Luzie Ackers leads together with M. Cornil the company TheatreFragile since 2001, based in Detmold, Hangar 21. The focus of their work is the performing arts for the public space, the place where social developments are negotiated. In their productions they combine documentary elements with the art of masquerade, with a special focus on participation. They have created numerous productions and projects for public spaces. Ackers creates contemporary masks, which can be seen in projects of their own company and other ensembles. In her intense involvement with physical theater, Ackers developed the need to deal with the " Sprechenden Körper" in an extended form and works according to the Grinberg Method and the Pantarei Approach. She gives workshops in international contexts, works as a mentor and in 2021/2022/23 is part of the jury of the project funding of the Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste NRW. She lives in Berlin.

Eva Behrendt, born in Waiblingen in 1973, studied history, German and theater studies in Mainz, Dijon and Berlin. Since 2001, she has been an editor for "Theater heute," as well as a freelance critic for taz, Die Zeit, Merkur, etc., and a guest lecturer at the Institute for Theater Studies at the FU Berlin. She has served on various juries (Berliner Theatertreffen, Theaterpreis Berlin, Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Politik im freien Theater, Impulse, etc.) and is currently a member of the selection committee of the Mülheimer Theatertage.

He grew up in rural East Germany before moving to Berlin in 1989. His interest in unusual forms and problems of everyday life led him to work with Rimini Protokoll since 2010. Between 2014 and 2019, he was dramaturge at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, where he was in charge of the interdisciplinary Berliner Herbstsalon. He is interested in expanded theatre and has realized projects in public space in Chisinau, Tehran and Buenos Aires, among others. Repeated collaboration with raumlaborberlin. Between 2020 and 2022 dramaturge at the Ruhrtriennale (2020-2022). Co-founder of the festival OSTEN in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, which he artistically co-directed in 2022 and 2024.

After training as an actress in Munich and many years on stage, her love of directing and managing her own projects took over. Stations as assistant director and production manager for musical theater at home and abroad followed. 2013 foundation of the theater label WIR.Jetzt! In 2015, the first theater piece "Talk Talk- Journey Without Escape" was created, an adaptation of the novel Talk Talk by T.C.Boyle for WIR.Jetzt! In 2017 followed a new adaptation of the fairy tale "Der Gestiefelte Kater" for Theater und Philharmonie Thüringen. In 2018, an adaptation of the myths surrounding the Flying Dutchman. The production "Der Fliegende Holländer" for the Klang! Festival Bielefeld was awarded the Förderpreis Klassik. Production management and dramaturgy for theater projects in urban areas followed, as well as artistic direction of the Theaterhaus TiG7 in Mannheim. 2010 to present as freelance director for drama and cross-discipline projects. Since February 2021 Managing Director of the Bad Hersfeld Festival.

Xenia Bühler, born in 1969 in Langenhagen/Hanover, left the University of Hildesheim in 1996 with a diploma in cultural education. Her first engagement as a theater pedagogue took her to the Theater Görlitz. From 2003-2013 she worked at the Comedia Theater in Cologne. Since then, she has taken on teaching positions in Munich at the Munich University of Applied Sciences and the LMU and has been responsible for festival organization and theater projects with children, young people and adults. Since the 2017/18 season, she has been part of the artistic team of the Schauburg - Theater für junges Publikum - in Munich as a theater pedagogue and dramaturge.

Chang Nai Wen has lived in Germany for 18 years. She was the first Asian student to be accepted for the drama theater directing program at the Theaterakademie Hamburg and has been seen as a Taiwanese director in the spoken word theaters of the German-speaking world. This experience led her to question the politics around her and consider how to create an environment that was less hierarchical and more about collaboration and diversity. In 2008, she founded "SdF - Sisyphus, the Flying Elephant" in Berlin, an independent project-based transcultural group specializing in immersive, participatory and interactive creation. In 2010, she was invited to participate in the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in New York, which inspired her to pursue the idea of collaboration between international directors. Thus, in 2011 she became a co-founder of the international directors' collective "World Wide Lab" with 12 other directors from 9 countries. As an internationally working artist, Nai Wen prefers a creative process that uses her artistic muscles along with her cross-cultural insights to create works that encourage dialogue and reveal different perspectives. In addition to her artistic work, she is a strong advocate for a cultural environment of equality, inclusion, and diversity.

Jan Deck is a political scientist who lives in Frankfurt/Main and works as a freelance dramaturg, director and curator at various locations and with various artists, ensembles and collectives. With his performance collective profikollektion, he explores historical sites and social issues with Katja Kämmerer. He is also the managing director of the Landesverband Freie Darstellende Künste Hessen e.V. (laPROF). He is and was a member of various juries and advisory boards, curates conferences, festivals and labs. As an editor and author, he deals with various aspects of art and society.

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.

Marcus Droß studied Applied Theater Studies at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen. From 1996 to 2012 he worked as a freelance director, dramaturg and artistic mentor with artists and collectives in the fields of music theater, performance and choreography, for festivals, residency programs, co-production houses and in artistic education. From 2012 to 2022, Marcus Droß was dramaturg and program curator at Frankfurt's Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. As part of a long-term reconceptualization of the Mousonturm's role as an artistic and cultural-political partner institution of the regional independent scene, he developed mediation, research and production formats in the field of dance and performance and initiated and accompanied the dramaturgical development and production of performances. He was part of the co-direction of the Frankfurt edition of the festival Politik im Freien Theater 2022, which was conceived and organized in close collaboration with the regional independent scene and for which Mousonturm was responsible for its execution. In September 2022, Marcus Droß took over the management and artistic directorship of the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm together with Anna Wagner.

Angelika Eder has been the managing director of the Stiftung Genshagen since 2017, where she heads the " Kunst- und Kulturvermittlung in Europa" ("Art and Cultural Education in Europe") department. From 2002 to 2017, she worked at the Goethe-Institut, first as an officer in the "Science and Current Affairs" department at the Munich headquarters, from 2005 to 2009 as the institute director in Krakow, from 2009 to 2013 as the head of program work with a regional specialist assignment at the Goethe-Institut Prague (Regional Institute for Central Eastern Europe), and then as the institute director in St. Petersburg until 2017. Prior to that, she was a research associate at the Research Centre for Contemporary History in Hamburg for six years and before that, in 1994-96, a DAAD Lecturer at the German Department of the University of Liverpool.

Sabine Effmert was trained as a puppeteer under Prof. Werner Knödgen at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts. In 2003 she attended the master classes in puppet animation at the Akademia Teatralna in Bialystok, Poland. In 2010 she was a guest student at the ABK Stuttgart in the Intermedial Design course. After receiving her diploma in 2005, she worked primarily as a freelance artist with a focus on figure play, image and movement across disciplines. In addition to collaborating with the light artist and director Joachim Fleischer, she has worked for the
for the Konzertdirektion Landgraf, with Stefanie Oberhoff / Gütesiegel Kultur, the Zimmertheater Tübingen, the Staatstheater Stuttgart. Designs were created, for example, for the theater tri-bühne Stuttgart, the LTT, the Puppentheater Gera. From 2019 to 2020 she was employed at the HMDK Stuttgart in the course of studies in figure theater as a member of the management staff with Prof. Stephanie Rinke. Since 2022, she has been head of the artistic operations office and the Ansbacher Puppenspiele at the Theater Ansbach.

