Arlekin Players’ "Natasha" Returns Before Heading to International Events

NEEDHAM, MA: After acclaimed Russian and English performances at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Watertown’s Arsenal Center for the Arts and in their home studio in Needham, Arlekin Players’ one-woman show Natasha’s Dream is returning for special runs in the Players’ 368 Hillside Avenue theatre space, September 15 (7:30pm), September 16 (7pm) and September 17 (2pm & 7pm) in Russian, and on September 18 (2pm & 7pm) in English. Tickets are $30 and $35 standard seating, with limited $55 sponsor seats, all available online at www.arlekinplayers.com. This production is for mature audiences.

All performances during this run have a much higher purpose than just bringing a wonderful play to multi-cultural audiences as originally intended. Due to the Company’s success with “Natasha,” Arlekin has scaled the production into a Festival format to perform it in THREE international events – the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City (www.unitedsolo.org/us), the Moscow Solo Festival (www.nastrastnom.ru/projects/festival-solo), and the HIGH FEST International Performing Arts Festival 2016 (www.highfest.am), which will take place October 1 thru 8 in Yerevan, Armenia. Ticket sales from their September shows will help “Natasha” travel and present at all three locations. Donations are also being accepted to aide in the troupe’s efforts to bring their art abroad. More information is available by calling (617) 942-0022, online at www.arlekinplayers.com, and by finding Arlekin Players on Facebook. You can also support Arlekin’s endeavor by visiting their GoFundMe site: www.gofundme.com/natashasdreamshow.

Natasha’s Dream is one of two plays in Yaroslava Pulinovich’s ‘Natasha Plays’. The plays (along with I Won!) catapulted the young playwright to prominence in theater circles in Russia. Both are compelling portraits that delve deep into the souls and the experience of two very different young women from one of Russia's provincial cities. In Natasha’s Dream, a girl tells the story of her life in a small-town orphanage, and her desire to be free; to fly away and break the vicious circle of life. From the inside of her limited surroundings and the vastness of her imagination, she will make twists and turns through her unique appeal to audiences, letting them into her world where she dreams about love, family, acceptance, adjusting and her future.

Arlekin’s production has been translated into English by John Freedman. “[It] is one of the most resonant texts to have emerged in Russia over the last two or three years,” noted Freedman in 2011. “[It] is an incisive look at the complex life of one teenage girl who runs up against insensitive teachers, shifty classmates, a journalist who unwittingly wins her heart, and a couple of experiences that most likely will scar her life forever.” He continues, “Pulinovich’s text, written when she herself was a teenager, is deceptively simple. Much more than a picture of teenage angst, it is a stinging rebuke to an insensitive society. It is a portrait in pastels — with a few strokes of dark, bloody red — of youthful dreams being offered up as a sacrifice to ‘the way of the world.’”

In the multi-media Natasha's Dream, the stage setting, lighting, video and music are used in creative ways to support the actress in her storytelling. With the help of 3D video mapping to project images on different surfaces, the story comes to life. Directed by Arlekin Artistic Director Igor Golyak, the play explores new and unique ways of interaction between the actress and her surrounding space through this technique. Apart from the visual aspect that electrifies the set, original music was composed for this play to accentuate the design of the video and crystallize the emotional aspect of Natasha's story. Of the production said Benny Sato Ambush, Senior Distinguished Producing Director-in-Residence of Emerson College, “Their acting style and productions are of very high quality and his aesthetic as a Director is alive, often surprising, theatrically imaginative and representative of the storytelling innovation of that part of the world.”

Actress Darya Denisova (Natasha) joined Arlekin’s Studio in 2013, during which time she was also studying acting at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow. She has since graduated and has played some bright and memorable roles, such as in Arlekin’s Memorial Player in 2014 and most recently in Tales of the Last Wednesday. ‘Natasha’ is her first starring role with the Company. She fills Pulinovich's text with an energy, destructive and creative all at the same time. Simple words about love and dreams turn into a spell. Denisova absorbs the energy of her viewers, and from her first word, she is ‘Natasha’ in dialogue with her audience, trying to open her confined space and mind, and showing there is so much more within.

Natasha’s Dream returns for special runs in Russian and English at Arlekin Players Theatre, 368 Hillside Avenue in Needham, September 15 (7:30pm), September 16 (7pm) and September 17 (2pm & 7pm) in Russian, and on September 18 (2pm & 7pm) in English . Tickets for the opening performance on the 16th are $55. Tickets for the remaining performances in Russian and English range from $30 to $55. This production is for mature audiences. Seats are limited. For tickets and information, call (617) 942-0022, or online at www.arlekinplayers.com. This production is for mature audiences.

Related Links

· https://www.facebook.com/arlekinplayers/?fref=ts – Festival production trailer.

· https://www.gofundme.com/natashasdreamshow - Gofundme Link for donations.