Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 615
(upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome back into a fantastic new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. We have a great guest in store for you today and a really fantastic residence to be talking about which includes one of the best shows we saw last winter. It was a creator's pick and it's coming back and you are not gonna wanna miss it. Tickets are gonna go fast for this one. But joining us today to talk about the residency, we have the artistic director and director Igor Goliak. He is here to speak about Mark Foundation's presentation of Arlekin in Residence. This is happening in the fall of 2024 at Classic Stage Company and you can get your tickets and more information for their productions by visiting classicstage.org. The two shows that this company is bringing in Residence are the Merchant of Venice and the show that recently played at BAM last winter, our class. We cannot wait to dive more into these as well as just this residency and company in general. So let's waste no more time. Let us welcome on our guests, Igor, welcome into Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. - Thank you so much, Andrew. It's great to be with you. - I'm so happy you're here. I cannot wait to learn more about your company, about these shows. I'm over the moon the minute I saw our class as being remounted. It's such a great work. So hats off to you. But why don't we start by talking about your company? Arlekin, can you tell us a little bit about that? - Yeah, the company was started in 2009 by a group of immigrants from the former Soviet Union that now that they've established themselves in terms of their work and life in the new country and they were feeling that there is something missing, something there's a hole in their soul. And now that they've come here, but they need to express themselves, they need to find themselves here, they need to talk about their pain points. And that's how we got united is around these conversations. And we were kind of like a meeting group of things that really speak to us and bother and pain points and things that we love about this country and sharing ideas. And that's how our theater started. I started teaching acting in my studio here in Boston. And from that studio, we went to win a bunch of international theater and local theater festivals and that gave life to the company called Arlekin. - What an incredible like story, what an incredible founding, that's amazing. So turning to this residency, can you tell us a little bit about how this came about with classic stage company? - Well, we were actually introduced to the classic stage company by an incredible director, person, friend, Carrie Perilah, who had seen our class at BAM. And she knew that we were looking to possibly transfer the show because we were completely sold out with the other extra weeks. And so she introduced us to Jill, who is the current artistic director at CSC. And we kind of headed off and I guess Carrie's recommendation who used to be the head of CSC a while back proved that this was a good collaboration, good combination. And I'm really interested in what does it mean to bring the classics back to life? Like, does it mean that it's a museum piece for people to see what things used to be like? Or is it something that comes alive in today's time? And for me, it's the latter. It's something that needs to come alive in today's world with today's waves of communication, today's reference points, rhythms and so forth. And I think that's where we connected with Jill with classic stage company. - That is fantastic. I love how that all came together. That is exactly how I feel like art should be getting put together. When you see someone that inspires you, you've got to run to the person and be like, we have to keep this going. That is one of my favorite things about getting to see indie theater is just going to people and being like, you have to see this, you have to see this, we have to keep this going. So I love that. Now I do want to turn our attention a little bit to the two pieces you're bringing in this residency. You've mentioned our class, which had a sold out run at BAM, and you're also bringing the merchant of Venice. So how is it you selected these two pieces to bring for your residency? - Well, I have a little experience with the merchant of Venice. We did it here in Boston pre-pandemic. And while working on our class after October 7th, it is a, you know, when I started working on that show, which is about a group of classmates, half of them are Polish, half of them are Jewish. And with a, in a little town called Yidwabne in Poland, and this is 1939, where half of the town, which is Polish and half of the town is Jewish, the Poles burned the Jews in a barn. And when I started rehearsing this, what was important for me was the fact that, what I said to the actors is that it's not about something that happened, where we have to quote unquote, learn from our mistakes. I don't believe in people learning from their mistakes. It's something that's going to happen. It's something that will happen. And I say that from having experienced in research and with the Jewish themed plays and Jewish history and the history of persecution of Jews throughout centuries. So it's not something that is a separate event that happened in Yidwabne in Poland or with the Holocaust in general. It's something that happens to Jewish people throughout time. And I think that Merchant of Venice is a great example of that. You know, when Shakespeare wrote the play, there were no Jews in England. Jews were forced out a couple of hundred years before. So it's this idea of a Jew that is a money lender from the ghetto in Venice. This idea of this evil person where the good against evil and