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.

Matthias Frense studied theater in Hull, England, and in Berlin, as well as theater directing at the Theaterakademie in Hamburg. His first engagement was at Hamburg's Thalia Theater, where he assisted Jürgen Flimm, Dimiter Gotscheff, George Tabori and Robert Wilson, among others. Under the directorship of William Forsythe, Frense was engaged as production manager at the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt am Main between 2002 and 2004. He worked as production manager and dramaturg for independent theater companies (including Maß & Fieber, Rauwald Company) in Germany and Switzerland, for Cirque du Soleil in Munich and for the Ruhrtriennale in Essen. In 2006, Frense came to Mülheim as a dramaturg to help transform the Ringlokschuppen socio-cultural center into a theater production house. Since 2015, he has been Artistic Director and Managing Director of the house, which over many years has been and continues to be a co-production partner for artists/groups such as andcompany&Co., Anna Kpok, Boris Nikitin, CocoonDance, Cooperativa Maura Morales, Gintersdorfer/Klaßen, kainkollektiv, LIGNA, Marta Górnicka, Martin Ambara, Monster Truck or vorschlag:hammer. In 2019, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr was awarded the Theaterpreis des Bundes.

Maria Gebhardt, born in 1988 in Saxony-Anhalt, studied cultural studies and aesthetic practice in Hildesheim and Paris.

Her professional biography was shaped by positions in the management of the independent production and performance venue Theaterhaus Hildesheim, as a project officer at the Federal Academy for Cultural Education in Wolfenbüttel, and since 2017 in the management of the interest group Landeszentrum Freies Theater Sachsen-Anhalt. Since 2019, Maria Gebhardt has been a member of the board of the Saxony-Anhalt Cultural Conference.

Core topics of her work are the empowerment of independent artists through consulting, the participation in structural improvements of funding procedures and framework conditions of cultural funding as well as the initiation of measures to improve the visibility of the independent scene as a landscape. Her own artistic practice has always taken place backstage in the areas of dramaturgy, production, scenography and technology.

Sabine Gehm is artistic director of the international festival TANZ Bremen and in the management team of the Tanzpakt project 'MV tanzt an'.

From 2006 to 2016, together with Katharina von Wilcke, she directed the first four editions of the international dance congress of the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Berlin 2006, Hamburg 2009, Düsseldorf 2013, Hannover 2016).

A graduate in cultural studies, she was program dramaturg and director of various festivals (including Junge Hunde, Independance Days, Tanzplattform Deutschland 2000) at Kampnagel Hamburg from 1994 to 2001 and coordinated, among other things, the international performing arts network 'Junge Hunde', which she co-founded, from 2001 to 2005.

Before that, she worked as an organization manager at the International Summer Theater Festival Hamburg.

As a freelance curator and cultural manager, she conceived and was responsible for international exchange projects, think tanks, laboratories and academies for KSB, BFDK, DTD, among others. She is on the board of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland and was chair of the board of trustees at the Fonds Darstellende Künste from 2015 to 2020, for which she led the decision-making processes in 2020 (including publication of the handout on jury procedures). She is active as a reviewer and member of various juries of nationwide and international programs and works as a mentor in an advisory capacity for various artists and projects.

Lea Goebel is a dramaturg at Schauspiel Köln. She studied German, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies as well as English Studies in Bonn and at the Université Paris-Sorbonne. At Schauspiel Köln she worked with Luk Perceval, Frank Castorf, Jürgen Flimm and Mina Salehpour, among others. She is part of the core team of dramaturgie-netzwerk, where she advocates for fair working structures and cultural-political renewal in municipal theater. Since 2021, she has curated the "Netzmarkt" for the Heidelberg Stückemarkt, which honors three productions of digital theater. Together with the "Digital Dramaturgy" initiative, she explores new ways of digital storytelling.

Rabea Grand studied cultural studies with a focus on sociology at the Fernuni Hagen (BA) and at the University of Lucerne (MA). She worked for the Foundation Schloss Leuk, at the Dampfzentrale Bern, at Reso - Tanznetzwerk Schweiz as well as for the theater festival AUAWIRLEBEN, where she was responsible for the artistic program of the festival from 2014-2017 together with the artistic director. She is co-founder of Residenz Tanz Leuk and was a member of the Theater Commission of the City of Zurich from 2015-2017. Since 2012 she has worked as a production manager of theater, dance and performance artists, including Lea Moro (Berlin/Zurich), Nils Amadeus Lange (Zurich) and Cosima Grand (Zurich/Wallis). Since fall 2017, she has been working as part of the program group as well as an artistic collaborator at Theater Spektakel in Zurich. Since 2020 she has been working at the Gessnerallee Zurich, first as artistic and managing co-leader, from May 2021 she will be responsible for the coordination of the artistic program of the Gessnerallee.

After studying teaching, Matthias Grön founded the Oldenburg University Theater (OUT) and led OUT as artistic director. In the 2001/2002 season, he moved to the Oldenburg State Theater. He is dramaturg at the Oldenburg State Theater and directs the Young State Theater there. He has also appeared as a director on various occasions.

Julius Heinicke is Professor of Cultural Policy and holds the UNESCO Chair "Cultural Policy for the Arts in Development" at the University of Hildesheim. From 2017-2020, he was Professor of Applied Cultural Studies at Coburg University of Applied Sciences in the project "Coburger Weg", which was awarded the Genius Loci Prize of the Stifterverband in 2019. After studying cultural studies and theater, he completed his doctorate at Humboldt University in Berlin on theater and politics in Zimbabwe and then researched and taught for four years at the Institute for Theater Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2017, he has led the research project "Interfaces between High Culture and Cultural Education" and habilitated in 2019 with the paper " Sorge um das Offene: Verhandlungen von Vielfalt mit und im Theater" (Concern for the Open: Negotiating Diversity with and in Theater), published by Theater der Zeit.

Alexandra Henn is a German-French cultural manager. After completing her Master's degree in Cultural and Media Management at the FU Berlin and in Barcelona, she has worked both in the institutional sector and in the independent scene. After four years at the Institut français (office for theater and dance), she discovered her passion for contemporary circus and joined Chamäleon Berlin, where she has been a consultant to the artistic director and project manager since 2017, focusing on funding, touring, artist* residencies and networking. In the Bundesverband Zeitgenössischer Zirkus (BUZZ) she is involved in the AG Kulturpolitische Vernetzung, in the Veranstalterinnenforum and in the Städtepol Berlin. She also accompanies artists as a mentor.

