Arlekin Players Theatre company information, Employees & Contact Information

Arlekin’s company of immigrants is led by Igor Golyak, a Jewish director born in Ukraine. For 9 years, it grew a local audience for plays in Russian at its Needham, MA studio. In year 10, Arlekin performed in English and swept the 2020 Boston Elliot Norton Awards. Then COVID hit and Arlekin premiered STATE VS NATASHA BANINA: a free, live virtual theater event that went viral and received a NYTimes Critics Pick. The production launched Arlekin’s Zero Gravity Virtual Theatre Lab, which produced CHEKHOVOS (NYT Critics Pick, w/Jessica Hecht & Mikhail Baryshnikov), and WITNESS, a documentary about antisemitism and Jewish migration. Next, Arlekin’s THE ORCHARD featured Baryshnikov, Hecht, and an international design team that combined animation, robotics, gaming, and other technologies to form a hybrid in-person/virtual production at Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC) and Emerson Paramount (Boston). Arlekin commissioned Ukrainian-born playwright Sasha Denisova to write/direct THE GAAGA for its 2023 US Premiere - the hybrid production put Putin and his cronies on trial and was acclaimed by critics and audiences in-person in Boston and virtually throughout the globe. In June 2024, Arlekin mounted an acclaimed site-specific production of THE DYBBUK at The Vilna Shul in Boston, which sold out every performance. In 2024, OUR CLASS premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music and Golyak was cited by the NY Times as “among the most inventive directors working in the United States.” The play then remounted alongside Golyak’s hailed adaptation of MERCHANT OF VENICE in Fall 2024 in residence at Classic Stage, NY. OUR CLASS was cited on The Wall Street Journal's "Best of 2024" list, and is headed to Boston for a production at the Calderwood Pavilion at BCA, starring Chulpan Khamatova in Spring 2025. From Boston’s suburbs, a strong immigrant perspective, visionary artistic voice, and innovative technical force has emerged as Arlekin is increasingly recognized for its theatrical work.