Ironbound
Directed by Kimberly Alexander
The Madnani Theater: May 1-18, 2026
Hollywood, CA
Photo credit Zachary Maxwell Sterz.
Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland and raised in Jersey and Chicago. She was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her Broadway debut play, Cost of Living, which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, and Ironbound, which have been produced across American and international stages, and the libretto for Gatsby: An American Myth, with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett.
Other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, Arthur Miller Foundation Legacy Award, The Obie Award for Playwriting, The Hull-Warriner Award, The Academy of Arts and Letters’ Benjamin Hadley Danks Award for Exceptional Playwriting, The Sun Valley Playwrights Residency Award, Off Broadway Alliance Best New Play Award, The Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play, The Hermitage Greenfield Prize, as the first female recipient in drama, The Champions of Change Award from the NYC Mayor’s Office, The Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, The Lanford Wilson Prize, The Lilly Award's Stacey Mindich Prize, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play from The Helen Hayes Awards, Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, ANPF Women's Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Prize, Global Age Project Prize, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation
Fellowship for The American Dream. Martyna studied at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, University of Chicago, and Jersey public schools. She was a 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence, the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, and a 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. Martyna is currently adapting Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” for the Broadway stage and is premiering a musical adaptation of “Girl, Interrupted,” with music by Aimee Mann at The Public Theatre this spring. She has developed TV projects for HBO and is writing a number of feature films. Her first screenplay, an adaptation of “Preparation for the Next Life” by Atticus Lish, written for Plan B/Pastel/MGM/Orion and directed by Bing Liu, was released in September and nominated for this year’s Gotham Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Playwright
Martyna Majok
Creative Team
Producer - actor - Darja
Marisa Van Den Borre is an actor and four-time Emmy-winning producer, recognized for her work on Judge Judy. Her film credits include The Ali’i King, Magdalena, and 117 Years of Movie Bullshit, with memorable television work as an undercover FBI agent opposite Kumail Nanjiani in Hulu’s Welcome to Chippendales.
On stage, she received a BroadwayWorld Best Supporting Actress nomination for her portrayal of Miep Gies in Anne Frank and originated the role of Thea in Jon Klein’s Resolving Hedda.
Grateful beyond measure to her husband and family, Marisa draws enduring inspiration from her Oma Kati, the strongest woman she has ever known. This one’s for her - IMDB
Producer - Actor - Tommy
Chad can be seen this fall recurring on MONSTER: THE LIZZIE BORDEN STORY, currently on NETFLIX in On Swift Horses opposite Jacob Elordi. Recently starring in Sam, the first English-language film of Serbian director Luka Bursac, and the upcoming film People Passing.
Recent TV work includes bad boy CEO Jeremy Strong MATLOCK(CBS) opposite Kathy Bates, Seamus Schementti, Melissa’s Italian brother on ABBOTT ELEMENTARY(ABC). Other credits: Modern Family (ABC) recurring on Colony (USA) and Matador (EL Rey Network). Series Regulars on Unfinished Business, Pumas.
Theatre credits include: The Rose and the Rime (The Kennedy Center), Castle in the Sky(Oviatt Penthouse), Resolving Hedda (Victory Theatre), The Lyons (The Road Theatre), Dracula (Noho Arts Center)
Chad is honored to share the stage with his unbelievable wife, Marisa and produce this amazing play with his friends.
Director
Kimberly Alexander is a proud New Jerseyian turned Californian, and a sore ballerina turned award-winning actor, producer, and director. Acting credits include ‘Rabbit Rabbit’, currently on a film festival runaround, ‘Seeing Diane Arbus’, in which she plays the famed photographer, and ‘Edge of Space’, shortlisted for the 2025 Academy Awards Live Action Short Film category. She also works in Los Angeles theatre and has performed on stage at The Getty Villa, and with Playwrights Arena, The Triptych Group, The Road Theatre, The Victory Theatre, Circle X, and The Elephant Theatre, amongst others. She has received Stage Raw and Robby Award wins and nominations for her LA Times Critics Choice stage work. Kimberly is probably on your TV right now in a commercial; perhaps it’s for Hershey’s, Hyundai, Toyota, Verizon, Little Caesars, Sleep Number, Hidden Valley, TJ Maxx, or Spectrum. Kimberly’s producing highlights include ‘The Romantics’, winner of the Audience Award for Favorite Short at The Napa Valley Film Festival, and ‘The Engine of Our Ruin’, a political comedy stage play that enjoyed a sold-out run in Los Angeles.
