Wolfgang Schneider was founding director of the Institute for Cultural Policy at the University of Hildesheim and holder of the UNESCO Chair "Cultural Policy for the Arts in Development" (2014 - 2020). He was the first director of the Children's and Young People's Theater Center in the Federal Republic of Germany, chairman of the Lower Saxony Theater Advisory Board, member of the Goethe-Institut's Dance and Theater Advisory Board and, as an expert member of the German Bundestag's Enquete Commission "Culture in Germany," rapporteur for the chapter on theater, among other things. He is chairman of the Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V., a personal member of the German UNESCO Commission, a trusted lecturer of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a member of the federal board of the Cultural Forum of Social Democracy, a member of the board of the Initiative for the Archives of Independent Theater e.V., a member of the International Theater Institute, a member of the Council for Performing Arts and Dance in the German Cultural Council, an honorary member of ASSITEJ Germany and Switzerland, and honorary president of the International Association of Theater for Children and Young People. In 2018, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class by the German President for his honorary international commitment. Numerous publications on theater policy, editor of, among others, "Theater und Schule. Handbuch zur kulturellen Bildung" (2009), " Theater und Migration. Herausforderungen für Kulturpolitik und Theaterpraxis" (2011), "Theater entwickeln und planen. Kulturpolitische Konzeptionen zur Reform der Darstellenden Künste" (2014), "Theatermachen als Beruf. Hildesheimer Wege" (together with Julia Speckmann, 2017); ""Partizipation als Programm. Wege ins Theater für Kinder und Jugendliche" (together with Anna Eitzeroth, 2017); "Performing the Archive. Studie zur Entwicklung eines Archivs des Freien Theaters" (together with Henning Fülle and Christine Henniger, 2018), "Theater in der Provinz. Künstlerische Vielfalt und kulturelle Teilhabe als Programm" (with Katharina Schröck and Silvia Stolz, 2019); "Theater in Transformation. Artistic Processes and Cultural Policy in South Africa" (with Lance Lebogang Nawa, 2019).

Amelie Deuflhard has been the artistic director of Kampnagel, Germany’s largest independent venue for international performing arts, since 2007. Prior to that, she served as artistic director of the Sophiensæle and the Volkspalast in Berlin. Her work focuses, among other things, on the interplay between art, cultural production, and the city, as well as on issues of diversity, decolonization, and inclusion. She has transformed Kampnagel into a place of encounter that brings international artistic perspectives into continuous dialogue with activists, scholars, local artists, and diverse urban communities. Amelie Deuflhard was part of the four-member curatorial board of Theater der Welt 2017. She is the author of numerous publications and regularly holds teaching positions at universities. For her work, she was awarded the Caroline Neuber Prize in 2012 and the insignia of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 2013. In 2018, she received the European Cultural Manager of the Year award, and in 2021, the Berlin Theater Prize.

Anne-Cathrin Lessel studied theater studies, psychology, and cultural studies at the University of Leipzig. Until 2011, she worked as a freelancer on artistic projects with children and young people, primarily at the Theater an der Parkaue in Berlin.
In 2011, she became the program and production director at LOFFT – DAS THEATER, and in 2019 she took over as its artistic director and managing director.
Anne-Cathrin Lessel has been actively involved in cultural policy at various levels for many years: for 12 years she served on the board of the Bundesverbandes Freie Darstellende Künste; since 2020 she has been a board member of the Landesverband der Freien Theater in Saxony; since 2023 she has been a board member of the Fonds Darstellende Künste; and starting in 2025 she will serve on the board of the Bundesverband Zeitgenössischer Zirkus.
Among other things, she is also a member of various expert juries, including those for the City of Leipzig, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, the German National Academic Foundation, the National Performance Network, and various festivals.
 

