Yatsko Igor Vladimirovich

Childhood and youth

Igor Vladimirovich was born in Saratov and spent his childhood there. While studying at school, the boy got into a circle-studio of aesthetic art, led by Nina Petrovna Arkadakskaya. On the recommendation of a talented teacher, Igor Yatsko decided to take up acting at a serious level.

Actor Igor Yatsko (still from the film “Desired”)

After graduating from high school, he entered the Saratov Theater School named after Ivan Slonov. Yatsko studied in the workshop of Yuri Petrovich Kiselev, who was not only a teacher at the school, but also the director of the Saratov Theater for Young Spectators. This theater became the actor’s first job in his youth.

In 1988, Igor goes to Moscow and enters GITIS, where he studies in the workshop of Anatoly Aleksandrovich Vasiliev. Moreover, Yatsko specifically waited a year to get to this master, since he had heard about him from his colleague Pyotr Maslov, who had previously been Vasiliev’s student.

Igor Yatsko at the rehearsal of Cervantes' Don Quixote.
Interior of the Grotto Hall of the School of Dramatic Art Theater - Igor Popov. Photo - Natalia Cheban. Published The Work of Igor Vladimirovich Yatsko Thursday, February 19, 2020

Igor Yatsko
In addition to acting, Igor Vladimirovich often acts as a reader. In 1987, he even became the winner of the All-Russian Pushkin Reading Competition, having read the story of the classic of Russian literature “Blizzard”.

In 2001, Yatsko began teaching an acting course in children's theater, and since 2007 he became a teacher in the acting department of the International Slavic Institute named after Derzhavin.

Born 08/30/1964, Saratov

Honored Artist of Russia (2001)

Childhood

Igor Yatsko was born on August 30, 1964 in Saratov. While studying at school, he studied in an aesthetics club under the guidance of Nina Petrovna Arkadakskaya. It was on her recommendation that Igor decided to take up theater.

The beginning of creative activity

In 1981 he entered the Saratov Theater School named after. I.A. Slonov to the course of Yuri Petrovich Kiselev, who was the head of the Saratov Theater of Young Spectators.

After graduating from theater school in 1985, he began playing in the Saratov Youth Theater. The first serious role was in the play “Housewarming in an Old House” (directed by Yu. Kiselev) based on the play by A. Kravtsov. Played by Igor... Igor. The author of the play, after watching the performance, admitted that he always believed that he had not written out the image of this hero, but after this production he was convinced that this character was no less bright than all the others.

After that there was another big role in the Saratov Youth Theater. In 1986, the play “The Importance of Being Earnest” (directed by Y. Osherova and E. Ross) based on the work of Oscar Wilde appeared on the theater stage. In this performance, the audience saw him in the role of John Warding.

In addition to working in the theater, during this period Igor was actively involved in reading activities and in 1987 became a laureate of the All-Russian Pushkin Reading Competition. Igor read the story “Blizzard”.

The path to Anatoly Vasiliev

However, Igor wanted more. Working at the Saratov Youth Theater, he realizes that he feels the theater differently from those around him, in a different way. Pyotr Maslov, who was also a student of Anatoly Vasiliev, worked with him at the theater at that time. The young actor was very interested in his stories. The theatrical ideas discussed went beyond what he knew and could do.

The entrance exam to Vasiliev became a real lesson for Igor. He passed the first round with great difficulty, despite the large reading program and the title of laureate of the Pushkin Competition. It was then that Igor realized that everything he knew should, if not be forgotten, then be put aside somewhere far away for a while. I had to read books that I had never read before, and perceive theater differently.

In 1988, Igor Yatsko became a student at GITIS, course of Anatoly Aleksandrovich Vasiliev. Along with him, Oksana Fandera, Maria Zaikova, Alexander Ogarev, Guzel Shiryaeva, Ramil Sabitov, Igor Lysov, Victor Terelya, Sergei Repetsky, Danguole Bogdaskaite, Rasa Tornau, Evgeniy Falin, Alexander Galibin and others studied on the course.

