Martyna Majok is bringing one of her plays to HBO. The network has put a series adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning playwright’s “Queens” into development, Deadline reports. Majok will write and executive produce the project.
Previously staged at LCT3/Lincoln Center and La Jolla Playhouse, “Queens” is the story of “two generations of immigrant women that collide in a basement apartment in Queens, as the choices they’ve made about their security, dignity, and desires come back to confront them,” per the source. “When trying to move your life forward, what cannot – and should not – be left behind?”
“Insecure” showrunner Prentice Penny will EP the HBO adaptation via his A Penny For Your Thoughts Entertainment shingle.
Majok won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Cost of Living,” which showcases two pairs of relationships between disabled and able-bodied persons. Her other plays include “Sanctuary City” and “Ironbound.” Majok has received the Lucille Lortel Award, the ATCA Francesca Primus Prize, the Lanford Wilson Award, and the Helen Merrill Playwright Award, among many other accolades. Next, she’s writing two musical librettos and a feature for HBO.
Majok has said she’s drawn to writing plays about “intelligent and capable but flawed” working-class immigrant women because “centerstage wasn’t afforded [to] these types of characters in the stories I had access to growing up.” She explained, “They were a joke. Their English was a punch line. Or they were some magical janitor that came in for a scene to offer sage advice to the main character about how it’s ‘best to live a simple life’ or some shit. It’s about who’s telling the story and who’s seen as the ‘other.'”