Beate Baron has been Professor of Music Theater at the HfM Saar since 2021. She taught at the HfM Hanns Eisler Berlin, the MH Lübeck and the HMT Rostock. Beate Baron studied directing with Götz Friedrich Hfmt Hamburg and directing and interdisciplinary composition at the HfM "Hanns Eisler" Berlin and works as a director for music theater and opera, as well as a curator. Her artistic works arise in the field of tension between music theater, installations, opera and video. She has developed award-winning productions for a wide variety of venues and festivals, including the Ruhrtriennale, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Radial System, Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt, Theater Freiburg, and many others. A long and intensive artistic collaboration connected her with Götz Friedrich, Hans Neuenfels and Jürgen Flimm.

Dorte Lena Eilers is professor and head of the master's program "Cultural Journalism" at the University of Music and Theater in Munich in cooperation with the August Everding Theater Academy. She also works as a cultural journalist, predominantly in the fields of music and theater against the background of socio-political developments. Previously, she was editor from 2007 to 2021, most recently editor-in-chief of Theater der Zeit. She is a member of the German Academy of Performing Arts and the advisory board of the magazine "junge bühne" and has served on various juries (including the German Federal Theater Prize and the Mülheim Theater Days). Publications (as co-editor) include Frank Castorf, Dimiter Gotscheff, Bulgarian theater and new German-language drama. Most recently, her volume of talks "backstage TSCHEPLANOWA" was published.

Janis El-Bira, born in Braunschweig in 1986, studied philosophy and history in Berlin and has since worked as a journalist and presenter with a focus on theater. He is an editor for the theater portal nachtkritik.de and a presenter and editor for the program "Rang 1 - Das Theatermagazin" on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In addition, texts and contributions for various newspapers and radio stations. From 2016 to 2021 he headed the journalistic project for young talent "Theatertreffen-Blog" at the Berliner Festspiele. Jury activities include the Mülheim Drama Prize 2021, the Fast Forward 2021 festival in Dresden, and the Politik im Freien Theater 2022 festival in Frankfurt am Main.

Since 1994 artistic director and director of the Theater Mummpitz in Nuremberg and since 2000 artistic director of the biennial European-Bavarian children's theater festival "panoptikum". In addition, continuously active in the field of cultural policy as well as in various national and international associations for the promotion of professional children's and youth theater. Among other things, she was a long-standing board member and deputy chairwoman of the German ASSITEJ e.V. until January 2022.

Member of the Nuremberg Education Advisory Board, since 2009 responsible for the conceptualization , implementation and project management of the 1st Nuremberg Kulturrucksack.

Since 2019/2020 responsible for the project development "Mummpitz macht Schule. Klasse."

Since January 2022 artistic director of the three-year Jupiter project "Memories" in cooperation with CIE Gare centrale/Belgium, AdDK Regensburg and Theater Mummpitz.

Since 2022 member of the board of trustees of the Fonds Darstellende Künste.

Kerstin Evert studied Applied Theater Studies in Giessen, was a doctoral student in the research training group Body Stagings at the Free University of Berlin from 1997 to 2000, and wrote her doctoral thesis on DanceLab - Contemporary Dance and New Technologies (doctorate awarded the Dance Science Prize NRW 2001). Together with Oliver Behnecke she started the production label Stadt Raum Inszenierung (e.g. festival "ZeitenWende", Gießen 2000). From 2002 to 2006 Kerstin Evert was dramaturge at Kampnagel and founded the choreographic center K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg there in August 2006, which she has directed ever since. As a lecturer, she has taught in Berlin, Bern, Gießen, Hamburg, Frankfurt/Main and Salzburg, among other places, and was part of the co-leading teams of the artistic-scientific research training groups "Assembly and Participation" (HCU, Fundus, K3) and "Performing Citizenship" (HCU, HAW, Fundus, K3). She is a member of various juries and advisory boards, since 2017 on the board and since 2021 co-president of the European Dancehouse Network.