Katja Herlemann studied theater and dance studies as well as comparative literature at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and at the University of Antwerp. From 2011 to 2013 she worked at the Goethe-Institut in Munich and in Prague. In 2013 she was in charge of the mediation program at the Foreign Affairs Festival of the Berliner Festspiele, before moving to the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg for the 2013/14 season. There she curated and organized the international Heidelberg Stückemarkt and was on the selection committee for the playwright competition. From 2016 - 2019 she was dramaturg and curator of the contemporary drama section at Schauspiel Leipzig. There she realized play developments and premieres with, among others, Thomas Köck, Enis Maci, and E.L. Karhu, and directed the young playwrights' festival 4+1. Since 2019 she has been dramaturg at Schauspiel Frankfurt, where she continues her collaboration with Claudia Bauer, among others. She is part of the management team of the 11th edition of the festival "Politik im Freien Theater", which will take place in Frankfurt in fall 2022.

Melanie Hinz has been Professor of Theater Pedagogy at the Berlin University of the Arts since 2020. In teaching and research, she works primarily on power-critical/intersectional perspectives on theater education and theater. Melanie Hinz studied cultural studies and aesthetic practice at the University of Hildesheim, where she completed her PhD on discourses of prostitution in 19th century and contemporary theater (transcript 2014). From 2013-2020 she was professor for "Visual and Performative Arts in Cultural Work" at the FH Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts and co-editor of the kopaed book series " Theater als Soziale Kunst" with the focus on "BIOGRAFIEren auf der Bühne", "Participation: teilhaben/participate" and "Forschendes Theater in Sozialen Feldern". She is a member of the network " Forschung im Kinder- und Jugendtheater" (research in children's and young people's theater). Since 2004 she is a founding member and performer of the collective Frl. Wunder AG and develops research-based theater projects in the collective and with everyday experts in the independent scene and at city and state theaters.

Katrin Hylla studied Applied Theater Studies in Giessen. Prior to that, she worked as an actress, director, and assistant director in Berlin's independent scene, including at HAU, Theaterdiscounter, as well as municipal and state theaters (Maxim Gorki Theater, Hessisches Landestheater Marburg, and others). Until March 2021, she worked at the independent venue TNT in Marburg as part of the artistic direction and management. In 2016 she founded the festival FÜR DICH FÜR DICH FÜR DICH, a format for contemporary positions and performances extended by working grants. As a director, she realizes plays with children, among others, and was awarded the prize of the Hessische Theatertage 2017 for it. She likes to initiate and stage formats that are open to professional and non-professional performers and musicians of all ages. For example, she created Die erste Kinderpartei Deutschland (Germany's first children's party), the audio installation Heimat #3 on a beer mountain made of 2000 beer crates, or is currently working on Bootsballet with brass music on the Werdersee in Bremen. Katrin Hylla is partly active as a lecturer e.g. at the HAWK Hildesheim and Uni Gießen. At the moment she is preparing her work as artistic director of the Schwankhalle Bremen, which she will lead in a trio from August 23.

Tarun Kade, born 1984 in Munich, studied theater, philosophy and English literature in Munich and Bristol. From 2009 to 2011 he was dramaturg at Thalia Theater Hamburg, and from 2012 to 2015 he worked as such at Theater Bremen. From 2015 to 2020 Tarun Kade was dramaturg at the Münchner Kammerspiele, the last two seasons in a leading position. In each of these two years, the Kammerspiele was voted "Theater of the Year" in the Theater heute critics' poll. Tarun Kade is co-founder of the working methods platform modesofoperation.com, which portrays the working methods of a newer generation of theater professionals in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut. For the 2022 festival edition, Tarun Kade was program dramaturg at the Wiener Festwochen. Since then, he has worked as a freelance production dramaturg and programmer at the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Wiener Festwochen, and in the independent performing arts, among others. He also teaches and mentors at colleges and universities and acts as a jury member.

Joy Kristin Kalu holds a doctorate in theater studies, is a dramaturge and curator for international performative arts. She currently works as a visiting professor for the theory of performative arts at the Berlin University of the Arts. Until summer 2023, she was head dramaturge for theater and performance at the Sophiensælen in Berlin. There she curated the festivals "Save your Soul" (2018), "Freischwimmer*innen. The Future is Female" (2019), "Risk & Resilience" (2020) and "Leisure & Pleasure" (2023) and conceived and moderated the ongoing discourse series "Politics of Love. Representation in Theater and Society". Her book "Aesthetics of Repetition. Die US-amerikanische Neo-Avantgarde und ihre Performances" was published in 2013 (Transcript). She is co-editor of the volumes "Theater als Intervention. Politiken ästhetischer Praxis" (Theater der Zeit 2015), "Kunst und Alltag" (De Gruyter 2017), and "OPENINGS. Sophiensaele 2011-2021" (Alexander Verlag 2021).

Joy Kristin Kalu has researched and taught at Freie Universität Berlin and New York University and has worked at various cultural institutions in Germany and the USA, including the Actors' Gang in Los Angeles, Berlin's Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, New York's Wooster Group and Kunst-Werke Berlin. Most recently, she was a member of the board of trustees of the Fonds Darstellende Künste (2018-2022), the jury of the Forced Entertainment Award (2018), the Stückemarkt of the Berlin Theatertreffen (2018) and the advisory board of the Impulse Theaterfestival 2017.

Thomas Kaestle holds a degree in cultural studies and has been working as a solo freelancer in the fields of cultural journalism, cultural consulting, cultural mediation, cultural policy research and curatorial practice for over 20 years. He was artistic director of the Kunstverein Hildesheim and currently leads a "Citizens' Academy for Art in Public Spaces" for the municipality of Jesteburg. As an editor he supervised publications for the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste and the Fonds Darstellende Künste. Last year, he took over the editorship of the book series "Contemporary Art from Lower Saxony" for the Lower Saxony Foundation. He is a member of the advisory board for art in public space of the state capital of Hanover, has provided curatorial advice for its Capital of Culture application, and is a member of the theater jury of the Bremen Senator for Culture. He has taught at universities in Dortmund, Hildesheim and Kassel in the departments of design, cultural studies and architecture/planning.

At the age of 20, Martha came to Saarbrücken to study and was so thrilled by the proximity to France and the Saarland festival landscape that she is still here. After various internships and (part-time) jobs at the Max Ophüls Preis film festival, other Saarland cultural institutions and event agencies, among others, she finally landed at the PERSPECTIVES Festival, Franco-German festival of stage arts, in 2009. In the meantime, her responsibilities have grown, she co-founded the festival LOOSTIK, German-French festival for young audiences, saw thousands of plays, gives workshops and sits on various juries.

Nilüfer Kemper was born in Turkey and grew up in the Ruhr region. She studied psychology and theater at the Ruhr University in Bochum. From 1985 to 1993 she was a freelance actress and performance artist in various constellations. At the same time she studied psychology and theater studies at the Ruhr-University Bochum. Since 1993 she has been a freelance cultural manager and producer in the independent performing arts and has supervised numerous stage productions, festivals and cultural projects in NRW. Among others, she was managing director of Theater im Depot Dortmund 1999-2006, project manager at the Institute for Art and Material Culture at the Technical University of Dortmund 2009-2012, managing director of the NRW theater festival FAVORITEN 2012-2019 and managing director of the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Tanz NRW 2012-2021. She is co-founder and spokeswoman of .dott - the dance and theater network Dortmund - and chairwoman of the board of the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste.

