Yulya Dukhovny

A few words on Toy (Model) theater. Traditional Toy theater emerged in the 19th century across Victorian Europe and America, when revolutions in printing made possible the creation of printed backdrops and characters. Today, the love of miniature theater is not just a nostalgia. There are hundreds of theater and visual artists, filmmakers and puppeteers from around the world who create wonderfully complex work with a fresh approach to an old art form through literature, art, staging, film, music and much more.

I create Toy (or Model) Theater miniature shows and perform them on a table size stages, in side of 20" X 14" prosceniums, window frames, shoe boxes... Often I represent my work under the name of "Microscope Toy Theater" which explains my occupation as an artist just perfectly: "microscope (from the Greek) is an instrument to see objects too small for the naked eye"... Sounds like a metaphor yet a truth about miniature: the model scale performance may reflect a contemporary life through visual "dialogue" with the audience on bigger than life events.I believe, this is a magical kind of performing arts where the spectators are very focused and amused by the scale of the two dimensional paper sets. In fact, the audience becomes a part of the miniature universe.

Yulya Dukhovny is a Russian/Israeli artist, lives in Long Beach. She started her career as a classic pianist. 1990 - 2006 she lives and works in Israel. Composing original scores for theater and film, she has been awarded "Best Theater Composer of the Year" at the 1999 Fringe Theater Festival in Israel. In 2006 Dukhovny moved to Los Angeles.

She has also engaged extensively in opera as Associate, Stage and Assistant Director for Franco Zeffirelly, Giancarlo Del Monaco, David Pountney, Manfred Belharz, Jean- Claude Auvrey, Peter Sellars and Bill Viola including work on more than 30 European and US opera productions. 2002-2005 Dukhovny was Stage Director for Young Opera Studio Programs and led the summer workshops (including "Model Theater: from designing to performing") at the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv. From 2010 Dukhovny focuses on Toy (Model) theater medium. She designs and performs solo miniature shows and Model theater installations under the name "Microscope Toy Theater" through festivals, galleries, museums. Her work incorporates object based performance, video, traditions of paper theater, physical theater techniques, original music. Among Dukhovny's venues: International Toy Theater festivals in France, Germany, Russia and Mexico as well as 10th "Great Small Works" Festival in New York, "On Edge" Festival of Contemporary Performance, Santa Barbara, Detroit and Connecticut Institutes of Arts. She is a resident artist at the Meyerhold Theater in Moscow. MA in music