Katori Hall Shares The Inspiration For Her New Starz Show "P-Valley"

Source: Courtesy STARZ / Starz

“P-VALLEY” is promising to be the hottest thing coming to cable this summer. The show, which is based on Katori Hall’s play “Pussy Valley,” stars Brandee Evans (“The Bobby Brown Story”) as Mercedes, Nicco Annan (“This is Us”) as Uncle Clifford, Shannon Thornton (“Power”) as Miss Mississippi, Elarica Johnson (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) as Autumn Night, J. Alphonse Nicholson as Lil’ Murda (“Just Mercy”) and more.

Set in the Mississippi Delta, the hour long drama follows the magnificent characters who make a small town strip club something truly special. A release from the network describes the show as “Trap music meets film noir in this lyrical and atmospheric series that dares to ask what happens when small-town folk dream beyond the boundaries of the Piggly Wiggly and the pawnshop.”

We’ve got an exclusive clip of Katori Hall, the Olivier Award-winning playwright who is the showrunner and Executive Producer of “P-VALLEY” speaking about the inspiration for the show and why it was so important to set it (and set it off!) in the south.

Are you fascinated? Because we are! This seems like something Starz has invested a lot of work and money in and we love to see new faces and storylines because our community is so diverse. There are many many many stories to be told.

Here’s a little more about Katori Hall:

Katori Hall is an Olivier Award-winning playwright from Memphis, Tennessee. She is the showrunner and Executive Producer of P-VALLEY, the new Starz series based on her play Pussy Valley. Most recently for the stage, she wrote the book for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, the West End hit debuting on Broadway in Fall 2019.

Katori’s play The Mountaintop, premiering at Theatre503 in 2009, transferred to the West End and won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2010. The Mountaintop later opened on Broadway in October 2011 to critical acclaim. Katori’s other works include the award-winning Hurt Village, which is currently in development as a feature film, Hoodoo Love, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!, Our Lady of Kibeho, Purple is the Colour of Mourning, and The Blood Quilt.

In addition to her Laurence Olivier Award, Katori’s other awards include a Susan Smith Blackburn Award, Lark Play Development Center Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, two Lecompte du Nouy Prizes from Lincoln Center, Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, NYFA Fellowship, the Columbia University John Jay Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement, National Black Theatre’s August Wilson Playwriting Award, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award.

Katori is an alumnus of the Sundance Episodic Lab’s inaugural class, as well as the Sundance Screenwriting Lab. She also participated in Ryan Murphy’s Half Foundation Directing Program and directed the award-winning short, ARKABUTLA.

The series will premiere on Sunday, July 12 at 9:00 PM ET/PT, following the season finale of “Hightown,” then move to its regular time slot at 8:00 PM ET/PT starting on Sunday, July 19th on STARZ in the U.S. and Canada and on STARZPLAY across Europe, Latin America and Japan.