Igor Golyak

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine,^[7] when it was part of the Soviet Union, Golyak was the first child of Sofiya and Mikhail Golyak. He learned that he was Jewish when he was 7 or 8 years old as his family prepared to emigrate to the U.S.^[8] In 1990 when Golyak was 11, his family settled near Boston, Massachusetts.^[9] Golyak attended Brookline High School where he first discovered his passion for theater after being cast in the lead role of a school play.^[9]

After graduating from high school in 1998, Golyak went to Moscow, Russia to study theatre.^[9] He earned a master’s degree in directing from the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts^[10] and a master’s in acting from the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute under the Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre.^[11]

After returning from Russia to the Boston area in 2004,^[8] Golyak found it difficult to break into the professional theater world and he worked a variety of jobs for several years.^[7]

In 2009, Golyak founded -Arlekin! (then “Arlekin Players Theatre”) in Needham, Massachusetts with a group of Russian immigrant actor friends and continues to serve as its producing artistic director.^[9] "Arlekin" means "harlequin" in both Russian and Ukrainian. For the first several years, the group mostly performed in Russian for the immigrant community.^[7] Golyak’s virtual and hybrid productions during the COVID lockdown period allowed his work to be seen by much broader audiences, including viewers in 55 countries.^[12] They also attracted the attention of high-profile future collaborators, such as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jessica Hecht, who appeared in both the live and virtual performances of The Orchard, Golyak’s adaptation of The Cherry Orchard.^[7] He also worked with Chulpan Khamatova on Our Class^[9] and with Andrey Burkovsky on both Our Class^[13] and The Dybbuk.^[14]

In 2020, Golyak launched the Zero Gravity (Zero-G) Lab,^[7] through which he has produced several virtual plays incorporating experimental technologies in theater.^[15]

In addition to directing, Golyak has taught acting at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and has served as a guest lecturer at several colleges and universities in the Boston area.^[16]