Ksenya Litvak

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Artist, Puppet Designer , Educator

Ksenya received her PhD and MFA degrees from the prestigious St. Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. In addition, her postgraduate study was in pedagogic and child psychology. Ksenya has been teaching for over thirty years and her specialties include graphics, painting, sculpture, puppet and marionette design and technology. Ksenya was a founder and the artistic director of WizArts Productions, Inc. and Elf Theatre. Previously, she served as the artistic director of Classika’s Green Parrot Puppet Theatre, where she introduced her audiences to all types of puppets: from marionettes to life-size, table, object, rod, Bunraku, planchette, and shadow puppets.. She was also Classika’s resident set and costume designer, where she was the designer for over twenty productions. Her shows The Little Red Riding Hood, which has been presented  at the Shanghai International Experimental Theatre Festival, Human Rights Festival and Capital Fringe festival in 2010, and The Killer, shown at the Ionesco International Workshop Festival in Sinai, Romania, in the summer of 2009. Ksenya worked as a Puppet designer at Wooly Mammoth Theater,  North Virginia Opera, Arena Stage, Round House Theater, Adventure theater, Theater J, Arlekin Players Theater,  Since 2017 Ksenya is working as a resident set and costume designer at Bel Cantanti Opera Company.  Her works include Rigoletto, Traviata, La Villi, Briscula, Hansel and Gretel, Mozart and Salieri, Tzar's Bride, Sadko, We Proud to Present, Minor Character, Les Contes D'Hoffmann,Le nozze Di Figaro and much more.  Ksenya  works as an art teacher at Commonwealth Academy and has her own Art School "Artichoke Art Studio" founded at 2000 where she is painting and making puppets and costumes and teaching different art techniques to students of all ages.