1. Martyna Majok is a Polish-born American playwright who received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Cost of Living.
22 Facts About Martyna Majok
1. 2.
Martyna Majok emigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in New Jersey.
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Martyna Majok's plays are often politically engaged, feature dark humor, and experiment with structure and time.
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Martyna Majok adapted The Great Gatsby for the musical "Gatsby: An American Myth," with Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett writing music.
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Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Upper Silesia and emigrated to the United States with her mother as a child.
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Martyna Majok won a playwriting contest for students from New Jersey as the only winner not from a private school that year; it was her first foray into drama.
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At age 17, Martyna Majok was inspired by Sam Mendes' production of Cabaret at Studio 54, her first time in the theater, where she went with $45 she had won hustling pool.
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Martyna Majok attended the University of Chicago on scholarship, where she took drama classes.
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Martyna Majok discovered that she preferred to write for the theater, in order to create roles she could identify with.
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Martyna Majok was awarded the Merage Fellowship for the American Dream, an award for immigrant students, to help fund an education in writing.
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Martyna Majok then went on to attend the Yale School of Drama and the Juilliard School, all on stipends.
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Martyna Majok is known for exploring underrepresented communities in her writing.
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Martyna Majok often gives voices to immigrants or displaced people, women with appetites and drives orbiting around their limitations, the working class, and persons with disabilities.
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Martyna Majok's women are strong and fight for their dignity.
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Martyna Majok takes a broader look at class division, financially precarious characters, and the delicate emotional balance of need and care.
16.
Queens is being developed into an original series for HBO; Martyna Majok is penning the adaptation and is set to executive produce.
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Martyna Majok's works has been presented and developed with many other theater companies, including La Jolla Playhouse, Round House, Kennedy Center, Geffen Playhouse, Fountain Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theatre.
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Martyna Majok has taught playwriting at Williams College, Wesleyan University, and SUNY Purchase College; in education projects such as Primary Stages ESPA, and NJ Rep; and as an assistant to Paula Vogel at Yale.
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In 2023, the musical, Gatsby, premiered at the American Repertory Theater with Rebecca Frecknall, with whom Martyna Majok worked on Sanctuary City, directing.
20.
Ironbound is the story of a Polish immigrant, Darja, living in New Jersey working as a house cleaner and factory worker, as Martyna Majok's mother used to do.
21.
Cost of Living, for which Martyna Majok won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2016, and then transferred Off-Broadway in a Manhattan Theatre Club production at City Center in June and July 2017.
22.
Martyna Majok dedicated the play to her grandfather who died in 2012.