Mikhail Bulgakov's DEAD MAN'S DIARY: A Theatrical Novel Comes to Life at the Emerson Paramount Center

Arlekin Players Theatre is happy to announce a re-run of the stage version of Mikhail Bulgakov's unfinished novel Dead Man's Diary: A Theatrical Novel, a memoir that focuses on the author's inexplicable and comical love of the world of theatre. Due to success of the performances in May, June and September, the new show will run March 17, 18, 24, 25, 30, 31, and April 1 at the Emerson Paramount Center's Jackie Liebergott Black Box. Performances are in Russian with audio-translation in English.

Dead Man's Diary is based on Bulgakov's own experiences at the famous Moscow Art Theatre of the 1920s and 30s, and reaches its comic height in a merciless lampooning of Konstantin Stanislavsky's fashionable stage techniques. Full of affectionately drawn characters, it is an absurdist tale of the exhilaration and black desperation wrought on one man by his turbulent love affair with the theatre. The play centers on a writer who fails to sell his novel, then fails when he attempts to commit suicide. When the writer's play is taken up for production in a theater, literary success beckons, but he is not prepared to reckon with the grotesquely inflated egos of the actors, directors, and theatre managers.

Directed by Igor Golyak, the original stage composition of Dead Man's Diary: A Theatrical Novel is written by Golyak. The show features choreography by Victor Plotnikov, a stage design by Nikolay Simonov, an original score by Jakov Jakoulov, and a 15-member cast.

"We've been tremendously blessed to experience such success with Dead Man's Diary with our audiences in Needham," said Golyak. "Thanks to the support of the Emerson Paramount Center, we're looking forward to sharing this unorthodox, immersive theatrical experience with the city of Boston. You won't see anything else like it."

Dead Man's Diary: A Theatrical Novel runs March 17 - April 1 at the Emerson Paramount Center in the Jackie Liebergott Black Box theatre, 559 Washington Street, Boston. Performances in Russian with English audio-translation. Tickets ($45/$65) are available by calling (617) 824-8400, or online at tickets@artsemerson.org.

Arlekin Players Theatre was created in Boston in 2009 and has since toured to New York, Chicago, and Hartford, as well as to several international festivals. Arlekin takes strong pride in their emphasis on self-identity; they are a company of immigrants performing works that play on the ideas of cross-culture, home, and traditions, challenging the idea of nationality, and finding common themes that unite us all. Performances are in Russian, with simultaneous translation into English. In 2016, the show "Natasha's Dream" was invited to and took part in three international theatre festivals - United Solo Festival New York (Best Projection Design award), Moscow SOLO Festival, Russia (Where they shared the stage with Robert Wilson, Romeo Castellucci and Konstantin Raikin) and HighFest Yerevan, Armenia. For more information about Arlekin Players Theatre, visit www.arlekinplayers.com. The company makes its home in Needham, MA. www.arlekinplayers.com.

Mikhail Bulgakov was a Russian writer, physician and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, published posthumously, which has been called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. In 1929, he had begun a novel, written in the form of letters, called For Secret Friend (also unfinished), addressed to his future wife Helen, which explains how he "became a playwright." In 1930, For Secret Friend began to develop into a new novel, The Theatre, but in the same year he burned his initial sketches. Six years later, after his final break with Moscow Art Theatre, Bulgakov began writing a novel about the theatre. On the first page of the manuscript, he outlined two titles: A Dead Man's Memoir and Theatrical Novel.

Igor Golyak graduated from the Schukin Theatre Institute in Moscow in 2002 with a specialization in acting. While attending the school, Igor acquired such awards as "Best Student Performance" at the Yaroslavl Theatre Festival for his role in The Portrait, and "Best Actor Award" in the Vienna Theater Festival for his role in the Diary of a Madman. Upon graduation, he was accepted to "Teatru Nikitskih Vorot" and performed with the theatre for two years. At the same time, he acquired a professional teaching/ directing degree from the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow. Igor has taught seminars at Wellesley College, Russian Academy of Theatre Arts/Middlesex University, Moscow Specialized Institute for the Arts, ARBOS Theatre Festival, New Art Studio, and Arlekin Studio in Needham. Currently Igor holds a position of Associate Professor of Theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Born in Kharkov City, Ukraine, Victor Plotnikov received his training at the Kiev-Ukraine School and the St. Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy. From 1987 to 1990, he was a soloist with Donetsk Ballet Company in the Ukraine. Plotnikov held principal dancer positions at Ballet Mississippi and Tulsa Ballet Theatre between 1990 and 1993, before joining Boston Ballet as a principal dancer in 1993, where he performed until 2006. He has danced major roles in extensive classical and contemporary ballets by many of the major choreographers, and has toured extensively in Russia and the U.S.

Award-winning designer Nikolay Simonov is a star of Russian theatre, coming from Moscow to design this production. A graduate of the scenery art faculty of the M. B. Grekov Art School in Rostov-on-Don, Simonov started working at the Theatre of the Young Spectator in Vologda, later moved to the Krasnodar Drama Theatre, and in 1990 continued on to the Rostov Academic Youth Theatre, where he worked as chief designer for 12 years. He is currently head of scenic design of the current Moscow Art Theatre.

Composer Jakov Jakoulov is an author of three ballets, ten instrumental concertos, music for over 20 theatrical, TV and cinema productions and numerous symphonic, chamber and choral works. In recent years his music has been presented by Verbier Music Festival (Switzerland), Boston Symphony Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, "Future Classics" Series with Dallas Symphony Orchestra, New European Strings Orchestra, Armenian National Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, International Arts Festivals in Edinburgh, Avignon, and Cortona, "Kammerspille," "Lilla," Bachanalia Festival Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, among others.

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