How aptly she had chosen the name of her program; "Songs of My Life"! Listening to Ziba Shirazi reviewing her childhood and teenagehood memories was like going through my own diary. She was masterfully and effortlessly using songs of our youth in transporting us back in time. She told us of performing at family gatherings, or in a children's program on radio, or on stage at school functions, experiences all too familiar to me.
She shared with us the crush she had on a boy at elementary school and instantaneously took me to my first day of going to first grade, when the teacher asked Ali to scoot over so I can take the seat next to his; a seemingly inconsequential request that started a ripple effect that has stayed with me to this day.
Sometimes she tied each memory to another, and other times tied a decade or a historically significant event to another, by singing a famous song of the same era.
All and all, it was an evening that most members of the audience could reminisce about where he/she was when Vigen, Googoosh, Dariush or Faramarz Aslani sang the song Ziba was performing.
Last night, I got the chance to experience time travel. That is what Ziba Shirazi accomplished. What else would you call the experience of traveling to another continent, century, and era, for the price of one ticket to visit Morgan Wixon Playhouse, if not "time travel"?
Click here for a short video from last night