Thomas Frank has been working for 25 years in institutions that produce contemporary performing arts in an international context. Since November 2025, he has been senior dramaturg at the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover. Prior to that, from 2016 to October 2025, he was artistic director of the residency program for independent theater, dance, and performance groups from Europe at the Schauspiel Leipzig. From 2015 to 2017, he was also engaged as a freelance curator at the VabaLava Theater in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2007, Thomas Frank and Haiko Pfost founded brut Wien as an international co-production house for interdisciplinary performing arts, which he managed with artistic and executive responsibility until 2015. From 2005 to 2007, he was program dramaturg at the Sophiensaele in Berlin, and from 2000 to 2005, he was assistant artistic director and dramaturg at the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt am Main. He studied theater studies and communication and media studies in Leipzig and Glasgow. He has been a lecturer in dramaturgy at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theater in Leipzig since 2018.

Ute Gröbel (*1983 in Erlangen) is dramaturg and artistic co-director of HochX Theater and Live Art in Munich. She was deputy director of the dramaturgy course at the August Everding Theater Academy until 2016. In 2021, she completed advanced training in theater and music management at LMU Munich; in the same year, HochX was awarded the Theaterpreis des Bundes. In 2022, she co-directed the Freischwimmen meets Rodeo Festival with Antonia Beermann and will also be artistically responsible for the 2024 and 2026 Rodeo Festivals together with her.

Seta-Elizabeth Guetsoyan, M.A., studied theater studies and art history at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. She worked in different theater and cultural institutions as a dramaturg, researcher and production manager in a number of different projects (Theater der Welt, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Ruhrtriennale or also in the Capital of Culture team of the city of Herne).

From 2012 to 2018, she managed the Documentation Center of the German Forum for Figure Theater and Puppetry Art and the production of the festival FIDENA - Figurentheater der Nationen.

Since 2019, she has directed the Figurentheater-Kolleg, a continuing education institution for performing and visual arts with a focus on puppet theater, and the Rottstr5-Kunsthallen, a space for transdisciplinary art and cultural-political discourse, in Bochum.

Anica Happich, born and raised in Klein Oschersleben (Saxony-Anhalt), is a cultural worker who is active in publicly funded theaters, the independent scene, and the film industry. In 2021, she initiated the PHOENIX Theater Festival. There, she promotes young artists, actively conducts audience research, and stages performances throughout the city using mobile stages and other artistic formats. For the festival, she developed the radical K's – radical cooperation, co-creation, and collaboration. With this maxim, she promotes interdisciplinary approaches and resource sharing. In 2024, she and the Plattenstufen-Festspiele team received the KULTUR GESTALTEN Future Prize from the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft e.V. 
At the beginning of the 2026/2027 season, Anica Happich will take over the drama department at the Staatstheater Cottbus together with Timofej Kuljabin.

Mirjam Hesse is a freelance puppeteer and figure designer. She studied figure theater at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts until 2010 and was a guest student at the Accademia Dimitri - L'accademia del Physical Theatre, CH. In 2011 she founded the Theater Miamou (touring theater) and since then has been developing her own productions, mainly children's plays, with which she can be seen in numerous cities in Germany as well as internationally. Regular venues include Berlin, Braunschweig, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Saarbrücken, Lübeck, Lingen, Winterthur (CH). Guest performances at numerous festivals including Wies (A), Stamsund (NOR), Moscow (RUS), Dublin (IRL).

Her performance style combines various figure techniques and materials/objects, whereby the choreographic formulation of the movements (her own as well as those of the figures/objects) plays a central role. The productions are characterized by a calm, clear and poetic visual language.

