Microscope Toy Theater
My Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/user16210078
Projects, shows, work in progress
NOW IS AVAILABLE! Full video of the tiny paper show (4-minutes).
"The Land of Counterpane" a visual journey through play-poems of R.L Stevenson and the uncertain times.
click on image below-
"Little Tree Giant",
a 15-minute interactive paper silhouette performance, unfolds on a long table. Figures are paper cut out figures strikethrough with colored crayons.
Designed and performed by Yulya Dukhovny
For all ages 8+.
"Chekhov in quarantine" : Three Sisters", "Ivanov"
Zoom Theatre collaboration with the international cast of actors.
"Small Enchantments"
collaboration with Theatre Arts Department of Westmont Collage, Santa Barbara CA:
"this surprising tale bursts to life through interlocking monologues and tiny paper worlds"..
Cymbeline promo is now available: https://vimeo.com/568655192
A Real Elephant
paper toy theater piece performed in an old suitcase. The show has been performed at the International Festivals of Paper and Toy Theater in France, Germany, Russia, Mexico, as well as in the USA (Great Small Works, "92 street Y", etc).
Nadia, a little girl, loses her passion for life. All day long she lies in her bed, dull, getting thinner and weaker. Until one day, following a dream she has dreamed, she makes a wish. She would like a real elephant to visit her. Will her father take this challenge and make it happen? Will she get well?
As the story unfolds, the udience will gasp upon the revelation of the larger-than-life leading character!
"A Real Elephant" is a theatrical retelling of the children's novel by A. Kuprin, great classical writer, explorer and adventurer. One of many Russian émigrés writing in Paris in the first part of the 20th century, Alexander Kuprin writes an "Elephant" in 1907 for reading aloud to children. This short heartwarming story became a favorite for children of all ages.
Original idea, design, music: Yulya Dukhovny
Voice of narration: Neil Averill
A 30 min. Toy Theater piece performed in English and applied to all ages from 6
Seats are limited to 40.
Three diplomas of the Festival "Theaters of St. Petersburg for Children" for the play "Real Elephant" at the Theater of Generations:
Diploma for the best show in small form (Theater of Generations in collaboration with Microscope Toy Theater)
Diploma for the best directing (Yulya Dukhovny)
Best Acting Diploma (Natalia Ponomareva)
Into the Rice Fields
A 30 min diorama-theater piece performed on a model size rotating wooden stage.
The story represented with drawings and objects, dioramas and movable pictures, model size rotating wooden stage and a physical theater techniques.
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Original story, design, piano score: Yulya Dukhovny
written by Priscilla Gallardo and Celeste Rose Dukhovny
Voice of narration and vocal: Claire Finnk
For the entire family 5+
Seating is limited to 35.
"очень рождественский, очень пронзительный, очень правдивый, очень волшебный, очень бумажный, очень настоящий - ТЕАТР".
“Невероятной красоты бумажный театрик, какой -то очень московский дом, лунная ночь, санки в углу... Все такое родное, узнаваемое, будто ты нашёл старый детский тайник!”
Seasons-project.
click on the link to see the video:
Work in progress: "Star in a Glass Jar" book part 1 and 2
Original idea, design, original piano score: Yulya Dukhovny
Voice narration: Fred Masbeck
Late night on the shore... The old Fisherman sits next to the fire and recalls his youth... He falls asleep.
“The show presents the tale through a dream: spotty, fading in and out, made only partially accessible through our memory of it”. The play is based on the poetry of Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) - Russian poet and novelist of the Romantic era.
For all ages 8+
Seating is limited to 30.
Toy theater-installation "Fisherman's dream. The world in miniature"
an interplay of a few related objects.
review: https://artandcakela.com/2016/11/05/a-miniature-world-awaits-at-grand-central-art-center/
A Wooden Sandbox, part of the installation:
A small wooden sandbox filled with sand, memories on distant seas, unspoken words, forgotten tales...
Bricolage*, sand, sound composition.
The sandbox represents the precious memories of an old man, the Fisherman, and invites the viewer to peek into a metaphorical zone of someone's humble quiet pondering on life and youth.
Voice narration: Fred Masbeck
Original music: Yulya Dukhovny
Y.D: “The idea and the inspiration for the Sandbox bricolage came from the memory of my own childhood game: "The Secret". The life of a child in the era of the "real socialism" was very different from today - no computers or "clever" expensive toys and entertainment.. We spent a lot of time on the street, being engaged in active, spontaneous, creative games. "The Secret" was children's practice of building a special "composition" with small treasures. This almost ritual activity was widespread among Soviet children. Typically, the "secret" was placed in a dug hole where candy wrappers, coins, old buttons, leaves, fragments of letters, postage stamps or any other small items were considered valuable. In children's world the value of an object was rather aesthetic and emotional than utilitarian. The pit was usually covered with glass and buried in the soil, so there was a little window through which you could look into a beautiful dreamy world, which has been created by your own hands. The most important thing was to find a clear glass, without which the meaning of the game was lost. Most of us diligently searched for fragments of bottles or glass jars at the nearest garbage, and then dug up the "installation". The "Secret" was shown to a trusted friends. It was kind of a sacrament that served as a way to demonstrate or to offer friendship. As a common and a frustrating practice, on the other hand, there happened a destruction of other people's secrets.. Well, the world of children can be cruel as well...In my opinion, the structure of this game represents a unique, expressive form of art activity, lost in times...
click on the link to see the video at the installation:
Star in a Glass Jar
a 30 min. toy theater piece performed in a window frame. The show inspired by the traditions and charm of Kamishibai, a method of storytelling originating from Japan.
Smells of cinnamon and apple pies, soft clinking of toy ornaments...The perfect holidays time feeling; unless something goes terribly wrong. "Star in a Glass Jar" is an incredible adventure of one child's letter with no address, which finds its way to the other side of the world. There, in a small village, may live someone willing and ready to help.
The Fisherman's Dream
a 30 min. Toy Theater piece combines found objects, paper theater, sound. Live performance unfolds on a table-top stage resembling a giant tunnel book. Small paper figures interact within the main character's dream.
NOW IS AVAILABLE! Full video of the show recorded in Preetz, Germany: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJOuRs4oT68
"From immemorial time the shores of Japan have been swept at irregular intervals of centuries by enormous tidal waves..."
The original play (by Y. Dukhovny) was inspired by the work of two extraordinary philosophers and "travelers in time": Lafcadio Hearn, writer (1850 - 1904) and Tōru Takemitsu, composer (1930 – 1996). The "intersection" between these two worlds of sound and word represented in this piece by the literary phenomenon of Lafcadio Hearn's short stories and the avant-garde music of Tōru Takemitsu. The two sound layers of text and music express a spatial concept of the Japanese "Ma" ("a void that isn't empty, an absence that is really a presence, a space between things that is full of energy").
This new work supported in part by the grant from the Arts Council of Long Beach.
Physical theatre is a genre of theatrical performance that pursues storytelling through primarily physical means.
Performed in English
Seating is limited to 40
