Zalfa Assaf
The value of an award lies neither in the trophy being handed over nor in the applause that accompanies a winner’s name. Its real value begins when it makes what deserves attention visible, open to discussion, and worthy of being preserved. This is what gives the Monnot Awards, in its first edition, a significance that extends beyond the ceremony itself: an attempt to give Lebanese theatre a recurring occasion to recognize its creators and turn a passing theatrical season into part of its collective memory.
The initiative launched by Joziane Boulos, Director of Théâtre Le Monnot, comes at a time when Lebanon is still emerging from successive crises. At a moment when the cultural scene has often had to fight simply to continue, the awards raise another question: How can continuity become a tradition, and scattered theatrical experiences become memory?Theatre is an ephemeral art. A performance ends, the lights go out, and another production takes its place.
An award, however, pauses before the season, selects, compares and declares that what happened on stage deserves to be remembered. In this sense, the Monnot Awards do not merely celebrate theatre; they attempt to create a memory for it.
The importance of the idea also lies in the breadth of its vision. The categories encompass original text and adaptation, directing and acting, scenography, lighting, costume design, music and sound design, alongside Best Play, Revelation of the Year, a Youth Award and an honorary award for an exceptional career.
Theatre is therefore viewed as a collective art, rather than as a single face standing in the spotlight. Entrusting the evaluation to an independent jury chaired by Dr. Walid Dakroub, alongside Sawsan Awwad, Rabih Chami, Rosette Fadel, Fady Jeanbart, Sarmad Louis, Mirana Naim and Mayssa Hanouni Yaafoury, gives the initiative an essential foundation: recognition based on expertise rather than mere ceremony.
The first edition also brought the past, present and future into the same frame. Honouring Camille Salameh for an exceptional career connects the current generation with the history of Lebanese theatre, while the Youth Award, including the Charles Boutros Noujeim Prize worth USD 2,500, opens the door to the generation that will shape its future memory.
Yet the value of the Monnot Awards will not be determined by their first edition. Their legitimacy will come through accumulation: preserving independence, developing their criteria and broadening participation, allowing an initiative that began at Le Monnot to gradually reflect Lebanese theatre in all its diversity.
Years from now, returning to these awards could become a way of tracing how Lebanese theatre has changed: who wrote, who directed, who emerged, how its visual language evolved, and which artists moved from the stage into its history.This is where an award becomes more than a trophy. It becomes a document.And in a country still rebuilding the continuity of its cultural life, it is not enough to describe theatre simply as resilient. It also needs to be seen, discussed, evaluated and preserved.
That is why Joziane Boulos’ initiative arrives at a meaningful moment: not simply to say that theatre has survived, but that what it creates deserves a place in memory.
Perhaps, then, the Monnot Awards’ real competition is not with another award. Their real competition is oblivion. If they can grow year after year, preserve their independence and expand without losing their identity, they may become more than an award created by a theatre; they may become one of the markers through which the evolution of Lebanese theatre itself can be read.
To review the categories and winners of the first edition of the Monnot Awards check⬇️