School of Dramatic Art (SDA)

Studying with Vasiliev naturally flowed into work, or rather into life at Anatoly Vasiliev’s theater “School of Dramatic Art”, where Igor Yatsko has been officially registered since June 1, 1990.

And then... then there was a lot of laboratory work, various trainings, experiments, and research. After all, the Anatoly Vasiliev Theater is, first of all, a school aimed at training the actor. It was as a result of these laboratory works, sometimes lasting several years, that many magnificent and extraordinary performances with Igor’s participation were born. This is “Today we improvise” by L. Pirandello (1990), which became Igor Yatsko’s first appearance on the stage of the ShDI, “The State” by Plato (1992-2000), “Joseph and His Brothers” by T. Mann (1993), “Amphitryon” "J.-B. Molière (1994) "A.S. Pushkin. “Don Juan or the Stone Guest” and other poems” (1998), “Mozart and Salieri” by A.S. Pushkin (2000), “The Iliad. Canto Twenty-Three Homer (1997-2004) and many others.

With these performances, together with the ShDI, Igor Yatsko probably visited all the world's famous theater festivals and forums. Over time, Igor added teaching activities to his acting activities within the School’s walls.

As Igor himself says, Vasiliev gave him the way, he gave him theatre, not as an end result, but as a path, as knowledge, as comprehension, as a passage: “Vasiliev opened theater for me as an art, not an applied one, but similar to science, an art which has its own subject, its own laws that can be investigated. These are laws that connect with higher laws - divine, cosmic. Vasiliev opened for me that vertical in the art of theater that I could not find on my own. That intonation that makes it possible to convey not the life of the soul and feelings, but the meaning itself. This meant a change in worldview, including the theatrical one.”

Conceptual theater, where the basis is the relationship between ideas, where the main thing is not psychology, but metaphysical poetry, where the word becomes the main instrument and carrier of action, and the actor, moving in game structures, interacts with the character, remaining a person, turning into an author, becoming like demiurge. This is exactly how, in his own words, one can briefly characterize the theater that has completely fascinated Igor for more than 18 years.

“Yes, it’s difficult to engage in the kind of theater that Vasiliev creates. This is a test of endurance, of loyalty to art and to oneself,” says Igor.

In 2001, Igor Yatsko became an Honored Artist of Russia.

Movie

Igor Yatsko got into cinema thanks to the recommendations of his classmate Oksana Fandera in 1999. Igor’s first film role was a small role as a security guard in the TV series “Black Room” directed by Alexander Khvan, which was released in 2001.

For a long time, Igor was not invited to act in films. And he himself did not strive to get on the set, because he was busy with the theater and only the theater. I didn't want to be distracted. But at some point I wanted to try what it was like to work in cinema. Out of curiosity and without any particular ambitions. Alexander Khvan provided him with this opportunity, offering him to star in the film “Shatun”. I must say that Igor was noticed after this film. The hero's final monologue became a kind of calling card of the actor. After that, other directors began to invite him.

“For me, as a theater person, cinema seems to be the activity of one person, whose name is the director. This is his creativity. The rest are objects to be photographed. And the actor is an object, no better than a chair, a table, a tree. He also has to try very hard to be natural and reliable, like a tree.

It is important to get into the camera at the right moment and properly - all this is work related primarily to technology. But there are scenes, although they are not often found in cinema, where you need to pump up energy, that is, influence the world around you, and this already looks like theater. And from take to take you have the opportunity to improvise,” says Igor Yatsko.

As a film actor, Igor Yatsko starred in the films: “Desired” (dir. Yu. Kuzmenko), “Special Purpose Resort” (dir. B. Mirza), “A Place in the Sun” (dir. A. Khamraev), “Blind (Liquidator )" (dir. S. Makhovikov, S. Lyalin) "Doctor Zhivago" (dir. A. Proshkin). In 2006, the following were released: “The Hunt for a Genius” (dir. Yu. Kuzmenko) and “Running on the Waves” (dir. V. Pendrakovsky).

