Medina Dizdarevic

Nothing quite moves or affects me the way theatre does—it is a living, breathing thing—and seeing some wonderful theatre in my early 20s while on an interstate trip solidified that this was where I needed to be.

Heartlines explores what it means to write—from the heart and soul—and where that writing takes us. Every writer’s journey is different, so we invite you to take a moment to read, pause and reflect on what it means to shape stories for the page.

Medina Dizdarevic is an emerging Bosnian Muslim playwright and theatre-maker from Boorloo. Her work explores displacement, culture and intergenerational trauma. She graduated from Curtin University in 2015 with a degree in Creative Writing and endeavours to use theatrical storytelling for community healing, joy and connection. She was a participant in Playwrights to the Front with Static Drive Co in 2021 and part of Performing Lines WA Kolyang Lab cohort. In 2022, she was the writer for The Complete Show of Water Skiing in the Blue Room Theatre’s Summer Nights season (PAWA winner for Outstanding Ensemble) and developed her debut work The Strangers with Performing Lines WA and Black Swan State Theatre Company through the DLGSC Playwright Partnership Program. She most recently participated in the Perth Playwriting Festivals Inkling program and is a part of FORGE, Black Swan’s Emerging Writers Program.

Centre for Stories: When you’re not writing or working in theatre, what are you doing?

Medina Dizdarevic: I’m probably reading, rewatching my comfort shows or hanging out with my sister (while we try to get our cat to hang out with us). I’ve also recently started learning to sew, so that’s been a really fun deep dive into a new world. I try to see as much theatre as I can. I was a fan first, and I am the biggest fan of my friends making theatre. And at certain intervals, within all of that, I have an admin day job.

CFS: What are you currently reading and why? What drew your attention to it?

MD: I have just started reading All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks. It was gifted to me by my best friend for my birthday, who thought it was the right thing to give me because she said: “You’re writing a play about love.” She has always been able to understand my work and vision before even I have.

CFS: Why do you write?

MD: I write because I always have, ever since I learned how to; in every stage and phase of my life, writing has been my most natural form of expression and has been the outlet through which I have been able to explore and process every big thought, emotion and experience. I feel compelled to do it—whether that’s poetry (my first form of creative writing), short stories, playwriting, or even journaling. Not much else brings me clarity or solace the way writing does. On a more macro level, I also write because being able to weave a narrative is also a means to effect change, imagine a better future and provide a salve for past wounds. There is so much we don’t have control over—what’s happened to us, how it’s changed us—but writing and telling stories helps make sense of it all while offering the comfort of: “I see you.”

CFS: When did you decide to pursue playwriting and what triggered that decision?

MD: I officially decided to pursue playwriting about seven years ago but didn’t find a place in the industry until 2021. I struggled with a lack of purpose and direction in my early 20s. I knew my future was writing, but I didn’t know what form or stories I wanted to tell. I grew up with very little access to theatre and never thought it was something I could pursue because I never saw myself represented in that space, nor did I have any understanding of what working in that world looked like. Nothing quite moves or affects me the way theatre does—it is a living, breathing thing—and seeing some wonderful theatre in my early 20s while on an interstate trip solidified that this was where I needed to be.

CFS: What inspires you?

MD: Listening to artists talk about their process or watching them work (especially in a rehearsal room) has been enough to have me rush home and finish the play I’m working on. The inspiration has been that potent. There’s something about witnessing the process of making theatre that reminds me I am not just a fan of the outcome and seeing a show—I find so much magic and am deeply obsessed with everything that goes into making a show. Simultaneously, sitting in an audience and witnessing a live work in a collective always inspires me to some degree, as does reading or seeing visual art.

CFS: Walk us through an ‘aha’ moment while you were on the hot desk.

MD: I do a lot of long-form journaling when I’m writing a play, and it’s mostly just freewriting all of my thoughts about what I think the work is, what it’s not and who I believe these characters to be. I had so many moments of revelation during my fellowship while journaling as I was uncovering so much depth. Specifically, about who my characters are, what their relationship is and what it is about them that demands this particular story be told.

CFS: What did you work on while hot desking? Or briefly describe a piece of writing you worked on during your hot desk that you are particularly excited about?

MD: I worked on a play I’ve been writing for a couple of years now. It is called RE: TREAT. It’s a comedy about two Muslim women sent on a cultural sensitivity retreat in the Perth Hills. This work is so fun because it’s given me so much room to play. I really let these characters run wild on the page, and I find it so exciting because I can already see it happening on stage.

CFS: Now that you’ve completed your hot desk, what will you be working on next?

MD: I will still be working on RE: TREAT as well as a few other projects I have on the go—I find it so hard to work on multiple projects at once and simultaneously impossible to not do this. I also really want to sew a tote bag that doesn’t immediately fall apart, so please keep me in your prayers.

All Write is a program funded by Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and Centre for Stories Founders Circle. All Write is a writing program offering opportunities for emerging and mid-career writers who identify as CaLD and/or First Nations. All Write offers a series of opportunities for writers, including hot desks, events, residencies, publications, networking, and exchanges. It builds on our prior decade of work to represent a levelling-up of artistic excellence and professional opportunity for writers who are emerging and mid-career. It will be open to all those who are interested in applying and who are selected; and is suited to those who seek national and international recognition.

These stories have been licensed to the Centre for Stories by the Storyteller. For reproduction and distribution of these stories, please contact the Centre for Stories.

This interview was published in February 17 2025.