“Zobaida” musical show to stage in downtown Cairo

CAIRO - January 23: The Choir Project will be presenting their musical performance show “Zobaida: Beyond the Horizon” on Tuesday at the Jesuit Cultural Center in downtown Cairo. “Zobaida” was first performed on January 15, and this Tuesday marks its final show.

“Zobaida” is the result of a series of workshops hosted by The Choir Project, an international organization that conducts week-long musical workshops in different cities and concludes the workshops with participant-based performances. The performances are entirely produced and written by the participants. Workshop participants are involved in all aspects of the show, including lyric-writing, performing, script and scene writing, and composing.

The workshops for “Zobaida” began in April 2017, in celebration of the seventh anniversary of the founding of The Choir Project.

The Choir Project was founded in 2010 in Cairo, as a workshop open to professionals and amateurs. It has since expanded its activities and areas of work, and conducted workshops in different cities in Egypt and around the world.

Shows conducted by The Choir Project take on different themes, based on the participants’’ decision. The theme for this performance is “Beyond the Horizon”. The title of the performance “Zobaida” refers to Zubaidah bint Ja’far, a famous Abbasid princess, and the wife of Harun al-Rashid.

She is best known for her patronage of education and the arts, and the design and construction of a water-well system in Iraq for the convenience of travellers and pilgrims, and her feats and experiences are featured in several stories of the One Thousand and One Nights.

The name “Zubaidah” was originally a pet name given to her by her grandfather. The word means “a small ball of butter”.

The performance takes place in collaboration with Studio Nasibian Theatre, a space for artists and performers located in the Jesuit Cultural Center.