By Stephen Cooney

Playwright, drama therapist and educator Yasmine Beverly Rana read four monologues from her play “The War Zone Is My Bed” Wednesday on the 10th floor of the Axinn Library as part of the University’s Day of Dialogue.

Each monologue was from the perspective a different character and were performed emphatically. The works shared a concept of powerful emotion and the human spirit surviving even during war. The voices of the monologues ranged from a woman from Sarajevo, the wife of an American War correspondent, a widow who was forced to become a prostitute under the Taliban in Afghanistan and a religious police officer in Afghanistan.

After presenting her monologues, Rana expanded on her writing process and the creation of the play, which began seven years ago as a series of individual stories.

“The play started as a play called Sarajevo about a journalist and a woman who was a writer in her own right.” Rana said. “I then looked at the piece about the Taliban and then I connected the stories.” Rana explained how she linked a group of individual stories that were uncovered by her research. The individual tales, though about women in completely different situations and walks of life, were connected by the common thread of war running through their lives.

Each of the women were linked together because they shared the same emotions. “The process of writing started out as pieces but I wanted to weave them together.” Rana said. “Even though the stories are talking about Afghanistan, the United States, Sarajevo there is still a connection because the feelings and emotions transcend nationality, and this is what I had intended.”

The play is showing at the La MaMA Experimental Theatre Club on Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m.