the good wins. And with the, I guess, the brilliance of Shakespeare, even though he's a part of that time where everything is anti-Semitic. It's not like, actually, you can't really say that everything is anti-Semitic because there was no such thing as somatic. So, you know, it's just the perception of people of a group of people, one group of people to the other group of people. So that's, they were perceived as people, unwanted people, obviously, and as they were shoved away from England and from many other places. And this is something that, and then the brilliance of Shakespeare that puts these monologues into and gives it to an evil quote, unquote, "shilog" that says, "hat not a Jew, eyes," and so forth. With time in the 19th century, it was the first time that the perception of this character could possibly be perceived not as an evil person. So I think those two plays, in some ways, talk to each other. There's some sort of a dialogue of history, of the persecution throughout history through to the 20th century of the Holocaust and to today. And because the Merchant of Venice is going to be set in pretty much in today's world, and the audience are going to be, in some ways, even complicit in what happens with "shilog." But I don't want to give too much away, and I think I've talked enough. - That is amazing, though. And as you were talking about that, I mean, I did, I had that idea or that thought, I should say, of, wow, these two shows are so relevant. A lot of the line said, the messages said, that the ideas communicated are so relevant. And I'm not sure whether to be an admirable of it, where I'm like, wow, see, theater is always relevant, or to be appalled at the fact that we're still having to say these ideas, you know? So I love that entire thought there. So thank you for that. I actually want to snowball a little off of that, though. And I want to ask you, you know, with these two pieces, you've got our class, which is starting in September, and then the Merchant of Venice, which is starting in November, you know, is there a message or a thought in particular that you hope audiences will take away from these two pieces? - I'm not much of a message person, because for me, art and message is tricky, because at some point it can become propaganda, and being from the former Soviet Union, you know, that's my trigger point, having been through messages and art. But I think the most important thing for me is, you know, after the show, after October 7th and our show in the winter, there was a lot of people, first of all, there were people that were actually descendants of a couple of the survivors that somehow fled that barn. So they came, and one of the characters, Zokah, is the one that character saved this audience member. That's crazy, like, to experience that. This character, because of this character, these people are alive right here. These are the children, these are the people. And then, you know, some of the people after the show didn't want to leave, and they just wanted to sit in place, and maybe be close to each other, or sometimes when they were forced to leave the building, they stayed outside, outside of the doors of the theater, and some smoked, some just like were in silence, and some just connected with families. It's like, and this, for me, is the most important thing, is this connection that theater can create and empathy, and some maybe sliver of understanding slash empathy towards the other. And that's my goal in life. That is incredible, wow. A lot of historical critics say, and I agree with this, that without the collaboration of local people, this wouldn't have been possible. This type of machine execution wouldn't be possible. And up to 1990s, I don't remember the year right now, it was thought that that barn was burned by the Nazis, by the Germans, and there was a writer, a researcher, I'm blanking on his name right now, he wrote a book and it just kind of exploded everything that it wasn't the Nazis, that it was actually Poles. The Nazis had nothing to do with it, it was the people, the name, oh, that was the title of the book, Neighbors. The neighbors, like your neighbors, that it's like 1,200 people in this little village that I went to last year. Your neighbors, that you grew up with, put you as their neighbors into a barn, like 1,200 people, and burn it down, like neighbors, people that you've grown up with. And so what happens in the minds of these people, like what happens, how do you explain it? There's so much mystery, and I think the easy explanations that they had a difficult childhood, as a lot of times Hollywood perceives it, is very simplistic. There's much more to understand about the human spirit than they've had a difficult childhood. Some of them didn't, some of them had a beautiful childhood, and then cut off the head of the daughter of the rabbi and played soccer with it, it's documented. And this was a big explosion in Poland, and up to today it's a huge issue that Poles don't want to acknowledge it. And there was a movie that was made, it's actually on YouTube and Vimeo about this, and there are interviews with the people that have perpetrated this, with some of these characters that you saw in my play Zigmund, the guy that was, there were actually two brothers. You could see them right now when they're being asked, so what happened in the barn? And this is a movie from the '90s documentary, and they're like, no, it was the Jews, it was the Germans that did it, we had nothing to do with it, and so he proven, and then some others say, oh my God, I cannot forget the sound, the sound that just stays with me. And then some people at the same time say, oh, you know, the Jews had it coming. So there's all this plethora of feelings of people that are quote, unquote, good people, just like we are. We all think