Microscope Toy Theater
*microscope (from the Greek: μικρός, mikrós, "small" and σκοπεῖν, skopeîn, "to look" or "see")
is an instrument to see objects too small
for the naked eye.
Microscope Toy Theater
is a touring company founded in 2010 by the musician and artist Yulya Dukhovny.
About the artist:
Yulya Dukhovny is a multidisciplinary artist living in Long Beach, California. She centers on the Model Theater medium and contemporary interpretation of traditional paper/toy theater, popular in 19th Century Europe. She creates a dramatic visual narrative Incorporating creative writing, object based performance, physical theater, experimental puppetry, video and original music. She defines her tiny-stage plays as a “live paper animation performed in a vertical 2D scenic space, where six-inches paper figures are wading through the metaphorical landscapes”. Dukhovny’s experimental work inspired by life-size scenography and its multiple stage process of modelling.
She has been a performer and a Guest Artist resident at the International Festival of Paper Toy Theater in Germany, France, Mexico and Russia, "Great Small Works" International Toy Theater Festival in New York, "On Edge" Festival of Contemporary Performance Arts in Santa Barbara, Detroit and Santa Monica Museums of Arts, Japanese American National Museum, the Automata Arts in Los Angeles, National Puppetry Festival at the University of Connecticut.
Residences as a Visual Artist/Stage Director/Educator include: Meyerhold Theater Center in Moscow, Theater of Generations in ST. Petersburg, Young Arts LA UCLA, and Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA.
2015: a recipient of Long Beach Arts Council Professional Artist Fellowship.
Dukhovny started her career as a classic pianist and studied at Mussorgsky State Academy in Ekaterinburg, Russia. In 1990 she moved to Tel-Aviv, Israel, where she completed her MA in music and composed original scores for theater and animation. In 1999 she received the "Best Theater Composer of the Year" award at the 20th Fringe Theater Festival in Israel.
Dukhovny, as stage director, has worked extensively in opera, including work on more than 30 European and US opera productions at the New Israeli Opera, Opera Pacific, the Atlanta Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, IU Jacobs School of Music. She was Assistant and Stage Director for Franco Zeffirelli, David Pountney, Jean Claude Auvrey, Giancarlo Del Monaco, Christopher Alden, Manfred Belharz, and Michaell Hampe among others.
Her opera stage work includes:
House AD and Stage Director for Opera Studio programs and Summer Workshops (including Model Theater workshop) at the New Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv (2002-2005)
Revival director and performance manager for "The Tristan Project" (Peter Sellars and Bill Viola collaboration) at the "White Nights Music Festival" in St. Petersburg, Russia 2009,
Associate Stage Director for the new production of "Faust" at Indiana University Opera Theater in 2011.
Constantly evolving, Yulya Dukhovny expands her aspiration to combine means and forms of artistic expression. She recalls with gratitude her artist grandfather, in whose studio she spent countless hours and days, and his role in her formation as a free-thinking artist, from the very early age.
Currently Dukhovny is a guest artist teacher at Westmont College, CA and a resident of:
"Toy Theater" project (see the page: проект Театр-Игрушка ) in Moscow
and Theater of Generations, St. Petersburg.
images below:
toy theater installation "The Fisherman's Dream".
Inside the wooden proscenium box: paper diorama, video fragments from the show. This miniature installation discovers the interplay of the still object and the moving image..