The Fonds was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Bea Kießlinger. She represented the Dachverband Tanz in the Fonds Darstellende Künste on many occasions. We will always remember her dedicated work for dance and especially for the independent dancers and choreographers. An obituary for Bea Kießlinger appeared in the Stuttgarter Zeitung.

Bea Kießlinger studied architecture and taught at the TU Stuttgart on the subject of movement and space. In her work, she has focused on contemporary dance for many years, as managing director of cultural institutions, networker, artistic project manager, curator, dramaturg, juror and advocate. She directed Tanz- und Theaterwerkstatt e.V. Ludwigsburg from 1998 to 2007, was a member of the management team of Tanzplattform Deutschland in Stuttgart in 2006, and worked at Theaterhaus Stuttgart as artistic director. In 2009, she founded the state-wide network "TanzSzene BW," on whose board she is still active today. For the umbrella organization Tanz Deutschland, Bea Kießlinger was involved in the board from 2010 to 2017, is a member of the initiative group Stadt-Land-Bund, and has led the cultural policy dialogue in the funding program TANZPAKT Stadt Land Bund since 2017. For the umbrella organization Tanz, she is also charged with maintaining regular cultural-political exchange with other associations such as the German Cultural Council, the Alliance of the Liberal Arts, and the Action Alliance for the Performing Arts, and with further developing dance topics in terms of content.

Since 2015, Kira Kirsch has been Artistic Director and Managing Director of brut in Vienna, a production and performance venue for the independent Austrian and international theater, performance and dance scene. From 2007-2015 she was dramaturg or head dramaturg and curator of the contemporary art festival steirischer herbst in Graz. She co-founded the monothematic magazine BOB and co-edited the reader Truth is Concrete. A Handbook for Artistic Strategies in Real Politics, which deals with current movements of politically engaged art and artistic activism on an international level.

Sebastian Kirsch, born 1980, works as a theater and literary scholar as well as a publicist and has taught in Bochum, Düsseldorf, Stockholm, and Vienna. He received his PhD from Ruhr-Universität Bochum in 2011 with a study on the history of central perspective (Das Reale der Perspektive, published 2013) and habilitated in 2018 with the thesis Chor-Denken. Sorge, Wahrheit, Technik (published 2020). With a research project on Hermann Broch, Kirsch was associated with the Department of German at New York University as a Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2019/2020; in 2021, he was a Humboldt Fellow at the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research in Berlin. Kirsch was editor of Theater der Zeit from 2007-2013, and was also a regular columnist for the journal until 2017. He has worked as a dramaturg with Hans-Peter Litscher and Johannes Schmit, among others.

Friedrich Kirschner is a director and software developer. He uses interactionism as a theoretical and video games as a technological basis for participatory social simulations. As a professor for digital media, he leads the master's program Game and Object at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Josa Kölbel was himself a professional artist, trained at the renowned national circus center in Chalons-en-Champagne, France, and was active throughout Europe for several years. Since 2015 he is managing director of Berlin Circus Production - Hilliger Kölbel GbR and co-director of the Berlin Circus Festival, which takes place annually at Tempelhofer Feld and gathers productions, artists and positions of contemporary circus. He also curated the Circusschiene at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, worked as a course instructor at ETAGE, as an artist supervisor at the MGB and has been a mentor for the Berlin LAFT since 2020.

Daniela Koß is a cultural scientist M.A. and has been working at the Foundation of Lower Saxony since 2010, where she is responsible for funding theater and socioculture. In her work, she advises numerous actors and designs and oversees innovative funding programs. These include socioK_change, a program that accompanies transformation processes in socioculture, and also the festival of independent theater "Best OFF," which under her direction shows the best productions of the Lower Saxony scene every two years. In addition to numerous lectures and articles, the Handbook of Socioculture was published under her leadership in 2015 and the publication on developments in rural areas Vital Village in 2017 in collaboration with Prof. Wolfgang Schneider and Beate Kegler. She is a member of various juries and teaches on the topics of cultural financing and change management.

Lucien Lambertz (they/them), born 1983 in Unna, studied theater and media studies at the Ruhr University Bochum from 2003-2007. During his studies he worked for the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen and Schauspiel Essen and worked as a musician and freelance dramaturge for various scenic projects. From 2008, they worked as an event manager and project manager for Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen, where they subsequently completed a Master's degree in Communication & Cultural Management from 2008 to 2010. Lucien Lambertz has been working at Kampnagel Hamburg since 2010. As Artistic Coordinator and Dramaturg, they are now primarily responsible for coordinating the season program and for the areas of queer performance, participation projects and cross-genre theater formats, with a focus on local-international collaborations; also for cooperation projects with scientific and foundation partners. They supervised the long-term EU project ACT-Art, Climate Transition and regularly various other national and international collaborations at Kampnagel.

Lucien Lambertz has worked as a coach, mentor and guest lecturer since 2010, including at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater/ Theaterakademie, University of Hamburg, University of Witten/Herdecke, Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen, Ruhr University Bochum and as part of the Claussen-Simon Foundation's stART.up scholarship program. He also regularly serves on juries in the field of performing arts.

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.
 

Director of the Academy for Theater and Digitality, the sixth division of Theater Dortmund, newly founded in 2019.

As artistic director of the Dortmund Academy, he is in demand locally, nationally, and internationally for lectures and discussions; one of his main concerns is the formation and promotion of a wide variety of networks for the performing arts, as well as the communication of artistic research in correspondence with the latest technologies to theater and educational institutions, politicians, and audiences.

Since 1995, he has worked as a director, set designer, and author in music and spoken theater, and since 2014 he has also been regularly invited as a guest lecturer to various renowned colleges and universities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Andreas Lübbers *28.05.1961

High school diploma. Apprenticeship as bank clerk. Studied German language and literature as well as art history - all in Hamburg. Years of travel: 1991 - 2003 dramaturg at several German-speaking theaters. Back in Hamburg: 2003 foundation of the Hamburger Sprechwerk - until today active board member of the association // 2005 - 2009 board member of the Dachverband Freier Theater (today DfdK) // 2009 foundation and until 2022 board member Hamburg Hoch 11 e.V. (representing creative industry players in Hamburg) // 2010 foundation and board of WIESE eG // 2014 foundation member and board of Trägerverein "hauptsache frei" // Since 2015 active in "flausen+ - Bundesnetzwerk" // 2020 opening "Theatrales Produktions- und Bildungszentrum WIESE eG" - since then executive board member. Goal: Increase public and political recognition of independent theater work and form a strong association of small and medium-sized venues at the federal level.

After graduating from high school, Anne Maar worked as a museum attendant in Berlin, made short films (together with Björn Melhus and Andreas Fröhlich) and wrote a screenplay together with Andreas Fröhlich, which unfortunately was never filmed. In 1991 she moved to a small idyllic village in Lower Franconia. Many assistant directorships and a few directorships at the theater followed. In 1993 her first children's book was published, several more followed, including children's theater plays (together with Christian Schidlowsky). Since 2003 she has directed the Theater Schloss Maßbach - Unterfränkische Landesbühne, founded by her grandparents Lena Hutter and Oskar Ballhaus.

