Dabestan

Monologues of Migration

Monologues of Migration is a creative and performative journey that begins with lived experience and moves toward artistic transformation. The project invites participants to engage with a personal memory—one that remains alive in the mind and body—marking a moment when migration or displacement acquires meaning, leaves an imprint, or opens a new horizon.

The aim is not simply to recount a memory, but to transform it into a dramatic monologue: a living, dynamic material capable of taking form on stage, while cultivating a reflective and critical attitude toward one’s own experience—an openness to re-seeing, re-writing, and re-imagining it beyond its initial form. In doing so, the process seeks to shift one’s relationship to lived experience: from immediacy to reflection, from self-expression to character construction, and from a fixed account to a reconfigurable narrative capable of engaging others and opening a space of shared meaning where experience is no longer possessed but performed, interpreted, and re-created—thereby foregrounding the conditions under which a voice can emerge, be heard, and enter into relation with the Other. 

This process unfolds through a series of interconnected stages:

It begins with the Preparatory Narrative, where participants return to a lived moment and write it in its raw, immediate form—close to memory, close to the self.

It then moves into the Focused Narrative, where the writing becomes more precise. The experience is shaped, details are selected, and attention is directed toward what carries dramatic potential.

From there, the work develops into the Addressed Narrative, where the voice begins to orient itself toward the Other—an imagined listener, a presence, a point of address. The narrative is no longer only internal; it begins to speak outward to the Other.

Finally, the work arrives at the Dramatic Monologue, where the “I” gives way to a character. A figure emerges—born from personal experience, yet no longer confined to it. This character may carry a different past or future, make alternative choices, and inhabit an inner world distinct from that of the writer.

Through this progression, a lived moment becomes the seed of a narrative voice. Participants learn to observe their experiences, rewrite them, enter dialogue with them, and ultimately shape them into a story that is both rooted in life and capable of exceeding it.

The final text that emerges is no longer a direct self-representation but the voice of a character—one who can stand on stage, speak, reveal themselves to the world, and engage an audience.

Since its inception in October 2025, the project has been conducted in two iterations, leading to the development of more than 10 dramatic monologues. This phase of the project will continue through the completion and publication of a book—a collection of dramatic monologues emerging from Monologues of Migration. Within the project’s broader vision, staged readings and performances of these monologues are envisioned.