This production of Ironbound marks Kimberly’s directorial stage debut. She dedicates this show to her Polish immigrant grandparents, Mary and Micholas Kurjanowicz, who lived lives of survival much like Darja’s. IMDB @_crispyrick_
JOhnny Clark
Co - Producer
Johnny Clark founded and is the Artistic Director of the award-winning Vs. Theatre Company (voted “Best Of The Decade” by the LA Weekly and “one of the top theatres in Los Angeles” by the Los Angeles Times), a Los Angeles non-profit theatre devoted to producing the best contemporary plays in America on an intimate stage. He founded and is the Artistic Director of The Vs. Studio whose mission is to help artists find and manifest their passion projects. And to do so with excellence and generosity for themselves, their fellow artists and the audience they seek to serve.
He’s also an actor, having performed in over fifty stage productions. Selected theatre credits: A HATFUL OF RAIN, LIFE AND LIMB, BRILLIANT TRACES, THE CREDEAUX CANVAS, MODERN DANCE FOR BEGINNERS, NAVY PIER, BEGGARS IN THE HOUSE OF PLENTY, WASTE OF SHAME, ERIC LARUE, NEVER SWIM ALONE, DEATH OF A SALESMAN, ON AN AVERAGE DAY (Los Angeles and Chicago Productions), EAGLE HILLS, EAGLE RIDGE, EAGLE LANDING, BLACKBIRD for which he was nominated for Best Lead Actor by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for his portrayal of “Baylis”, THE MERCY SEAT, TRUE WEST and COPS AND FRIENDS OF COPS. He has done several commercials and independent films including LOUSY WITH THE SPIRIT (Cannes Film Festival) and LIARS CLUB, which he co-wrote, produced and starred in. The film won First Prize at several film festivals, received strong reviews and had a theatrical release.
He graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Public Policy and Economics Concentration. Prior to making the unfortunate economic decision to pursue a life in the arts, Johnny worked in Venture Capital for nearly a decade. Investing is still a hobby though.
If you meet Johnny, be sure to ask him what it was like to play basketball with Michael Jordan and the former President, Barack Obama.
Johnny is married to Amy Clark, and has two young sons, Callum and Truman (far and away his greatest accomplishment to date).
Producer Statement
Loveborg Productions was born from a shared artistic and personal partnership between Emmy-winning producer Marisa Van Den Borre and Chad Coe (Monster, Abbott Elementary, Matlock). United by a passion for storytelling rooted in rich, complex characters, we are continually drawn to work that explores the depth and nuance of the human experience. Ironbound represents theater at its most intimate and human. Raw, honest, and profoundly moving.
As actors, we were eager to savor Martyna Majok’s language and fully inhabit her words on stage. Her writing demands vulnerability and courage, offering characters who are layered, flawed, and deeply alive. It is a gift to step inside such a world.
As a married couple, this project also marks a meaningful return to our theater roots, where we first met performing together in LA Times critics’ pick, Resolving Hedda. That experience shaped not only our artistic paths but our lives together, and coming back to the stage in this way feels both full circle and deeply personal.
We are committed to honoring Martyna Majok’s beautiful play with integrity, care, and wholehearted dedication. Our goal is to create something truly special, a production that resonates, lingers, and invites audiences into its emotional landscape. It is an honor to have the opportunity to work on this extraordinary piece of art, and we are profoundly grateful to share it.
We’re deeply thankful to Johnny Clark for his encouragement and support in bringing this production to life.