Helge-Björn Meyer has been in demand as a dramaturg, performer and curator at a wide variety of festivals and theaters in Germany and abroad. He has received national and international awards for his artistic projects. From 2018 to 2019 he was managing director of the Landesbüro Freie Theater Sachsen, and from 2019 to 2021 he headed the Servicetelle FREIE SZENE Sachsen for the interests of the independent performing arts in the Free State of Saxony.

Lara-Sophie Milagro, Berlin, studied acting in London and New York and singing in Berlin. She has performed at the Staatstheater Mainz, Theater Kassel, Gorki Theater Berlin, Residenztheater Munich and at the Münchner Kammerspiele. Collaboration with directors such as Frank Patrick Steckl, Antoine Uitdehaag and Julia Wissert. As a writer / director she wrote / directed "Heimat, bittersweet Heimat" (Ballhaus Naunynstrasse '11), "Satoe" (Nationaltheater Mannheim '13), "Dauerkolonie Berlin" (Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, '18), "Winterzeit (HAU Berlin, '18), "Auf Noahs blutigem Regenbogen tanzen wir" (Gorki Theater Berlin, '20) and participated in all these productions also as an actress. She has also appeared in numerous film and television productions, including Tatort Weimar (ARD '17), "Dogs of Berlin" (Netflix '18) and the TV multi-part "Das Geheimnis des Totenwaldes" (ARD, '20) alongside Matthias Brandt and Karoline Schuch. She is also a voice actress, most recently for the Netflix production "His House" ('20) and the Arte film "Les Heritieres" ('21). From 2018-2021, she also wrote the monthly column "Heimatgeschichten" for nachtkritik.de. In 2022, the theater film "Emmett, tief in meinem Herzen" will be released (premiered at Hebbel Theater Berlin), in which Lara-Sophie Milagro participated as an actress, director and producer.

llja Mirsky studied Cognitive Science at the University of Tübingen, Politics, Literature and Psychology at the University of Haifa (Israel) and Performance Studies at the University of Hamburg. He teaches on immersive media and digital dramaturgy at ADK Ludwigsburg, University of Tübingen and University of Arts Helsinki. From 2019 to 2022, he was dramaturg and also a regular programmer at the Institute for Theaterale Zukunftsforschung (ITZ) at the Zimmertheater in Tübingen. Since the 2022/2023 season, he has been dramaturg and digital dramaturg at the Residenztheater in Munich.

Michael v. zur Mühlen has been directing cross-genre drama, opera and contemporary music theater since 2004 at the Forum Neues Musiktheater of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin, the Oper Leipzig, the Nationaltheater Weimar, the DT Göttingen, the Staatstheater Darmstadt, the Staatsoper Berlin and the Oper Halle, among others. In the 2016/17 - 2020/21 seasons, he was director and chief dramaturg in the management team of the Halle Opera, whose advanced program has received great attention throughout Germany during this time and has been honored several times with prizes and awards. For example, in the 17/18 season review of the magazine Die Deutsche Bühne, Oper Halle received the most mentions in the category "Most convincing theater work away from large theater centers" and was awarded the Theaterpreis des Bundes in 2019. In addition to his work as a director and curator, Michael v. zur Mühlen teaches in the fields of directing, dramaturgy and theater theory. In 2019, he held the Bertolt Brecht Guest Professorship of the City of Leipzig.

Michael Müller is part of the artistic direction and management of TD Berlin. The theater and production house has its focus on text- and language-based performances. As a dramaturg, he works in a variety of contexts and curates the Monologfestival, which co-produces 10 new solo productions on a current theme every two years. Among other things, he is committed to the development of the cultural locations Alte Münze and Molkenmarkt in Berlin.

Tom Mustroph, born in Berlin, works here and Palermo as a freelance author as well as a freelance dramaturg. After studying literature, theater and cultural studies in Berlin and Paris, he operates in social subsystems as diverse as theater, the art scene and sports. He is primarily interested in how self-responsible work can succeed elegantly and in compliance with minimum moral standards (sometimes in theater and art) and which constellations systematically lead to failure (doping, game manipulation and the Mafia).

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.

Matthias Pees, born in Georgsmarienhütte in 1970, has worked as artistic director and managing director of the international production company Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt am Main (2013-2022), chief dramaturge of the Vienna Festival (2010-2013), founder and co-managing director of the international production office prod.art. br in São Paulo (2004-2010), program dramaturg at the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen (2003-2004), theater dramaturg at schauspielhannover (2000-2003) and at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (1995-2000), and previously as a cultural journalist and theater critic, gaining experience in various areas and on several sides of the performing arts. A change of perspective, cooperative work, and “transformative practices” were the declared focus of his interest; topics such as global solidarity and postcolonialism, the connection and future of internationality and diversity shaped his programs and projects.

In addition to her work as Artistic Co-Director of Ballhaus Ost, Tina Pfurr works as a curator, performer, actress and speaker and also develops her own projects. Pfurr has been a board member of LAFT Berlin since 2017 and is a regular member of award and festival juries (including 2017-2020 Kulturbehörde Hamburg; 2021 Körber Stiftung Junge Regie). Most recently she realized the performance I just called to say... sHe's dead. which was published online as a 5-part video work in February 2021. Since 2014, she has toured the world with the dance karaoke performance copy & dance. Pfurr also produces video works, the two video essays Applied AXXXD-Gendering (2017) and SelfFanfic - An Exorcism (2019) have been shown at various festivals. In recent years she has worked in various theaters, worldwide, as a performer and actress and conceives performative moderations. In addition to her theater work, she is also an actress for film and television.

Tobias Rausch has been working as a director and author at numerous municipal theaters and venues of the independent scene since 2001. He is co-founder of the collective LUNATIKS, of which he was a member until 2015. Since 2019, he has been the director of Bürger:Bühne at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden. His work focuses on research projects and on productions about climate & nature, such as the botanical long-term theater DIE WELT OHNE UNS (2009-2014) or the climate theater disaster TORNADO. He was awarded, among others, the Otto-Kasten-Preis of the Intendantengruppe im Deutschen Bühnenverein 2012 and the Bremer Autoren- und Produzentenpreis 2007. Together with composer Marc Sinan and director Konrad Kästner, he won the NO!peras competition in the Experimental Music Theater Fund 2019 with the opera project CHAOSMOS. He has held teaching positions at the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Zurich University of the Arts, and the Berlin University of the Arts, among others. Together with Ruth Feindel and Birgit Lengers, he curated the Berlin Recherchetheatertage at the Deutsches Theater (2016) and initiated the conference "Climate Meets Theater" at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in 2019.

- 1958 born in Potsdam

- since 1981 as a puppeteer, later also as an actor, in different free Potsdam projects

- from 1985 - 1987 he completed the course of studies "Leader of a Folk Art Collective" in puppetry at the "Central House for Cultural Work" in Leipzig.

