Igor Golyak ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Igor Golyak is the founder and producing artistic director of Arlekin Players Theatre & Zero Gravity (zero-G) Virtual Theater Lab. He is directing the New York premiere of Our Class, Off-Broadway, at BAM in 2024. He conceived and directed The Orchard starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jessica Hecht Off-Broadway in 2022. A global leader in the virtual theater movement, in 2023 he directed Just Tell No One, part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings/CITD, at Lincoln Center featuring Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin and David Krumholz, and directed the virtual elements of the Sasha Denisova’s The Gaaga (US premiere). During the pandemic, he conceived and directed WITNESS, chekhovOS /an experimental game/ and State vs. Natasha Banina, each of which became an international virtual theater sensation, receiving multiple New York Times Critics Picks. His work has been recognized with Elliot Norton Awards for The Orchard, The Seagull, The Stone, and Dead Man’s Diary, including a special Citation for extraordinary artistic innovation during the pandemic. Golyak is 2023 Mandel Fellow and winner of a Broadway World’s Best Director Award and multiple This Week In New York Pandemic Awards. He directed The Merchant of Venice for Actors’ Shakespeare Project and has directed and taught at Northeastern University, HB Studios, Boston Conservatory, the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts/Middlesex University, Moscow Specialized Institute for the Arts, and the ARBOS Theatre Festival. Golyak is from Ukraine and received a master’s degree in directing from the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts and an acting degree from Moscow’s Schukin Theatre Institute (Vakhtangov Theater). He started an #ArtistsforUkraine initiative days after the war began, and his company Arlekin, a company of immigrants, has performed all over the world, including festivals in Ukraine, Yerevan, Romania, Armenia, New York City, Chicago, Lviv, Monaco, the US, Canada and UK, as well as the Moscow Art Theatre.

Sara Stackhouse MANAGING PRODUCER

Sara Stackhouse, is a creative producer and specialist in strategy and organizational development. She is managing producer of Arlekin Players Theatre and Zero Gravity (zero-G) Virtual Theater Lab where she is an executive producer of the New York premiere of Our Class, Off-Broadway, at BAM in 2024, and was executive producer of The Orchard Off-Broadway with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jessica Hecht in 2022.  In 2023, she produced Just Tell No One at Lincoln Center and The US premiere of The Gaaga by Sasha Denisova in Boston. During the pandemic, she produced WITNESS, chekhovOS /an experimental game/, and the international virtual tour of State vs Natasha Banina which were worldwide viral sensations and received multiple New York Times Critics Picks. She is co-founder of BroadBand Collaborative, and founder and creative director of The Mama Project, an intercultural project for women in South Africa. She was project manager for cellist Yo-Yo Ma for many years where she was on the producing team for the award winning Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired By Bach, a documentary and performance series featuring collaborations with artists across six artistic disciplines and five countries. With Ma, she also managed recordings and collaborations with artists Bobby McFerrin, Mark Morris, Wynton Marsalis, Tamasaburo Bando, Tan Dun, Toni Morrison, Mark O’Connor and others. As Executive Producer of Actors’ Shakespeare Project for over a decade, she produced 48 productions and stewarded the organization from its founding into an award-winning company (Elliot Norton, IRNE, American Theater Wing Awards). She served as Chair of Theater at Boston Conservatory during the merger with Berklee College of Music. Clients have included the Silkroad, Massachusetts Cultural Council, ArtsBoston, Boston Baroque Orchestra, MACS, MIT Media Lab, Forum for Cultural Engagement, Beyond Classical Theatre. She spent nine years on the Board of MassCreative and received the Margaret Stewart Lindsay “Inspiration Award” from Boston’s Social Innovation Forum.

Mark W. Soucy GENERAL MANAGER

Mark W. Soucy is a theater administrative professional and an award-winning actor from the Boston area. Mark was part of the leadership staff at New Repertory Theatre for over 17 years, serving as their Development Manager. As a fundraising consultant he has raised support from many local and national institutions, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Shubert Foundation, Mass Cultural Council, Boston Foundation, Smith Family Foundation, Venturous Fund of the Tides Foundation, and The Foundation for Metrowest. He is a member of Actors Equity Association and received the 2018 IRNE Award – Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Max in The Royale at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, a role which he later reprised at Capital Repertory Theatre. Other appearances include Company One’s can I touch it (Mark, Leo, Nicky), Capital Rep’s Lobby Hero (Bill), Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s Much Ado About Nothing (Leonato); Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s Romeo and Juliet (Lord Montague), The Boys from Syracuse (Aegean), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Sir Nathaniel), and King Lear (The Duke of Albany).