Barbara Kastner studied theater and communication studies in Berlin as well as scenic arts and Brazilian history in Campinas, Brazil. She was subsequently employed at the Theaterhaus Jena, then at the Städtische Bühnen Münster. From 2004 to 2008, she worked as a freelance dramaturge and production manager (productions at Theater im Pumpenhaus Münster, Artheater Köln, Roxy Basel, Theaterhaus Hildesheim, Theater unterm Dach Berlin, T-Werk Potsdam, Divadlo z Pasaze/Slovakia, among others). From 2008 to 2011 she was dramaturge at Ballhaus Naunynstraße in Berlin (directed by Shermin Langhoff), then at Theater Krefeld and Mönchengladbach. From 2016 to 2020, she was responsible for artistic direction and dramaturgy at Theater dasvinzenz in Munich, as well as production manager for RODEO 2020 and for independent productions as a dramaturge (including Theater der Keller Köln; Rosa - Trotz alledem: Theater unterm Dach, directed by Anja Panse; XX-Tanztheater/ Bibiana Jiménez) and held various teaching positions (including at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, cultural funding). Since 2020, she has headed the cultural office of the city of Lünen with the Heinz-Hilpert-Theater.

She studied scenic arts at the University of Hildesheim and at the Università di Bologna, Italy, and worked as a dramaturge for drama and puppet theater at the Bühnen Halle as well as a freelance theater maker in various projects with young people, including for the Goethe Institute in sub-Saharan Africa and the UNART performance festival. She is also involved in various expert juries, e.g. for the allocation of state funds in the field of independent performing arts in Saxony-Anhalt and the NEUSTART KULTUR - Junges Publikum (ASSITEJ) funding program. Since 2023, Skadi Konietzka has been on the board of the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft (BAG) Spiel & Theater.

Sabine Kuhfuss studied education, sociology and cultural management in Bielefeld and Hannover. After assisting the team leader of the cultural department of the city of Detmold and co-directing the festival for performing arts in public space "Bildstörung" from 2010 to 2018, she has been the technical-artistic director of the KulturTeam of the city of Detmold and artistic director of the festival "Bildstörung" since 2019. She is interested in the effects and perspectives of performing arts as well as interdisciplinary formats in public space, especially their relevance for municipal culture.

Since 2014, she has been an associate member of the European network for the promotion and development of artistic creations in public space In Situ. As a board member of the Bundesverband Theater im öffentlichen Raum e.V., she is committed to the development and promotion of the genre.

Julia-Huda Nahas initially trained as an advertising manager and worked for several years as a project manager, marketing and sales manager in the private sector. In 2011, she decided to change course and study cultural education at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, which she completed in 2015 with a bachelor's thesis on inclusive theater as part of the EU project “kunst verbind(e)t”. In addition to realizing independent productions and projects, she works for municipal and independent theatres. In addition, there are always thematically focused projects, such as the scenic reading “Heller Schatten”, a commissioned work on the occasion of the inauguration of the Nazi memorial in Neandertal. In 2020-2023, Julia-Huda Nahas led the project BITTER (SWEET) HOME, which she initiated with a focus on the promotion of BI*POC artists, anti-racist narratives and collaborative writing. In addition to her intensive networking work (theaterautor*innen-netzwerk, VThea, ASSITEJ), she is regularly represented on juries. She is currently a member of the jury for the German Federal Children's and Youth Theater Prize.

Dan Thy Nguyen is a freelance theater director, actor, writer and singer in Hamburg. He has worked on various productions at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Mousonturm Frankfurt, Kampnagel, MDR and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, among others. In 2014 he developed and produced the play "Sonnenblumenhaus" about the pogrom of Rostock -Lichtenhagen, which won the "Hörnixe" in 2015 in its radio play version and is still played at various institutions. Since 2020, he has directed the Hamburg festival "fluctoplasma - 96h Kunst Diskurs Diversität" with his production company Studio Marshmallow and he is deputy board member of the LAG Kinder- und Jugendkultur Hamburg. In 2021, together with the entire ensemble, he received the German Radio Play Award for his acting performance. In 2022 he published, among other things, his first volume of poetry "Über Wasser und Tote" and co-curated the exhibition "Wer wir sind" at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn in 2023.