As Igor himself says, he accepts only those invitations that do not interfere with his work in the theater, since the theater was and remains the main business of his life.

From teaching to directing

Since 2001, Igor has been teaching acting in children's theater (artistic director Irina Feofanova). These are not quite ordinary classes, which have become a real bold experiment, in a very serious way, related to the experience and search for the “School of Dramatic Art”. From this experiment even research laboratory performances are born, for example: “Zoyka’s apartment - The Adventures of Chichikov” based on the works of M.A. Bulgakov, or “A suitcase of nonsense, or good things don’t happen quickly” (Petrushevskaya L.S.), which were presented in the house -Bulgakov Museum in Moscow on Bolshaya Sadovaya.

However, people started talking about Igor Yatsko as a director in 2004. It was this year that he, together with the actors of the ShDI, staged the 24-hour happening “100 years. Leopold Bloom Day. Extracting the Root of Time" based on the novel "Ulysses" by James Joyce.

Igor came up with the idea of ​​making such a performance 6 years before the day the performance took place, and for a long time it remained just a dream. But a creative meeting with theater artist Vladimir Kovalchuk, who liked the idea and undertook to create various installations to accompany the reading of the novel, allowed us to hope that the dream could come true. In 2001, a new theater building was opened, created according to the designs and artistic architectural proposals of Anatoly Vasiliev and Igor Popov. The theater, which is an entire theatrical city, made it possible to make a journey through the streets of Dublin and invite the audience on this journey.

On June 16, 2004 at 8 am, exactly 100 years from the day described in the famous novel, the dream came true at the Theater Center on Sretenka.

Igor came up with a system of readers, each of whom began his chapter at a certain time, and a novel that one person could not read in less than 90 hours was read by the actors of the ShDI theater, including Igor himself, in 24 hours. More precisely, they, together with the audience, repeated the famous journey of Leopold Bloom.

This action became a real event in the theater world. In addition, it was included in the Russian book of records as the longest theatrical happening. “This performance “pushed” me into the circle of directors,” says Igor.

The next work of the novice director was not long in coming. On the set of “Running on the Waves,” Igor met actor and director Mikhail Gorev. He spoke about the film actor's theater, where there is a large young troupe recruited from recent graduates of theater universities. A troupe that has virtually no repertoire.

Igor has always been interested in working with young people, and when he was offered to try to do a project with these guys, to refuse would have meant for him “to close the paths for himself, which over time begin to interest him more and more.”

In 2005, Igor Yatsko staged a play based on William Shakespeare’s “black comedy” “Measure for Measure” with the young and promising troupe of the Film Actor Theater. As Igor himself said, he wanted to stage a play about “the impossibility of correcting people’s morals only by the force of laws and decrees.”

The performance received mixed reviews from theater critics. However, for Igor the main goal was not production, but pedagogical. He was interested in gathering a company of like-minded people with whom he could work for more than one year.

Igor's teaching abilities were highly appreciated. In 2007, he was invited to teach at the Acting Department of the International Slavic Institute. G.R. Derzhavina. He gladly accepted this offer and in September 2007 began his first course under the guidance of Honored Artist of Russia Igor Yatsko and People's Artist of Russia Vitaly Konyaev.

Directing and teaching captivated Igor Yatsko. He found something new, something he was interested in doing. But he is not going to give up cinema, much less the theater, where the talented actor Igor Yatsko found his way.

He believes that meeting the truth is only possible as a result of the path...

Material from Igor Yatsko’s website https://www.yatsko.ru (using materials from V. Zlotukhin, P. Bogdanova, A. Trubetskoy, S. Khokhryakova, P. Pokladov)

Theater

Igor Yatsko made his debut at the Saratov Youth Theater in 1985 in the play “Housewarming in an Old House,” then played John Warding in Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest.” In 1990, while still a 2nd year student at GITIS, the actor became a member of the troupe of the School of Dramatic Art theater, which was directed by his institute mentor Anatoly Vasiliev. In this theater, in which every rehearsal is a lesson in something new, Yatsko played in more than 20 performances.

