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.

After studying theater studies and communication and media studies in Leipzig and Glasgow, Thomas Frank was assistant to the artistic director, dramaturg and curator at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main from 2000 to 2004 and program dramaturg at Sophiensaele Berlin from 2005 to 2007. In 2007, together with Haiko Pfost, he founded brut Wien as an international co-production house for interdisciplinary performing arts, which he led in artistic and executive responsibility until 2015. Already in their second season, Thomas Frank and Haiko Pfost were awarded the Nestroy Prize of the City of Vienna for the brut program. From 2015 to 2017, Thomas Frank was engaged as a freelance curator at Theater VabaLava in Tallinn, Estonia. Since the 2016/2017 season, he has been artistic director of the Residenz venue at Schauspiel Leipzig. At the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and at the Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, he has been a lecturer 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 in Magdeburg, is a freelance curator, cultural manager, actress and cultural policy activist who works at publicly funded theaters, in the independent scene and in the film industry. As a cultural policy actor, she works in the field of tension between artistic practice and educational policy work for the importance and interests of the (independent) performing arts, including on the board of the Thuringian Theater Association, the “FAIRSTAGE” initiative and the “Systemcheck” research project. She worked as an actress at Theater Basel until 2020. She has been working as a freelance artist since 2020. She teaches at the HfMDK Frankfurt am Main, the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch and the Berlin Performing Arts Program. In 2021, she initiated the “PHOENIX Theaterfestival” in the former Schauspielhaus Erfurt (now KulturQuartier Schauspielhaus), which she has directed ever since. Her work focuses on theater work in East Germany, cultural and democratic work and building new audiences.

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 worked for many years primarily in the field of contemporary dance in North Rhine-Westphalia, nationwide and internationally, accompanying productions and collaborating with artists. This work was complemented by teaching assignments both at the University of Cologne and at the Center for Contemporary Dance (ZZT) in Cologne.
Since 2021, she has headed the FESTIVALFRIENDS association based in Dortmund, whose goal is the nationwide, supraregional networking of festival makers and artists.

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.

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 was artistic director of Sophiensæle (Berlin) from 2000 to 2007. In 2004/05 she was part of the artistic direction of "Volkspalast", a festival-like performance of the deconstructed Palast der Republik. Since 2007 she has been artistic director of Kampnagel (Hamburg), Europe's largest production center for the independent performing arts. With EcoFavela Lampedusa Nord, she initiated a living and action space for refugees in 2014. The project has found its extension at Kampnagel in the award-winning encounter space Migrantpolitan. Amelie Deuflhard was part of the curatorship of four 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 des Chevaliers des Arts et Lettres in 2013. In 2018, she received the European Cultural Manager of the Year award.

Anne-Cathrin Lessel, born in 1987, studied theater, psychology and cultural studies at the University of Leipzig. Until 2011, she worked as a freelancer in artistic projects with children and young people, primarily at the Theater an der Parkaue Berlin. From 2011, program and production manager at LOFFT - DAS THEATER, whose artistic direction and management she took over in 2019. Since 2013 she has been a board member of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste and since 2020 a board member of the Landesverband der Freien Theater in Sachsen. For many years she has been a member of various professional juries, including those of the City of Leipzig, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, the German National Academic Foundation, the National Performance Network and the Fonds Darstellende Künste.

Holger Bergmann is a curator, mentor and, as managing director, heads the Fonds Darstellende Künste; he lives in Berlin. He was born in the Ruhr region in 1965. After graduating from a technical school for social pedagogy and working in so-called social hotspots, he studied theater at the Ruhr University in Bochum from 1990 to 1995. Founding member and from 2002 to 2014 artistic director of the theater production house Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, which under his direction became known for contemporary performing arts and urban, participatory projects. Own productions at independent theaters and numerous projects with artists and artist collectives of independent theater, often in collaboration with municipal theaters or international festivals. Publications at the Université de Luxembourg, among others. Cultural Capital Representative of the City of Mülheim and curator with a focus on urban space projects in the field of SOCIAL URBAN ART. Artistic director of the theater festival FAVORITEN 2016 in Dortmund. Member of boards of trustees and juries, among others, for the Theaterpreis des Bundes in 2015 and 2017 in the framework of the European Capital of Culture Aarhus (DK). In January 2016 Holger Bergmann took over the management of the Fonds Darstellende Künste in Berlin. In 2016 and 2017 he curated city projects in Dortmund, Duisburg and Bochum. Mentor for the thematic field of interculture for the Capital of Culture application RUHR2010, consultant for theater houses as well as individual management staff and member of the advisory board for the application of the city of Nuremberg for the European Capital of Culture 2025. In mid-2017, he co-founded the cultural-politically engaged association DIE VIELEN.In November 2018, he was elected to the board of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft and has been a member of the Council for Performing Arts and Dance of the German Cultural Council since 2021.