Theresa Schütz has been working as a research associate at the interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Center “Affective Societies. Dynamics of Coexistence in Moving Worlds” at the FU Berlin. As part of this, she completed her doctorate in 2021 on strategies of audience involvement in immersive theater (“Theater der Vereinnahmung”, Berlin 2022); further focal points in research and teaching are artist collectives in the past and present, dis_ability aesthetics and institutional change in the arts and cultural institutions. She studied cultural and media management at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg. In the summer semester of 2024, she taught as a visiting professor of philosophy at the Folkwang University of the Arts. 
Since 2013 she has regularly published theater and performance reviews, mainly for Theater der Zeit and nachtkritik; jury activities for NEUSTART KULTUR programs, Theaterpreis des Bundes and Preis der jungen Dramatik. 

Anna Wagner has been the artistic director and managing director of Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt together with Marcus Droß since September 2022. After studying theater, she worked as assistant dance curator at Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and directed the dance department at Theater Freiburg, which she transformed from an ensemble company into a production platform for independent choreographers and dancers. In 2014, she moved to Frankfurt's Mousonturm as dramaturg. There she established ongoing working relationships with dance, theater and performance creators from the national and international independent scene such as Paula Rosolen, Eisa Jocson, Helgard Haug/ Rimini Protokoll, Jetse Batelaan and Eisa Jocson among others. She is also co-founder of Tanzplattform Rhein-Main and developed numerous special projects and festivals such as "Indonesia LAB" (2015) "Oper Offenbach" (2018) and "This is Not Lebanon" (2021).

Franziska Werner is a dramaturge and curator and has been Artistic Director of the Impulse Festival in NRW since September 2024.  From 2011 to summer 2023, she was Artistic Director of Sophiensaele Berlin. 
Her curatorial interests include questions of work ethics and accessibility, the link between humor and queer feminism, performativity and everyday life, body politics and how origins shape artistic work. She has a special interest in so-called East German themes, because these always contain pan-German and international discourses as well as global issues and systemic questions.
She has been or is active in various juries and committees, including the Berlin Council for the Arts, the advisory board of the Goethe-Institut's theater/dance department, as a mentor for the PAP of LAFT Berlin e.V. or in the mentoring program “Women in Culture & Media” of the German Cultural Council.
She was born in East Berlin in 1975, grew up in Weimar and studied Theater Studies/Cultural Communication, Art History and European Ethnology at Humboldt University Berlin (M.A.) and Études Théâtrales at the Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris.

Silvia Werner studied English (M.A.) and Finnish (B.A.) with a focus on literary studies at the University of Cologne. As a cultural manager, she has spent many years working primarily in the field of contemporary dance in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and internationally, accompanying productions and collaborating with artists. This work was complemented by teaching assignments at both the University of Cologne and the Center for Contemporary Dance (ZZT) in Cologne. From 2021 to 2026, she headed the FESTIVALFRIENDS network based in Dortmund, which aims to promote nationwide, supraregional networking among festival organizers and artists.

Since 2026, Silvia Werner has been the director of Europe Direct Dortmund, one of over 400 centers in the European Union that provides education on European policy at the interface between civil society and the EU.

Melanie Zimmermann worked in film and television before studying cultural and dance studies in Frankfurt/Oder and Paris. She worked for the Forsythe Company and studied dramaturgy with Hans-Thies Lehmann in Frankfurt/Main and Brussels. In 2010 she was a danceWEB scholarship holder. As a freelance dance and theater dramaturge, she has worked for Wanda Golonka, Peeping Tom and Laurent Chétouane, among others, and was project manager of the collective MAMAZA. From 2010 to 2023, she worked as a dance dramaturge and curator at Kampnagel in Hamburg, where she was jointly responsible for the local and international dance program and several major dance events such as the Dance Platform 2014 or the Biennale Tanzausbildung 2020. In her networking work, she primarily supported artists with disabilities and representatives of Black Dance Culture. In 2021, she co-founded the Bottom Up Dance School, an inclusive artistic school project. In 2023/2024, she was co-project manager of “Juste Debout”, which was presented for the first time in Hamburg and broadcast by ARTE. 
Since 2023, she has been the artistic director of the international Real Dance Festival in Hanover.

