ABSTRACT

Martyna Majok moved to the United States from Poland at the age of five with her mother. They left behind their family and the aftermath of the Chernobyl atomic disaster. She got into the University of Chicago, majoring in English and later committing to theatre, and to playwriting specifically, at the Yale School of Drama and at the Juilliard School. Martyna Majok’s plays speak her strong voice, her attention to human nature, and to the social conditions of the unprivileged, intimately linked to poor economic conditions, precarious legal status, and disabled physical conditions. She speaks to an audience who is quite likely widely estranged from the human conditions portrayed in her plays, yet the humanity of her characters is what makes them compelling for everyone.