- 1993 -1998 fabrik Potsdam public relations and venue manager

- 1995 co-founder of the Landesverband Freier Theater Brandenburg e.V. (state association of independent theaters)

- since 1998 Managing Director of the Landesverband Freier Theater Brandenburgs e.V.

Sabine Reich, born in 1966, studied comparative literature, philosophy and theater studies in Bonn, Bochum and Madrid. First dramaturgy work at Schauspielhaus Bochum, assistant at Burgtheater Wien, then freelance dramaturg in Mülheim, Berlin and New York, lecturer in theater studies at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 2004 in Frank Castorf's team at Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen. From 2005 - 2010 dramaturg at Schauspiel Essen involved in the projects "Eichbaumoper" and for Frie Leysen in the team of "Theater der Welt 2010". From 2010 at Schauspielhaus Bochum, 2013-2015 as head dramaturg, responsible among others for the DETROIT PROJECT. In 2017 she took over the program management of "Tanzland" for the Kulturstiftung des Bundes in sponsorship of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland. 2018/19 project management and concept for OWELA, a performance festival of Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen and Kaleni Kollektiv Windhoek in Recklinghausen and Windhoek, funded by Fonds TURN of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes. In 2019-2022 she was chief dramaturge and deputy artistic director at Schauspiel Dortmund (artistic director Julia Wissert).

Sarah Reimann studied dramaturgy at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig and theater studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. After various positions as a freelance dramaturg, including at the FFT Düsseldorf, she has been working at HAU Hebbel am Ufer since 2012, meanwhile as curator for the digital stage HAU4 (www.hau4.de). Together with Annemie Vanackere she is the editor of the volume: "Utopia and Feminism" (Matthes & Seitz Berlin).

Wilma Renfordt (*1982, grew up in the Ruhr area) studied theater, art history and literature at the Free University of Berlin; graduated with a thesis on theater in the public space of the city. In 2008-2013 she was dramaturg of the theater group copy & waste, and in 2009-2013 artistic-scientific assistant at the project office Friedrich von Borries in Berlin. Further collaborations include Daniel Hellmann, Kiriakos Hadjiioannou, Rimini Protokoll, and the theory and practice community Dr. Fahimi. She wrote, among others, a companion volume to the exhibition "Wohnungsfrage" of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin (2015) and a volume on artistic research ("Klimakunstforschung", Merve, 2011). For the 2017 festival edition, she was dramaturg at steirischer herbst in Graz. Since 2017 she is dramaturg at Impulse Theater Festival.

Gregor Runge, born in Dresden, studied theater studies and comparative literature in Bochum and worked for the Impulse and FAVORITEN theater festivals, among others. From 2011 he worked as a dramaturg primarily with Samir Akika/Unusual Symptoms and the Theater im Pumpenhaus Münster. In 2012 he went to Theater Bremen as dramaturg. In 2015 and 2017 he co-directed the international performing arts festival OUTNOW! in cooperation with Schwankhalle Bremen. He has worked on projects for the Goethe-Institut in Novosibirsk and for the Goethe-Institut Ukraine. Since the 2018/2019 season, he has been co-directing the dance division of Theater Bremen with the company Unusual Symptoms together with Alexandra Morales. Under their co-direction, productions with internationally renowned choreographers such as Faye Driscoll, Adrienn Hód, Máté Mészáros and Núria Guiu Sagarra are created alongside the work of house choreographer Samir Akika. Two of the works created since then were invited to the Tanzplattform Deutschland in 2020. Gregor Runge is a regular member of various juries, including the board of trustees of the Fonds Darstellende Künste from 2018 - 2021 and for the state of NRW. In addition, he initiated and is responsible for the concert series Theater Bremen CLUB, which regularly presents artists* from the global jazz and pop landscape for the first time in Bremen.

Tim Sandweg studied Theater Studies and German Philology at the Free University of Berlin before joining the Puppet Theater of the City of Magdeburg as dramaturg in 2009; there he was also co-artistic director of the international puppet theater festival "blickwechsel". Since then, various play developments, stage adaptations, format developments, work as dramaturg, publications and performances in different production and work contexts. Since 2009 Tim Sandweg has been a member of the editorial board of the magazine for puppet, figure and object theater "double" and is currently a board member of the German Forum for Figure Theater and Puppetry Art. Various lecturer and jury activities. Since the beginning of the 2015/16 season, Tim Sandweg has been Artistic Director of Schaubude Berlin and the international festival Theater der Dinge.

Ilona Schaal is a theater producer and curator. She studied theater studies at the University of Leipzig and theater and orchestra management at the HfMDK in Frankfurt/Main. She worked as a production and project manager for various companies and cultural institutions (including Goethe Center Hyderabad, fringe Ensemble Bonn) before taking over the program direction of Schaubühne Lindenfels in Leipzig within a three-person management team in 2017. In 2022, she directs an online Art Lab for German and Ukrainian artists*. She is on the board of the Landesverband Freie Theater in Sachsen and an expert at the Performing Arts Program Berlin. In the fall of 2023, she will take over the management of Theater Rampe in Stuttgart together with Bastian Sistig.

Martin Jörg Schäfer has been teaching theater research at the University of Hamburg since 2014. He is currently researching processually and collaboratively generated text forms in contemporary theater and performance, as well as theater and performance manuscripts in the sign of digitalization. 2014-2021 Co-director of the MA Performance Studies at the University of Hamburg. 2014 Co-organizer of the geheimagentur-initiated congress "The Art of Being Many" at Kampnagel. Since 2015 co-curator of the "DachSalon" series of talks on theater and politics at the Hamburg Schauspielhaus. For the seasons 2016/17 to 2019/20 member of the jury of the Hamburg Authority for Culture and Media for the funding of projects of the independent performing arts in the field of spoken theater/music theater/performance as well as in the overarching promotion of new talent and concepts. 2017 Leadership team of the annual conference of Performance Studies international "OverFlow" at Kampnagel as part of "Theater der Welt". Since 2020 member of the jury for the Start Off Prize of the Lichthof Theater and the Hamburg Kulturstiftung.

Beata Anna Schmutz was born in Gdansk, Poland in 1975. After studying German at the University of Gdańsk, she continued her university education in the subjects of art history, educational science and literature at the Ruprecht Karls University in Heidelberg. She is the artistic director of numerous theater, art and media education projects and was a cultural education employee at the Haus der Jugend Heidelberg from 2005 to 2016, where she headed the art and theater departments. Freelance director and dramaturg since 2006, university lecturer in the fields of aesthetic education, post-dramatic theater and performance. In 2005 she founded the theater and performance group RAMPIG, where she works as a director and dramaturg. From 2016 to 2018 she was head of the Volkstheater department at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Since 2018 she has been directing the Mannheim City Ensemble at the National Theater Mannheim. Member of the board of the Dramaturgical Society since 2016.