The closing of the season at the School of Dramatic Art theater is June 23, this Saturday.
In the Grotto Hall on Sretenka LET'S TALK ABOUT... Published The Work of Igor Vladimirovich Yatsko Friday, June 22, 2020

Igor Yatsko in the theater
Each role was bright and memorable in its own way, but the actor himself highlights his debut performance “Today we are improvising”, as well as the role of Thrasymachus in Plato’s “Republic”, the production of “Don Juan, or the Stone Guest and other poems by Pushkin” , the role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the play “Mozart and Salieri. Requiem" and the tragedy "Faust", where Yatsko represents the title character.

With the School of Dramatic Art, Igor visited the world's most famous theater festivals. In 2004, the actor tried himself as a director, staging the play “100 Years. Leopold Bloom Day. Extracting the Root of Time" based on the novel by English writer James Joyce "Ulysses".

Following the link - a rough unapproved fold in the potential of an existing film, a wide publication would perhaps be...
Published by The Work of Igor Vladimirovich Yatsko Saturday, July 23, 2020

Igor Yatsko in the play “Faust”
It was a reading play that lasted exactly 24 hours and was included in the Russian Book of Records as the longest theatrical production. The premiere date was also significant - June 16, 2004, exactly 100 years after the publication of the famous novel.

In 2007, after the emigration of Anatoly Vasilyev, who moved to France, Igor Yatsko became the chief director of the School of Dramatic Art theater.

Directing

Igor Yatsko even tried his hand at directing. For example, in 2004 he staged the play “100 Years. Leopold Bloom Day. Extracting the root of time." This work is based on the novel by English writer James Joyce - “Ulysses”. The play was unusual - it lasted twenty-four hours, so it was included in the Russian Book of Records as the longest theatrical production of our time. This happened on June 16, 2004 - exactly one hundred years after the publication of the novel itself.

In 2007, after his beloved teacher and mentor Anatoly Vasiliev moved to France, he handed over the reins of the theater to Igor Yatsko. He became the director of the School of Dramatic Art theater.

In numerous interviews, the actor admits that their theater differs from others primarily not in its psychologism, which is present in virtually everyone, but in the unusual presentation of the material, the ability of the actors to organically get used to the roles, the unconventional approach to directing and the choice of works that not everyone produces.

Movies

Igor Vladimirovich’s creative biography in cinema began already in adulthood. Yatsko made his screen debut in 2001 in the Russian film anthology “The Black Room”, taking part in the filming of an episode called “Cleopatra”. The actor came to the audition on the recommendation of his classmate Oksana Fandera, who also played in this film. The same year, he starred in the thriller “Shatun” as television actor Andrei Veshny. The final monologue became the calling card of Igor Yatsko, and his photos were added to the catalogs of many film studios.

Igor Yatsko (still from the film “Shatun”)

Since the theater was a top priority for Igor Vladimirovich, he rejected many proposals for new filming. The next picture with his participation appeared only a few years later.

The performer's filmography contains about several dozen titles. The most famous of his early works were the adventure melodrama “Running on the Waves,” the comedy “Antidur” and the drama “Mermaid.” Yatsko’s bright appearance, tall height (192 cm), and acting talent attracted more and more film and television directors to his person.

Igor Yatsko (still from the film “Doctor Zhivago”)

During filming, the actor often found himself in funny situations. As Yatsko noted, all the villains he portrayed on screen were sooner or later beaten by other heroes. Sometimes I had to endure the pain. And in the film “Doctor Zhivago” Yatsko was forced to spend half the night in a coffin, filming a scene in a cemetery.

It’s interesting that all his life the actor was afraid of driving a car, due to the consequences of several accidents on the children’s highway, where his parents took him as a boy. But while working on one episode of the series “Citizen Chief - 2”, Yatsko had to overcome his emotions. During the filming of one scene, Igor drove a car at high speed through the city, with a camera on the hood, which he did brilliantly.