that we are good people, but then time and history puts it in a different perspective, and how do we deal with this time in history as it continues? I'm talking too much, I'm sorry. - No, I think you were talking the right amount, this is so important, I think those thoughts are so profound, and I will say they definitely resonate in the work you've created, so I love that. My final question for this first part is who are you hoping to have access to your shows and residency, the Merchant of Venice in our class? - I think they're both, they're both, you know, when I'm talking about this, it's very tragic, but I did everything not to make a tragic, actually, because life is tragic, but it's tragic as a result of some things, because these people, as you saw in the production, they played soccer together, they played football, they were teammates, they had these arguments, they created stuff together, they had a lot of fun, so it's actually quite entertaining, and Merchant of Venice is gonna be super entertaining, it's gonna be super fun entertaining, and I'm hoping that young people somehow find access to these shows, as that is really the dialogue that I'm looking to have. In addition to all theater goers, but I'm really looking to have this dialogue with young people, and for them to realize something that, or question some things. (gentle music) (gentle music) - Well, for the second part of our interviews, we love giving our listeners the chance to get to know our guests a little bit better, pull the curtain back, if you will, and I wanna start with our regular first question, which is, what or who inspires you? What playwrights, composers, or shows have inspired you in the past, or are just some of your favorites? - Oh my gosh, there's so much. You know, one of the collaborators that I worked with on our class is a German ceiling designer, his name is Jan Papelbaum, he works at the Shabuna Theater in Germany, which is quite a famous theater, who works with 30 years with Thomas Ostermeyer, and he's, you know, one of my inspirations, because just lately, I am so lucky to have been working with him and to continue to work with him, because the way that he processes, and processes the information of today's world and of the play itself, and constructively puts it together, like a puzzle, without putting himself first, without, you know, there's some artists that are like, "Ah, it's me, it's me, it's me." It's really about the way that he approaches art is about the sake of the art that impacts people, and he almost hides himself, and there's such beauty in that. In terms of music, I love Mahler, in terms of directors, I was hugely influenced by a director in Russia, called, his name was Peter Famienko. I studied, I studied at the school that he used to teach at, at the Russian Academy Theater Arts, and he instilled this, or he inspired this playfulness that is inherent to the theater, to the slightest, this inherent, you know, he used to say that if people don't smile, don't laugh, in the beginning of the show, they will not cry at the end, and this is really what I stick to. But there's so much more, there's so many more things. I, you know, I'm very much inspired by the ensemble theater by Grotowski, who actually also studied at a directing school that I went to much earlier than I did. So that is, that is kind of my inspirations. - I love that, that's a wonderful list of inspirations, and I love that thought, if the audience doesn't laugh, they won't cry by the end, absolutely. I wanna ask you, what is your favorite part about working in the theater? - My favorite part is the struggle probably, is sometimes in rehearsals, things don't, don't work, and you don't know what to do, and you start doubting yourself, and then suddenly it could come from anywhere, and an idea sparks, or just, it could be so small, or something big, and it just changes everything. It changes, changes the energy, changes, we suddenly understand what we're doing. It's such a enigma of how humanity functions that suddenly we are inspired by something could be meaningless almost, and it changes the room, and it changes how we see each other, and we continue on a path, and we search for these little bits and pieces, and then we start putting them together, and hopefully it aligns into something that is light and touches the audience, and you're just kind of hunting and looking, and with like a magnifying glass, and a flashlight for these moments of levity, for these moments of connection, and it seems like I've done this line so many times, and I don't, it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and then sometimes you do it almost the same way, and it just connects with a partner, it connects with everything, it connects with you personally, and something happens, and this, when something happens, it's like when myself as a director in the room, or the end, or the audience, when they come see the show, this happening is what makes me excited about the theater, where people see, oh, something happened. It's not just, it's not just acted out, but something happened with these people, something happened between these people, something happened tonight. - That's beautiful, that is so beautiful, I love it. We have now arrived at my favorite question to ask guests, and that of course is, what is your favorite theater memory? - So I think there are two answers to that question, one is, I originally discovered this director that I told you about, Hirofamenko, when I was studying in Russia, and with the production of "The Twelfth Night", and it was, it's something that blew my mind of the simplicity, the humor, we were literally like under the seat lap. I mean, it was, I've never seen anything so funny. I've never seen anything so funny, so humanly funny, not like gag jokes, not jokes, but