Playwriting Alum Wins Drama Pulitzer

Congratulations to Martyna Majok (Playwrights ’17), who won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for drama! Two other alums were Pulitzer finalists.

Juilliard was well represented in the list of prizewinners, which was announced on April 16. Majok won for her play Cost of Living, which explores interactions between abled and disabled individuals through its quartet cast—a man with cerebral palsy and his caregiver; and a paralyzed woman and her ex-husband. The play made its New York premiere Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club last June. Earlier this spring, Majok's play Queens was at Lincoln Center's LCT3 theater.

Faculty member Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Playwrights ’14) was a drama Pulitzer finalist for the second time. He was recognized for Everybody, a contemporary take on the 15th-century morality play Everyman that the fourth-year drama students performed here in in the fall—t he character of Everybody was chosen from the cast by lottery at each performance. In 2016, Jacobs-Jenkins was a finalist for his play Gloria.

Another Juilliard alum was a finalist for the music Pulitzer: Michael Gilbertson (BM ’10, composition) was honored for his Quartet, which was co-commissioned by the Verona Quartet—Juilliard’s resident string quartet from 2015 to 2017—and the Concert Artists Guild. This year was the first time since the category was introduced, in 1943, that the music Pulitzer went to someone outside classical and jazz—the winner was rapper Kendrick Lamar.