Igor Yatsko (still from the film “Mama Daragaya”)

Bright pages in the actor’s repertoire were his roles in the drama series “PiraMMMida”, the film adaptation of “The White Guard”, and the film “Split”. Yatsko also appeared in the series “The Eighties” and played a cameo role in the comedy “Studio 17.” The artist reproduced the eccentric image of the former rocker in the comedy “Mama Daragaya,” where he played together with Dmitry Averin and Ksenia Rappoport.

At the beginning of 2020, the colorful series “Island” was released on the TNT channel with the participation of Yatsko. It was filmed in the Seychelles in the genre of adventure comedy. Igor Vladimirovich embodied the image of Tuzenbach in Yuri Grymov’s project “Three Sisters”, where Lyudmila Polyakova, Anna Kamenkova, Irina Mazurkevich, Maxim Sukhanov, Igor Yasulovich also played.

Creation

Roles in the theater

Saratov Youth Theater

• 1985 - “Housewarming in an ancient house” by Alexander Kravtsov. Director: Yuri Kiselev - Igor
• 1986 - “The Essential Principle of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde. Directors: Yuri Kiselyov, Lena Ross - John Warding

School of Dramatic Art

• 1989 - “Easy Conversations” (Erasmus of Rotterdam). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Guy
• 1989 — “The Decline of Heresy. The critic as artist" (Oscar Wilde). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Gilbert, Vivian
• 1990 - “Dialogues” (Plato-Magritte). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Dionysodorus, Glevkon
• 1990 - “Today we improvise” (Luigi Pirandello). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Riiko Verri
• 1992 - “The State” (Plato). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Thrasymachus
• 1993 - “Joseph and His Brothers” (Thomas Mann). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Joseph, Peteprya, Ruvin
• 1993 - “Each in his own way” (Luigi Pirandello). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Doro Palegari, Diego
• 1994 - “Amphitryon” (Jean-Baptiste Moliere). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Mercury, Jupiter
• 1994 - “Conversations with the Poet” (Alexander Pushkin). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Poet, Don Juan
• 1995 - “Uncle's Dream. Chapters" (Fyodor Dostoevsky). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev
• 1997 - “The Gambler” (Fyodor Dostoevsky). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Alexey Ivanovich
• 1998 - “Don Juan or the Stone Guest and other poems by Pushkin” (Alexander Pushkin). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Don Guan
• 1999 - “K*** (Theater et concert)” (Alexander Pushkin). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev
• 2000 - “To comrades, in marvelous art” (Alexander Pushkin). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Mozart
• 2000 - “Mozart and Salieri. Requiem" (Alexander Pushkin). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Mozart
• 2001 - “Bloody Wedding” (Federico Garcia Lorca). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Leonardo
• 2001 - “Pushkin Matinee” (Alexander Pushkin). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Gymnasium student
• 2003 — “From Onegin’s travels. Dialogues and collages" (Alexander Pushkin). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - The Poet's Companion - the Poet himself
• 2004 — “The Iliad. Canto XXIII. Burial of Patroclus. Games" (Homer). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Warrior - Rhapsode
• 2004 - “100 years. Leopold Bloom's Day. Extracting the Root of Time" (James Joyce). Director: Igor Yatsko - Stephen Dedalus
• 2006 - “The Stone Guest or Don Juan is Dead” (Alexander Pushkin). Director: Anatoly Vasiliev - Don Guan
• 2008 - “The Death of a Feral Warrior” (Daniil Kharms, Leo Tolstoy). Director: Igor Yatsko
• 2009 - “Faust” (Johann Wolfgang Goethe). Director: Igor Yatsko - Faust
• 2010 - “Tararabumbia” (Director: Dmitry Krymov)