Philipp Schulte is a professor specializing in scenography and performance theory at the Norwegian Theatre Academy (Fredrikstad), visiting professor of scenography at the Karlsruhe University of Design, and managing director of the Hessian Theatre Academy (Frankfurt/M.). He studied Applied Theatre Studies in Bergen (Norway) and Giessen, where he received his PhD in 2011. After receiving his doctorate, he worked as a research assistant in Giessen for eight years. Since 2012, he has directed international festival campus and academy formats that he conceived (Ruhrtriennale, Theaterformen Hannover/Braunschweig, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen (together with Antonia Rohwetter)). As a freelance writer and dramaturg, he has worked for zaungäste ensemble (Frankfurt/M.), Liam Al-Zafari (Oslo), Mamoru Iriguchi (Edinburgh), Andreas Bachmair (Amsterdam), Mathias Max Herrmann (Hannover), and the inclusive performance collective I Can Be Your Translator (Dortmund), among others. He has published numerous essays and books. Schulte has taught and lectured theater theory at various universities and art colleges in Germany and Norway. He lives in Frankfurt am Main.

Matthias Schulze-Kraft is the artistic director of the LICHTHOF Theater, a venue and production center for independent theater in Hamburg. A director by training, he has been working in the theater in a wide variety of functions and production contexts since 1986. Stations included the Ulmer Theater, the Pocket Opera Company Nuremberg, the Schauspiel Frankfurt and various independent productions. Since 2006 the LICHTHOF Theater Hamburg, from 2008 as artistic director. After further education studies as "Culture and Education Manager" (HWP Hamburg) and various other further education (Change Manager, Management Trainer, Business Coach, Quality Manager), he developed his second professional pillar as a lecturer, consultant and coach since 2000, primarily in the qualification of managers and in organizational consulting. Since 2019, he has been a member of the board of the Bundesverband Freier Darstellender Künste (BFDK). From 2014 to 2019 he was chairman of the board of trustees of the Fonds Darstellende Künste, he was a jury member of, among others, the "Theaterpreis des Bundes" (2019), the "Reload" program of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (2020) and the Körber Studio Junge Regie (2021).

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. 

Ulrike Seybold has been managing director of the NRW State Office of Independent Performing Arts since January 2020. Since October 2015, she has been an assessor on the board of the Federal Association of Independent Performing Arts, and from 2013 to the end of 2019, she was the managing director of the State Association of Independent Theatres in Lower Saxony. Before joining the association, she worked for many years as a freelance production manager and press officer for various cultural and theater projects. She studied journalism, history and political science at the Ruhr University in Bochum, completed further training as a cultural manager in Neuss, and in parallel pursued journalistic activities for the taz and WDR, among others.

Esther Slevogt is an author, critic and editor-in-chief of the theater portal nachtkritik.de, which she co-founded. She writes about theater-historical topics in the context of politics and aesthetics in the 20th century. Most recently, her book about the Deutsches Theater Berlin “Auf den Brettern der Welt” was published by Ch.-Links-Verlag in 2023. She also contributed to the volume edited by Matthias Naumann in 2024 entitled “Judenhass im Kunstbetrieb. Reactions after October 7, 2023”. In 2024 she was awarded the Willms Neuhaus Prize.

After studying literature and history, Katja Spiess found her way into the Stuttgart cultural scene through programmatic and organizational work at various cultural festivals (including "Theater der Welt", "Natur im Kopf - Kongress zum Naturbegriff der Gegenwart"). She is a member of the FITZ! Zentrum für Figurentheater since 1993. In the first years she was responsible for press and public relations. In 1998 she took over the management of the FITZ in cooperation with Helmut Pogerth, and in 2001 she became the sole director. Katja Spiess is also the artistic director of the International Figure Theater Festival IMAGINALE and a member of the editorial board of the theater journal "double".

Ella Steinmann studied philosophy and religious studies in Bochum. After working as a project officer in the field of cultural education at Stiftung Mercator in Essen, she moved in 2016 to the Zukunftsakademie NRW, an association for diversity in art, culture, and cultural education. In addition to advising and accompanying cultural institutions, she designed further education and exchange formats there. In the Master Scenic Research in Bochum, she is working on the possibilities of knowledge acquisition through performative art forms. Since July 2019, she is one of the two agents for diversity development within the program "360° - Fonds für Kulturen der neuen Stadtgesellschaft" of the German Federal Cultural Foundation at Theater Oberhausen.

Felizitas Stilleke is a freelance dramaturg, artist and curator. She directs conferences, such as the B.A.L.L. - Bundesweites Artist Labor of the Labore 2022, the Branchentreff 2019-2021, the Bundesforum 2017 or the RATSCHLAG DER VIELEN 2019, and takes over festival dramaturgies (Berliner Theatertreffen 2018, Impulse Theaterfestivals 2017 (under Florian Malzacher) or together with Johanna Yasirra Kluhs the theater festival FAVORITEN 2014) and is on the road as a production dramaturg in NRW, Berlin, Amsterdam and Zurich. She completed her Bachelor of German Studies/Education in Bochum and a Master in Cultural Poetics at the Wilhelms University in Münster. In 2018/19, she studied "Expanded Curation" as part of the international master's program at DAS theatre in Amsterdam. In 2020, she launched a series of podcast sessions at Ballhaus Ost titled "The Mother in Me is the Mother in You," in which she subjects the topic of not-yet/not-more/maybe/maternity to a collective rededication of discourse.

Antje Thoms, director and author, was born in Stralsund, studied Applied Theater Studies in Giessen and was subsequently assistant director at the Lower Saxony State Theater in Hanover. There she worked with Sebastian Nübling, Andreas Kriegenburg, Luk Perceval and Jossi Wieler, among others. She has been working as a freelancer since 2003. In 2007, together with the author Jens Nielsen and the actor Dominique Müller, she founded the independent Zurich theater formation Trainingslager. Since the 14/15 season, Antje Thoms has been in-house director at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen with artistic director Erich Sidler. In 2020, she completed the in-service training program "Theater and Music Management" at the LMU Munich as a scholarship holder of the German Stage Association, and in 2021 she will participate in the mentoring program "Women in Culture and Media" of the German Cultural Council.

Prof. Dr. Renée Tribble is head of the department StädteBauProzesse - urban development, urban land use planning and urban design processes - at the Faculty of Spatial Planning at TU Dortmund University. Previously, she was a visiting professor for urban management and urban development planning at the University of Kassel and a professor for planning theory and methodology at the TH OWL Detmold. After studying architecture at Bauhaus University Weimar (diploma 2005), she worked in architectural and planning offices and taught at HafenCity University (HCU) Hamburg as a research assistant (2008 - 2014) and lecturer. In her doctoral thesis (2021) she deals with artistic methods of urban development under the title "Reizungen und Reaktionen: Kunst und Planung" (Art and Planning). She is co-founder and shareholder of PlanBude Hamburg, of projektbüro Hamburg as well as honorary board member of fux eG.

After studying figure theater and dramaturgy, Kora Tscherning's guest engagements took her to the Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Semperoper Dresden, and the Volkstheater Bautzen, among others. Since 2011 she has been working freelance in the group "FigurenKombinat". Parallel to this, she took over the direction of the "Figure Theater" division at the Landesbühnen Sachsen in 2016. Since the 2019/20 season, Kora Tscherning has been the puppet theater director of the Meiningen State Theater and strives to bring sophisticated puppet theater to Meiningen and the region with wit and verve.