After completing his master's degree in theater pedagogy at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2012, Nils Deventer worked for the Schauspielhaus Hamburg, the Junges Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf and the Theater an der Parkaue Berlin. During this time, he gained extensive experience in the curation, conception and realization of participatory projects and participation formats of various types and sizes. After his projects increasingly dealt with topics of the digital world, he moved to medialepfade.org e.V. in 2021, where he is now part of the management team for the nationwide educational program "Jugend hackt".

Julian Kamphausen has many years of experience in dramaturgy, directing, and cultural management at renowned German theaters (including Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Berliner Ensemble, Schauspielhaus Wien). As an author and director, he has developed and realized award-winning radio play projects. Between 2016 and 2021, he successfully initiated and directed innovative formats for digital and performative art (Performersion at re:publica, Hauptsache Frei Festival Hamburg, Prater Digital Berlin). As co-founder of the Studio for Infinite Possibilities (2021), he is responsible for strategies, conception, and the expansion of strategic partnerships and networks. He also volunteers on cultural policy committees and juries (including Fonds Darstellende Künste, Stiftung Zukunft Berlin, Fachausschuss Kultur Berlin, among others).

Josef Gershenzon is 20 years old and was born in Moscow. He is currently studying philosophy and art history. Josef Gershenzon is a member of BAM! - Kollektiv, which mainly offers creative and social activities for refugee children. Since his childhood, he has been influenced by a strong interest in art and culture as well as socio-political issues, in particular by the experiences of injustice and totalitarianism he had in Russia. After the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, the family decided to emigrate to Germany. Since the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022, Josef Gershenzon has been working with friends to help refugee Ukrainian children. As he knows from his own experience what local initiatives and support can achieve, he would like to help support important artistic projects as part of the boys' jury.

Elisabeth Schmidt from Anklam has been a member of the Anklam Youth Parliament since 2020 and chairwoman of the committee since winter 2023. Some of the youth parliament's achievements include a public barbecue area, “wish boxes” for Anklam's schools and several litter collection campaigns. The future title of “Blue Community” is also thanks to the parliament of 9 Anklam residents.
Elisabeth was also involved in the “Testament” theater workshop held in Anklam in June 2024.

Jette Zempel is 15 years old and comes from Anklam in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She has been interested in theater for years and, until four years ago, played in a theater group for children and young people herself. She also loves singing and playing the guitar. Jette Zempel has taken singing lessons for a total of 6 years and has now been teaching herself to play the guitar for a year. She is a passionate music listener and has a broad knowledge of different genres and bands. When she finishes school, she would like to move to a big city like Hamburg and train as an educator there.

Lauryn, 17, lives in Hamburg and is in 12th grade. She dances hip-hop and house, played the lead role of young Nala in the musical “The Lion King” for three years, and has participated in projects at Kampnagel and in an SWR feature film. She also expresses her artistic work on roller skates, both in projects and on social media. In addition to the stage, she volunteers to raise awareness of discrimination, especially in her work with children and young people. As a jury member, she attaches great importance to selecting projects that empower and encourage children and young people and enable them to have enriching artistic experiences.

Joshua Störzinger, born and raised in Mannheim, graduated from high school in 2024. He is currently studying dance and choreography in Berlin. He is very enthusiastic about the world of theater and music and their unusual styles.

Theresa Savasogan comes from Brunsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein and is 18 years old. In addition to taking drama classes at school, she has been involved in various art and culture projects since childhood, particularly in the fields of theater and music. She has participated in various plays and recently completed training as a music tutor.