Announcing Martyna Majok as the 9th PoNY Fellow at The Lark Theatre

The Lark and Playwrights of New York (PoNY) are proud to announce that Martyna Majok, author of Ironbound, a Top Ten play for the 2014 Kilroys' list, will be the recipient of the 2015-16 PoNY Fellowship which provides over $100,000 in comprehensive career support. Majok will also receive year-long housing in the PoNY apartment located in the heart of Manhattan's theater district, three years of health insurance, a living stipend, and artistic support (workshops, residencies, mentorship) at The Lark, including participation in the prestigious Playwrights' Workshop led by Arthur Kopit and colleagues such as, Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Terrence McNally, Theresa Rebeck, and José Rivera.

Majok was selected from a very talented group of writers who were nominated by artistic leaders and graduate playwriting programs from across the country.

Founded in 2007 by Sandi Goff Farkas and The Lark, the unprecedented PoNY Fellowship revolutionized how a new generation of playwrights was supported by shifting emphasis to the life of the artist, and helped catapult a shift in the theater industry by encouraging other major donor and theater organizations to deepen their support to promising playwrights. The Fellowship continues to be the only of its kind, offering a full range of personal and professional benefits and aiming to launch playwrights into sustainable careers.

Majok joins The Lark/PoNY family of Fellows which includes Carson Kreitzer (NEA Art Works Award for Behind The Eye), Samuel D. Hunter (2013 Drama Desk Award for The Whale), Katori Hall (Olivier Best New Play Award for The Mountaintop), Tommy Smith (The Wife), A. Rey Pamatmat (Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them), Dominique Morisseau (Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History for Detroit '67), Kimber Lee (brownsville song (b-side for tray)) and, the current Fellow, Eric Dufault (Year of the Rooster). Together, these PoNY Fellows have written a total of 33 new plays while residing in the apartment, resulting in 53 productions in 32 cities.

The PoNY Fellowship is one of four life-sustaining fellowships at The Lark. The other fellowships include the Jerome New York Fellowship (supported in part by the Jerome Foundation) which supports an emerging playwright with a distinctive voice to build a body of work; the Launching New Plays Into The Repertoire ("LNP") Fellowship (supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) which brings national recognition to a rising playwright by securing four or more productions of a play by that writer; and the Mid-Career Fellowship which gives an experienced playwright the chance to set aside teaching and other jobs to explore fresh ideas and renew artistic purpose.

"The PoNY playwrights have made a significant impact on the theatrical landscape in New York City as well as on the national stage and we are very proud to welcome Martyna to their ranks," said The Lark's Artistic Director John Clinton Eisner and PoNY founder Sandi Goff Farkas. "Martyna's rare gift for tackling intense stories about unsung lives in her plays has already resulted in a robust and distinctive body of work and we're thrilled to see what else she has in store. We are honored to help Martyna have the freedom to focus on her art by providing the support she deserves."

ABOUT MARTYNA MAJOK

Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland, and raised in New Jersey and Chicago. Her plays include Mouse in a Jar, the friendship of her thighs, Petty Harbour, reWilding, Women at the Well, and Ironbound, which was a Top Ten play for the 2014 Kilroys' list. Martyna's work has been presented and developed with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The John F. Kennedy Center, Satori Group, New York Stage & Film, the claque, Yale Cabaret, The Playwright and Director Center of Moscow, HERE Arts Center, Red Tape Theatre, and The LIDA Project, among others. Martyna is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood, The 2014-2016 Women's Project Lab, and Ars Nova's Uncharted. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She has taught playwriting at Wesleyan, The New Haven Co-Op High School, New Jersey Repertory Company, and SUNY Purchase, and assisted Paula Vogel at Yale. She is currently developing a musical about modern day Chernobyl for The Foundry Theatre.

Playwrights of New York (PoNY) is committed to ensuring the creation of vibrant and diverse new American plays in the center of the theater world by providing promising playwrights with world-class artistic and financial support to help them build sustainable careers.

Founded in 2007 by Farkas and The Lark, the unprecedented PoNY Fellowship helped catapult a shift in the theater industry by encouraging other major donor and theater organizations to deepen their support of the next generation of playwrights and by offering a full range of personal and professional benefits for artists.

Fellows are launched into sustainable careers aided by ongoing artistic support through PoNY 2.0, which provides deeper and ongoing support to its playwrights through partnerships with American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, Labyrinth Theater Company, and the Bush Theatre in London; access to opportunity and travel funds; Financial Bootcamp training; and a Rooted in NYC grant if the playwright elects to continue residency in New York City. For more information about Playwrights of New York, please visit: www.playwrightsofnewyork.org.

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