Arlekin began in 2009 as an ensemble of Boston-based immigrants from countries in the former Soviet Union, led by Igor Golyak, a Jewish director born in Kyiv, Ukraine and a current Mandel Fellow. The company continues to engage in an extraordinary artistic journey with its programming. When the pandemic forced theatre closures worldwide, Arlekin quickly pivoted and leaned into the innovative possibilities of virtual theatre, combining multiple technologies — animation, gaming, virtual environments — to create a completely new experience that the New York Times called “Ingenious.” Post-Covid, Arlekin’s experimentation continues as the company engages audiences through wildly inventive live, virtual, and hybrid (in-person and virtual simultaneously) productions, creating unique experiences and pioneering new territory by pushing the boundaries of the theatre genre through powerful artistic productions.

For its first nine years, Arlekin grew a small, local Russian-speaking audience for plays staged in Russian at its Needham, Massachusetts studio. During its 10th Anniversary season in 2019–2020, Arlekin performed in English and Russian, and two of its productions, The Seagull by Anton Chekhov and The Stone by Marius von Mayenburg, swept the 2020 Boston theater critics’ prestigious Elliot Norton Awards. The pandemic then shut down the rest of Arlekin’s 10th season, and Arlekin began to innovate, experiment, and discover. Within two months, the company quickly premiered State vs Natasha Banina: a free, live, Zoom-cast, virtual theater event that was named a New York Times Critics Pick. Arlekin began to successfully leverage dozens of interested partners throughout the world to present and further develop its work. This launched Arlekin’s virtual-theater initiative, Zero Gravity (zero-G) Lab, which has since produced four more new virtual theater pieces including chekhovOS (another New York Times Critics Pick) with a cast led by the legendary Mikhail Baryshnikov and celebrated TV/Broadway actress Jessica Hecht (Friends/Breaking Bad), WITNESS, a world-premiere documentary developed with researchers from the US Memorial Holocaust Museum, about antisemitism and Jewish migration and drawing audiences from 55 countries, led by the US, Israel and Russia.

As audiences returned to in-person theater experiences, Arlekin next developed a critically-celebrated production of The Orchard Off-Broadway, a new adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, featuring both Baryshnikov and Hecht and the talents of an international design team (Russia, Brazil, Ukraine, Poland). It combined animation, robotics, gaming, and other technologies to form a hybrid production that ran for 31 performances at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City in Jun/Jul 2022 and a second in-person-only run at Emerson’s Paramount Theatre in Boston in Nov 2022. Golyak received a full profile and feature in the New York Times, and the show was featured on CBS Sunday Morning.

In June 2023, Arlekin produced the US Premiere of The Gaaga (The Hague), a phantasmagoria and "grotesque" — part farce, part tragedy — a futuristic trial of Vladimir Putin and his cronies. The piece was commissioned and developed by Arlekin and written and directed by award-winning Ukrainian playwright Sasha Denisova (while a refugee in Poland from the war in Ukraine), with Golyak directing the virtual part of the hybrid production. Denisova and Golyak shared the 2024 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Direction and Irina Krushilina’s complete transformation of an abandoned Harvard Square restaurant into a bomb shelter earned an Outstanding Scenic Design Award. National coverage included a feature in The Washington Post: as Bombs Fall in Ukraine...

Arlekin's FY25 season represents a milestone, as Arlekin celebrates its 15th Anniversary. The company’s NYC premiere of Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s Our Class, co-produced in partnership with MART Foundation, transferred and opened the season at Classic Stage Company (CSC), this after its successful run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in FY24 as part of the Under the Radar Festival. Inspired by real life events surrounding a horrific 1941 pogrom in the small village of Jedwabne, the play gave space for a deep and meaningful dialogue between audiences, survivor’s families, and artists. This was followed by an innovative reimagining of The Merchant of Venice, adapted and directed by Golyak, completing a powerful two-play residency at CSC.

At the heart of Arlekin’s success is Golyak, described by the New York Times as “one of the most inventive directors working in the United States.” His bold vision has inspired productions that transcend traditional boundaries, earning widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Arlekin’s work has been featured in major publications, cementing its reputation as a leader in both artistry and innovation. Golyak partners with creative producer Sara Stackhouse, who is known for her innovative approach to producing, the development of strategic partnerships and projects, adaptive organizational skills, and her work with artists between and across cultures, sectors, and artforms. The Golyak/Stackhouse partnership has resulted in timely and significant growth and impact at Arlekin in New York, Boston and beyond.

From the suburbs of Boston, Arlekin has emerged as a global leader in art and technology, and a unique and vital voice from the immigrant experience, producing dynamic new work now seen, presented and acclaimed throughout the world.