Theater productions

• 2004 - “100 years. Leopold Bloom's Day. Extracting the Root of Time" (James Joyce) – School of Dramatic Art
• 2008 - “The Death of a Feral Warrior” (Daniil Kharms, Leo Tolstoy) - School of Dramatic Art
• 2009 — “Faust” (Johann Wolfgang Goethe) — School of Dramatic Art
• 2007 — “Coriolanus” (William Shakespeare) — School of Dramatic Art
• 2008 - “Stone Angel” (Marina Tsvetaeva) - School of Dramatic Art
• 2009 — “Salome” (Oscar Wilde) — School of Dramatic Art
• 2009 — “Crazy Jourdain” (Misha Bulgakov) — Ira Feofanova Studio

Filmography

• 2001 - Black Room - Watchman
• 2001 - Connecting rod - Andrey Vesenny
• 2003 - Wanted - Nikolai Nikolaevich
• 2003 - Resort for a special purpose - Misha
• 2004 - A Place in the Sun - author Lunyok
• 2004 - Blind - Vasily Volkov
• 2005 - Doctor Zhivago - Blazheiko
• 2005 - Citizen Chief 2 - Lavrentiy
• 2006 - Hunt for a genius - Gleb Savchenko
• 2006 - Three on Top - Misha
• 2007 - Running on the Waves - Butler
• 2007 - Reddish pearls of love
• 2007 - Antidur
• 2007 - 1814 - Peschel
• 2007 - Mermaid
• 2008 - Unnamed - one lady in Berlin
• 2010 - Young Man from Mars - Boombox
• 2010 - Sakura jam
• 2011 - PiraMMMida - Rezo
• 2011 - Split - Afanasy Pashkov
• 2013 - Waiting list - Yakov - sectarian (3rd episode)
• 2013 - Eighties - Fedorvey Viktorovich Polyakov (in one episode)
• 2013- Studio 17
• 2013 - Rehearsals - Dmitry Vdovin
• 2014 - Mother of Daragai

Personal life

Igor Yatsko hides his personal life and in interviews avoids all questions on the topic of family and children, preferring to discuss exclusively creative activities, rich in roles and directorial works. But it is known that his wife was actress Maria Zaikova, who came to Moscow from Sterlitamak.

The future spouses studied together at a theater university, then together they joined the theater troupe of the School of Dramatic Art. Yatsko’s wife supports him in all his creative endeavors and helps him work with young people. The artist announces his creative plans in the group on VKontakte and from his Facebook account. He does not have his own profile on Instagram.

May 11, Friday, 21.00 theater School of Dramatic Art, Grotowski Hall hour with Maria Zaikova and Igor Yatsko:...
Published Works of Igor Vladimirovich Yatsko Sunday, May 6, 2020

Igor Yatsko and Maria Zaikova
Nothing is known for certain about the family relationship between Igor and Alexander Yatsko, but the actors never mentioned each other, and besides, they were born in different cities: Alexander in Minsk, Igor in Saratov.

In September 2020, Jatsko contacted the police department about a robbery. The actor indicated in a statement that 400 thousand rubles disappeared from his bank card. Igor Vladimirovich did not immediately find out that he had been robbed. How this happened also remained unknown to him.

Igor Yatsko now

In 2020, Igor Vladimirovich appeared in the cast of the 2-part melodrama “Together with Vera” and the comedy “Year of the Pig.” Now the artist pays more attention to his theatrical brainchild - the “School of Dramatic Art” and teaching at Nikita Mikhalkov’s Academy of Cinematographic and Theater Arts.

A.P. Chekhov.
CHERRY ORCHARD May 4, Saturday, at 19.00 https://sdart.ru/project/vishnevyy-sad/ photo by Natalia Cheban Published Works of Igor Vladimirovich Yatsko Monday, April 29, 2020

Igor Yatsko in 2020 in the play “The Cherry Orchard”
Yatsko also gives master classes in the provinces. In April 2020, he visited Tyumen, where he talked with actors from local theaters. Igor Vladimirovich became a participant in the first festival “Lessons of Oleg Tabakov”, which started in his small homeland in Saratov in mid-April.