when a person is funny, not because they're saying silly things, but because they believe in the silliness that they're saying, I guess. And the acting and the directing, the simplicity of both, there's almost nothing on stage. It just showed me what true theater could be. I think that is probably my most favorite memory of something that I saw that affected me so much. I was literally falling off my seat laughing, and it's not an exaggeration. It's not, it's, I just didn't understand how they got me there. And I guess the second part of the answer is, you know, each play we do is a time that we spend together with artists, hopefully that we like. And when stars align like they did on our class, these people became close. They became people that I want to spend time with. And we have spent so much time together, and it was difficult, and it was beautiful, and it was easy at times. And it was just, the answer part to your question is that I guess we kind of made memories together. You know, we each show that you do that, that is important in some way, that where you have this ensemble that connects, it just creates the most, the most favorite memory. It's like, it's almost like, you know, who's your favorite child? You create the memory that you create, and it's beautiful in its own way. And each show that you do, in an ideal world. So, yeah, we kind of, we create memories because we spent some time together in a room outside the room doesn't matter, but we spent some time together, and it's either this time was spent in a beautiful way, and we get to a part, or not. So, we try to make that, and we make that, and we know that we will part. We know that this has an ending to it. So, let's make something that's meaningful and beautiful, and have attached each other emotionally and spiritually, and so that we can save this memory. It's almost like you go into a rehearsal period, and you know that it's already a memory. It's already kind of a part of you. - I love those, I love, and that idea too, I love it. Thank you so much for sharing those, yes. Well, as we wrap things up, I would love to know, do you or your company have any other projects or productions coming down the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you? - Well, no, right now it's those two. There's a bunch that are percolating, but those two right now are what we are fully focused on. It's the Merchant of Venice and our class. Tickets are selling really well, which we're really excited about. And I think it'll be interesting, because most of the cast from our class is actually in Merchant of Venice. There's only, yeah, there's like one character, one or two characters that we're bringing from outside, because I wanted to make these plays as a dialogue between each other. So, Abram character plays Shylock, Dora plays Jessica, and so forth. - That is wonderful, that's exciting to see. So, even more reason to see both, and not just one. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people are buying tickets together, because they're really kind of a part of one whole that I'm trying to place. - I love it. Well, that leads to my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about this residency, or your company, Arlekin, or about you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you. How can they do so? - Sure, so, CSC has information on their website, Classic Stage Company. We have our theater's website, Arlekin Players, A-R-L-E-K-I-N Players.com. Or you can go to my website, and you can write to me directly, Igor Goliak Studio.com. And you can contact me there. - I'm always excited to talk to new people that are interested in art. - Amazing, amazing. Well, Igor, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me about this amazing residency, about your two amazing shows. I hope this is the first of many conversations, 'cause I am such a big fan of your work, and I can't wait to see these two shows. So, thank you so much for your time today. - Thank you very much. My guest today has been the incredible artistic director and director, Igor Goliak, who spoke to us about the Mark Foundations presentation of the Arlekin in Residence, which is happening in the fall of 2024 at Classic Stage Company. They're presenting the Merchant of Venice and our class, and you can get your tickets and more information by visiting classicstage.org. We also have some contact information for our guests, which will be posted in our episode description, as well as on our social media posts. But I'm not kidding you, run. Don't walk, hurry over to that classicstage.org website. Get your tickets while you still can. These are two phenomenal productions. You are not gonna wanna miss them. We will be there with Bell's ringing. Again, classicstage.org is where you get your tickets for the Merchant of Venice and for our class, which are part of Arlekin in Residence, fall 2024 at Classic Stage Company. We also wanna add for our American listeners that Election Day is November 5th. Make sure you are registered to vote. You have a plan to vote and you do your democratic duty. You can find out more about how and where you can register by visiting vote.gov. The future demands that we fight for it now. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez, reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap your candies, and keep talking about the theater. - In a stage whisper. Thank you. (upbeat music) - If you like what you hear, please leave a five star review like and subscribe. - You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at StageWhisperPod. - And feel free to reach out to us with your comments and personal stories at stagewhisperPod@gmail.com. - And be sure to check out our website for all things StageWhisper and theater. 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