This story started with a young girl who enjoyed playing with her dolls everyday, but with far more imagination and creativity than other kids. Rania Refaat is a 35-year-old puppeteer who has played with her dolls with a unusual realness since she was a kid. As a child, she gave each of her dolls a specific name and birthday. Rania also invited her friends to join in elaborate plays where each doll behaved as if they were real human beings. Rania thought that here childhood hobby would fade away along with her youthfulness, but after growing up, her passion for dolls continued to grow with her. After graduating in the Faculty of Law with a diploma in Artistic Criticism, Rania worked as a lawyer for a few years, but her passion for art and dolls remained her strongest passion. As a child, Rania designed acting and dance performances for her school. In 2006, Rania directed Hawadeet (a story workshop) for children in the El Sawy Cultural Centre where she trained children how to write, criticise, and analyse stories. Rania then compiled the stories written by the children who attended her workshops and published them in a book titled “Bosat el Hawadeet." In the book, she also wrote about the children themselves and described how they benefited from the workshop. After her first workshop in El Sawy Cultural Centre, Mohamed el Sawy, the manager of the centre, asked Rania to conduct a puppets workshop in the centre, and this marked the start of an even greater work. “Puppets are very special things for me, I'm not dealing with them as solid dolls rather I deal with them exactly like human beings," Rania directed several plays while at the El Sawy Centre such as “Mota'asef Motashaker" (“Sorry.. Thank You") and plays about famous people like Om Kalthoum (about the most famous Arab singer); Abdel Halim Hafez, another famous Egyptian singer. In 2009, Rania felt that she needed to work on her own project and to set up her own troupe. “I found myself grabbing all the tools of puppet theatre, I can write good plays, know how to make a puppet and animate it" said Refaat. At this point, Refaat started to set her troupe and named it “Pergola," which means umbrella for all kinds of theatre, comedy, political and historical. Because Rania is passionate about making plays that deal with human rights, she searched for NGOs that she might work with. “I made my first independent play “Where are we and where are they" with the co-operation of one of the NGOs who are concerned about the issue of street children," Rania wrote and directed this play, and provided puppet training for children who themselves are victims of the phenomenon. “Where are we and where are they" is a comedic play that tells the story of one child affected by the (street children) problem and deals with the causal factors leading up to him entering the streets. The play also explores his daily experience in the streets. “At first, I sit with the children and listen to their actual experiences, and, then, I write plays based on the actual events." The biggest problem that Rania faces in continuing and expanding her work is common to all youth projects: a lack of financial support. “Puppet theatre needs a lot of money, producing one play costs at least from LE 10,000 to LE 15,000 because there are a lot of special materials needed to make the actual puppets, compose songs, purchase material for the set design, and costumes." Rania was one of the millions of people who took to the streets on 25th January 2011 to participate in removing the old regime. During her stay in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the Egyptian Revolution, she identified artists, who had already been working in field hospitals, and they made new, short plays together that captured the events of the Revolution. “During the sit-in in the square to change Ahmed Shafiq, the former prime minister, we made “Fatah Einak Takol Malban" a play that talks about the cleansing out of all the state's institutions, men of the old regime." Rania and her troupe also conduct their plays in the streets and at bus stops because they believe it is important to make theatre accessible to those Egyptians who may not be able to attend theatres and plays. Then Rania made “the girl Beta," a play about a countryside girl who used to listen secretly to her neighbours' private conversations through doors and walls, until other children found out and trouble ensued. Eventually, Beta and her family had to leave the small village. To demonstrate her regret for her past conduct, Beta started cleaning the village streets and became a good girl. The play ends with Beta being forgiven her past behaviour. Rania's troupe consists of 15 persons who do all the necessary work involved in producing a play. They write plays together and compose songs, make puppets and costumes, and act in plays together. Rania is currently working on two plays. The first is “Bahia's eyes," which tackles the issue of sexual harassment, and the second, “the black and white country," is a political fantasy. “Making a play usually takes about four months. First, I start writing the text, then I make the puppets, which takes about 25 hours per puppet, and finally I start rehersing and composing songs." In addition to working with her troupe, Rania conducts puppet workshops in different places such as the Alef Book Shop and the Goethe Institute (for people who are interested in this branch of art). Rania's big dream is to build “Pergola Academy" for human and art development. She hopes that “pergola theatre for puppets" will have branches in all of Egypt's governorates to embrace all the talents and energies of the youth. ($1 = LE6.56)