Prof. Dr. Margarita Tsomou is a cultural scientist and works from Berlin as an author, dramaturg, moderator, curator and professor. She co-founded the pop feminist Missy Magazine in 2008, is curator for theory and discourse at HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and professor for contemporary theater practice at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. Two of her recent curatorial works include the series Burning Futures: On Ecologies of Existence at HAU-Hebbel am Ufer and the Apatride Society event series in Paul B. Preciado's discursive program at Documenta 14.

Linda Vahldieck has been project manager of the funding program "Promoting Connections" of the Federal Association of Independent Performing Arts since 2021. Previously, she worked as administrative project manager for EU-funded projects at Tanzbüro Berlin since 2018 and has held various project management positions in Berlin in the field of cultural and educational policy since 2008, e.g. in cooperation with the German UNESCO Commission as well as Goethe Institutes and DAAD offices abroad. Since 2011 she has been a member of the board of trustees for LUCKY TRIMMER, an annual dance and performance festival in Berlin, and since 2013 she has also served on its board of directors, responsible for production management as well as press and public relations. In 2021 she was a jury member for the Turin edition of SOLOCOREOGRAFICO, a solo dance festival in Frankfurt am Main, Turin and Lyon.

Anna Volkland studied dramaturgy in Leipzig (2009 diploma thesis "Theater ohne Bühne") and dance studies in Berlin. She has since worked as a dramaturge and curator for drama, dance, and unusual theatrical formats, among other things, and has been writing about theater and dance since 2010. From 2014 to 2020, she was a research associate at the Berlin University of the Arts, where she began conducting research on the history of institutional critique in urban theater in the FRG and GDR since the late 1960s. There she also initiated, among others, the biennial symposium "Performances of [Femininity] in the Performing Arts" (2016 - 2022 ff) and supported the qualification program Artist Training for refugee artists* as module leader for Performing Arts until 2019. She teach(es) among others critical theater history, extended performance analysis or experimental interdisciplinary artistic practice and teaches as guest lecturer, since 2019 for example at the HfS "Ernst Busch" Berlin. From 2016 texts, later also lectures on questions of power-critical, democratic modes of organization and (artistic) work in theater.

Nadine Vollmer (she/her) has been working as a dramaturg for 15 years together with artists and for festivals and cultural institutions of the performing and performative arts (among others Berliner Festspiele, Theater der Welt, Impulse Theater Festival, Akademie der Künste, HAU Hebbel am Ufer). She is interested in critical spatial, mediation and institutional practice and often works in interdisciplinary constellations and projects that move outside of theater or museum spaces in urban contexts (including her own project A BOOK IS A ROOM since 2021). She studied media and cultural studies in Düsseldorf, dramaturgy in Frankfurt am Main, and cultures of the curatorial at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. She lives with her family in Berlin.

Birgit Walkenhorst studied theater in Mainz, Frankfurt/Main, Reading and Bologna. She has researched, taught and published in this subject. She worked for various stage publishers; as an editorial assistant, she was in charge of the INTHEGA playbill journals. She participated in the organization and communication teams of international festivals (Mousonturm, KJTZ, Staatstheater Wiesbaden). From 2011 to 2015 she was responsible for public relations and program planning at the International Theater Frankfurt. Since 2015, she has been managing director of the state association of professional independent theaters in Rheinland-Pfalz, laprofth.

Caspar Weimann (he*/they) holds a professorship and a mentorship for acting at the ADK Baden-Württemberg; is an initiating force of the free internet theater onlinetheater. live and the app "Loulu" (Amadeu Antonio Prize 2021, Heidelberger Stückemarkt 2022); conducts seminars and workshops on digital and hybrid theater strategies, on participatory theater on the net, and on the theatricality of social media; has an equal opportunity commission at the ADK Baden-Württemberg with a special focus on queer empowerment and is concerned with a change in the contemporary concept of acting.

Jessica Samantha Starr Weisskirchen began her theater career as an assistant director at the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg and later moved to the Nationaltheater Mannheim. Here she realized her first works during her assistantship (DIE TONIGHT, LIVE FOREVER or DAS PRINZIP NOSFERATU by Sivan Ben Yishai, 2020) and as a director (EIN KÖRPER FÜR JETZT UND HEUTE by Mehdi Moradpour, 2021). In 2022 she opened the season of Theater Dortmund with WOYZECK, and in 2023 she will open the season in the 'Box' of Deutsches Theater Berlin. She is founder of the assistierenden-netzwerk and meanwhile board member of the ensemble-netzwerk e.V. She is initiator and founder of the assistierenden-festival SUMMER UP and jury member of the Prozessförderung of the Fonds Darstellende Künste. In 2022, she successfully completed the Master of Arts degree program, Theater and Orchestra Management, at the HfMDK in Frankfurt am Main. This year, the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft is publishing the anthology "Systemkritik! Essays für eine Kulturpolitik der Transformation" with her article "Nur die Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten".

Stefanie Wenner is a mother, companion of a dog, PhD philosopher and since 2015 professor of applied theater studies at the HfBK Dresden. With her label apparatus she works on better representations of reality with the means of art.

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.

Katharina Wolfrum studied theater, modern German literature and psychology in Munich and Stockholm, as well as cultural and media management in Berlin. At Freie Universität Berlin, she worked at the Creative Industries Competence Center and conducted research in particular on places of creative development in urban spaces. This topic then drew Katharina to the creative quarter of Munich in 2015: first as artistic production manager at the PATHOS Theater and soon with her own initiatives such as the Theaterbüro München - an advisory office for the independent performing arts - or the collective "Büro Grandezza e. V.". In addition, she is committed to the further development of this creative quarter as a central location for Munich's independent scene with a special focus on "sustainability and culture". Since the beginning of 2020, Katharina is responsible for the theater, film and cinema funding of the Cultural Department of the City of Munich.

Freelance theater maker since 1994; Tom Wolter is a founding member of the free ensemble p&s and since 2017 artistic director of the WUK Theater Quartier in Halle; since 2014 artistic director of the Student Theater of the University of Halle; producer of interventions and interactions in public space; so far 115 own theater productions as actor/director/writer for all ages; Cooperations with various theaters nationwide, including junges theater Göttingen, theaterhaus Stuttgart, Theater unter dem Dach Berlin, Projekttheater Dresden, moritzbastei Leipzig, Theater an der Angel Magdeburg, Puppentheater Halle, Oper Halle and others; acting teacher at various institutions, workshops on politics, theater and acting, improvisation nationwide and internationally; lecturer so far at a. o. among others at the Theaterakademie Sachsen, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig, Uni Halle and the Hochschule Merseburg; Tom Wolter is involved in cultural and local politics. He has been a city councilor in Halle (Saale) for MitBürger e.V. since 2005, and has been the parliamentary group leader of MitBürger & Die PARTEI since 2019; he has been a board member of the Federal Association of Independent Performing Arts since 2015. Since 2019, he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Standing Conference of German-Speaking Drama Schools and the Theater Advisory Board of the Free State of Thuringia.