Boris Tuzlukov

Russia, 1909 - 1974

BiographyHe was born in Kursk to a family of a railroad employee. Influenced by shadow theater performances that his grandmother showed him, circus, cinema and classical literature, he organized an amateur theater where, together with friends, he staged plays by Ostrovsky, Moliere, Shakespeare. He wrote revolutionary poetry – in the 1920s, some of his poems were published in local newspapers. In 1929, he designed a book cover for the collection of poems of the Kursk Association of Proletarian Writers. While still in middle school, he liked to sketch theater sets and actors’ costumes. Later he took art classes at the Railroad Workers’ Club. In 1931 he moved to Moscow where he attended lectures by important film directors: Eisenstein, Kuleshov, Romm, at the Institute of Cinematography. In 1934-1935 taught art at the Bauman Children's House of Culture (Moscow). In 1935 the founder and director of the Moscow Central Puppet Theater, Sergey Obraztsov, invited him to join the new theater as the Chief Artist. Here, he worked until his retirement. He was the artistic director of 24 plays, for which he also created posters. His puppets and stage sets have been exhibited in Russia and internationally in Belgium, Italy, Canada, France, Czech Republic, Japan and other countries. Many of his works belong to museum collections in Russia and worldwide. His designs for the theater are considered the classics of the contemporary Russian puppet theater.

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