? Did you ever work professionally in puppetry? A. Definitely! I've been many times to the Puppet Theatre, but I have never worked with them. However, I assisted in two puppet shows twice in the early 80s, with the great puppeteer Rahmy – (who passed away recently) - for the Egyptian television. Actually, after the first month working ‘officially' for the TV, I had not done anything yet, but the TV administration asked me why I didn't go and ‘collect my salary.' I explained that I hadn't done anything yet, but they told me I was supposed to get paid anyway – even though I didn't ‘deliver anything.' This made me feel that I was getting paid for doing nothing. I didn't like this system, therefore I resigned the following month. Q. I understand, but that wasn't your fault. It must have been frustrating to wait for your turn to do something, but the television was apparently not organized or coordinated in their air time. But, it was your right to get paid, nonetheless. Wasted time is also money. You are too honest! A. You know, during the time of our puppet shows at the German school in Cairo, we had teachers who came and left after their contracts expired. Our puppetry teacher was Mr. Mast. When he left the school, everybody expected that the young school puppeteers would dissolve as well. They did not know that after Mr. Mast left I went to the Director of the school and asked him, “Why don't you keep the puppetry class give me the responsibility to be in charge of it and its forthcoming shows?” He answered, “But you're not a teacher.” Furthermore, he had to have the approval of the School Board. But for the first time in the history of that school, he agreed, without referring to or taking permission from the school board members. Q. So, apparently at the Sakia you had your first puppet performance, maybe twenty years later. What was the name of the show, if you remember? A. My career as a puppeteer lasted for 10 years after graduating from school and until the group dispersed. It was only with the establishment of the Culturewheel ten more years later, I decided to return to performing, and I producing a play called “El Masoora El Kabira” (The Big Pipe) which centers on street kids who live large pipes situated near construction sites. “It's one of the best houses they can have,” said El-Sawy, whose story was inspired by Ibrahim, a boy who used to live next to a pedestrian walk near El Sakia. My second performance was “Mutassif and Mutashakkir” because that is how I feel about things; the street children as an example, and other bad situations, and “Mutassif and Mutashakkir “ is always what I am. I harboured the dream of producing this play for 20 years, because if I could say only two words, it would be “mutaassif, mutashakkir.” It was the second show I wrote and produced for the Sakia, and my favourite one. “Mutassif and Mutashakkir” is about two undervalued brothers, who eventually find recognition through art. The message of his second work emphasizes that human behaviour and values are what counts. Puppetry is a beautiful craft that should not be forgotten. One of El-Sawy's future projects is to search for the remaining old or retired puppeteers (puppet / marionette craftsmen) and open a school with them in order to teach the art and craft of puppetry to Egypt's future new puppeteers.
