*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 an artist: Meyerhold
Theater Center in Moscow, Theater of Generations in ST. Petersburg.
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
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:
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..
