Talent sought for Arabic Sesame Street

Arabic version of Sesame Street is being filmed in Abu Dhabi and its producers are seeking cast and crew members

Some familiar Sesame Street characters will soon be talking Arabic on television screens. Courtesy Iftah Ya Simsim

ABU DHABI // Do you have what it takes be a puppeteer for a favourite children’s character, such as Elmo or Cookie Monster?

If so, the producers of Iftah Ya Sim Sim, an Arabic-language version of the long-running children’s TV show Sesame Street, want to hear from you.

Bidaya Media, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi media free zone twofour54, is seeking talented Emiratis to complete the cast and crew.

The original Iftah Ya Sim Sim was produced in Kuwait and was broadcast for 11 years until 1990, when the First Gulf War halted filming for good.

The new version will be made at twofour54. It will differ from Sesame Street but feature the same mix of puppets and real actors, and seek to educate through entertainment.

This week a team of 15 Emirati producers and writers has been at the Sesame Street studios in New York for training and development.

“We are at the most exciting stage and we want people to realise that there are doors opening now for people who want to be puppeteers, producers and actors,” said Cairo Arafat, executive producer at Bidaya Media.

“We are looking for people who are artists and have creative ideas, or want to work behind the scenes.”

Ms Arafat said the time spent with the New York team had been invaluable.

“We brought a mixed group of people with us to New York because we wanted to expose the team to the philosophy and culture of what Sesame Street is,” she said.

“We have been looking at it from a global education perspective and how to incorporate those principles into the storylines for children. We have to learn how to take education and make it humorous.”

More workshops are planned in New York as production progresses.

“What we are trying to do is create the capacity for quality programming that Sesame Street is known for, said Robert Knezevic, senior vice president of Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organisation that produces the programme.

“The mission that we set for ourselves was to create something that is as it was to the kids who grew up on it 30 years ago. This is why we are looking for the best of the best talent.”

Mr Knezevic said a major challenge was to make Iftah Ya Sim Sim relevant to Arabian Gulf audiences by looking at culture and history, without deviating from the show’s model.

“This is one big lovefest in creative brainstorming right now,” he said. “Watching the New York talent and the Emirati and GCC talent come together is great to see. Sparks are flying.”

One of the team in New York was the Emirati children’s author, Maitha Al Ali, who has been hired as a writer for the show.

“I was overwhelmed when I was asked to join the creative-writing workshop,” Al Ali said.

“I thought I didn’t have the right skills but I found that I blended in naturally, and it was such a great experience to work with such wonderful writers and to write for Sesame Street.”

Iftah Ya Sim Sim is due to begin broadcasting late next year.

A decision has not been taken as yet as to which of the programme’s famous characters, such as Bert and Ernie, Elmo and Cookie Monster, will make the transition to Iftah Ya Sim Sim.

Announcements on this are planned for early next year.