RPTW has a long history of working for and with children, bringing lively folk stories and original tales to life through live puppet shows held across the country since 1984, when a makeshift theatre at the Alliance Francaise became home to RPTW’s puppet theatre. To date the RPTW has held more than 5,400 shows across the country and abroad, reaching an audience in excess of 1.9 million individuals.
RPTW’s Work with Children
Since then Rafi Peer has used the medium of puppetry to create a variety of fun, informative, educational and most importantly, culturally organic, programs and shows for children of all ages with an impressive 40 original live puppet productions including favourites like The Magic Paint Brush and iconic characters such as Imraan Peerzada’s Haseen-o-Jameel Magurmuch.
We believe that children learn through engagement and interaction, when they are spoken with as opposed to spoken at, towards this end we have used the medium of puppetry to bring awareness, positive messaging, education, social and community building concepts and learnings to children, families and caregivers across the nation.
We have worked on projects that highlight simple life lessons and positive behavioural models, programs that actually educate through entertainment, shows that are geared towards strengthening community ties, creating awareness about drugs, hygiene, and various other social issues as well as programming that is simply engaging, fun and culturally familiar to our children.
Taking puppet theatre from live performance to the wider canvas of television was the logical next step. To date, the RPTW has produced four, 13-part television puppet series for children. As well as the incredibly successful Sim Sim Hamara, a 26 Episode educational program for early learners and caregivers.
- DiDi Show – Combine Television (1987)
- Fun Time – PTV (1996)
- Putli Kahani – PTV (2006 – 2007)
- Fun Time: Season Two – Wikkid (2007)
- Sim Sim Hamara: Season One – PTV (2011)
This experience has allowed us to create unparalleled and state of the art in house production capabilities including puppet making, lighting, sound recording, lyric creation, content development, video recording, animation and post-production, set, prop and costume design.
In addition to creative content, the RPTW has held a series of large-scale annual and individual events and initiatives focusing on children, child arts and creative learning. These include Carnivals, Fun Fairs, Art Camps, Sports Activities, Creative Workshops, Museum Tours all focusing on bringing together children and families from diverse backgrounds and every stratum of society.
To date we have executed these events in more than 110 towns and cities across Pakistan
Our annual initiatives to promote arts and creative learning amongst children are:
Child Art Festival – Established in 1979, it has engaged more than 300, 000 children to date.
The Museum of Puppetry Bus Project – Established in 2006, to share the magic of puppetry and creative learning with children from underprivileged communities. More than 200, 000 children have visited the Museum to date.
Youth Performing Arts Festival – Established in 2002, the festival is a platform of expression for the young people of Pakistan in the genres of Dance, Theatre, Music, Film and Puppetry.
School Performances – Bringing joyful learning to the children of Pakistan through the magic of puppetry since 1984. Engaging over 6, 000 schools and more than 2.0 million children to date.
Workshops & Training – Our year-round training sessions range from puppetry and puppet making to theatre and acting, filmmaking, writing and developmental learning workshops for children and young adults from all walks of life. We conduct these interactive workshops with college students, public and private school children, government schools, special-ed schools, rural communities, NGO institutions and centres as well as at our premises at the Rafi Peer Cultural Centre.