La Jolla Playhouse’s West Coast Premiere Marks Playwright’s First Piece Since Winning Pulitzer Prize

It's been a big year for Playwright Martyna Majok.

Earlier this year, Majok won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play "Cost of Living."

Now, months later, the Polish-American playwright is set to make her La Jolla Playhouse debut with her new play "Queens."

"Queens" marks the playwright's first play since her Pulitzer Prize, and her La Jolla Playhouse debut (her first play, "Ironbound," played at San Diego's Moxie Theatre in 2017).

“We are deeply honored to host this exquisite new play by Martyna Majok, fresh off winning the Pulitzer Prize,” said Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley in a statement. “Searing, powerful and compassionate, QUEENS explores the contemporary immigrant experience and the cost of leaving behind a life in one country for the tenuous promise of something better in another.”

The play follows a young immigrant who arrives at a tenement in Queens, New York. When she arrives, she meets her new landlord, who recognizes the same journey she has been on years prior.

The small cast is comprised of six women: Jolly Abraham (Off-Broadway’s Cost of Living) as “Aamani/Yara,” Leslie Fray (TV’s Elementary) as “Pelagiya/Dragana,” Rae Gray (TV’s Fear the Walking Dead) as “Inna/Tanya,” Brenda Meaney (Off-Broadway’s Party Face) as “Renia,” Melissa Miller (Roundabout Theatre’s Tartuffe) as “Agata” and Xochitl Romero (Playhouse’s Kill Local) as “Isabela/Glenys.”