Bodo Birk heads the "Festivals and Programs" department in the Cultural Office of the City of Erlangen and is deputy head of the office. With his team, he is responsible for the Erlangen International Figure Theater Festival, the Erlangen International Comic Salon and the Erlangen Poetry Festival, among others. The International Figure Theater Festival is characterized by its cross-disciplinary approach, which includes contemporary puppetry, object theater and picture theater as well as dance, performance and the use of new media and interactive technologies. Born in 1968 in Nuremberg, Bodo Birk studied theater and media studies, German and political science in Erlangen and Vienna. He was a co-founder of the student theater festival ARENA and was responsible for press and public relations at Theater Erlangen for several years after graduation before moving to the Department of Culture. From 2014 to 2017 Bodo Birk was a member of the board of trustees of the Fonds Darstellende Künste, and since 2004 he has been a jury member of the Max und Moritz Prize.

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.

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.

Jenny Flügge, born in 1977, studied theater, film and media studies and American studies in Frankfurt am Main and was co-founder of the Japanese film festival Nippon Connection. After assisting at the Frankfurt Opera and spielzeiteuropa (Berliner Festspiele), she worked as an assistant director at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden. From 2009 to 2011 she was the organizer of the Heidelberg Stückemarkt at the Theater Heidelberg and artistic production manager of "Familienbande", a two-year theater partnership with the Teatron Beit Lessin, Tel Aviv as part of the Wanderlust Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. At the Staatstheater Karlsruhe in 2011/12, she was in charge of the series "Gastspiel freie Szene," the European Culture Days, the Handel Festival, a playwrights' festival, and a city project, among others. In the 2012/13 season she worked as a freelance production manager for the world premiere of "Stadt der 1000 Feuer" (textXTND / Künstlerhaus Mousonturm / Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen), at the Junge Oper Stuttgart and for the festival "Odyssee:Klima" at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven. In 2014, she moved to the Kunstfest Weimar as artistic director of organization. There she realized co-productions with Rimini Protokoll, matthaei & konsorten, Mats Staub and Robert Schuster, among others. From 2016 to 2019, she was an acting dramaturge at the Mecklenburg State Theater in Schwerin, where she was involved in urban and research projects by Prinzip Gonzo, Nina Gühlstorff, and Helge Schmidt, among others. Since 2020, Jenny Flügge has been a staff member of ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People) at "Wege ins Theater", a project within the framework of the federal program "Kultur macht stark. Alliances for Education".

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.

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.

Bassam Ghazi, born in Beirut in 1974, shuttles between cultures and perspectives and trades in history and stories: biographical, post-migrant, diverse, inclusive and disintegrated. He is a theater educator, director and artistic director of the Import Export Collective at Schauspiel Köln. Furthermore, he offers freelance trainings on diversity, inclusion and racism for theaters, educational and cultural institutions.

Bassam Ghazi is curator for the festival Augenblick mal! 2021 and a member of the board of trustees of the Children's and Youth Theater Center in the BRD.

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.

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.

Christiane Hoffmann was born in 1963 in the Harz Mountains, lives and works in Görlitz (Saxony). Since 1993 she worked in the cultural office of the city of Görlitz. In 1995 Christiane Hoffmann took over the project management of the International Street Theater Festival ViaThea in the European City of Görlitz/Zgorzelec, which among other things aims to overcome the German-Polish borders. Christiane Hoffmann was a founding member of the Federal Association of Theater in Public Space and has worked at the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater Görlitz-Zittau since 2007.

The curator and dramaturg Rolf C. Hemke has been artistic director of the Kunstfest Weimar since 2018/19. Hemke, born in Cologne in 1972, studied law, German and philosophy in Münster, Geneva and Paris X-Nanterre. Between 1993 and 2003, he worked first as a student and then full-time as a cultural journalist for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Der Standard Wien, and public radio, among others. From 2006 to 2018, he was responsible for the international program at the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim an der Ruhr, founded by Roberto Ciulli: there he founded and programmed the event series Szene Istanbul and Klanglandschaften Mittelmeer & Afrika. He curated the strongly politically oriented festival Theaterlandschaften with changing, regional focuses. From 2014 to 2016, he also worked as a freelance artistic consultant for the Wiener Festwochen in the field of drama for the Middle East and Africa regions. As a freelance dramaturg for drama and musical theater, he has worked for the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Ruhrfestspiele, and theaters in Oberhausen, Freiburg, and Münster, among others.

The trained business economist and theater pedagogue is chairman of the Offenbach theater club ELMAR e. V.. Simon Isser has been president of the BDAT since 2016, and has been a member of the BDAT's federal working group "Children's and Youth Theater" for many years. In his theater pedagogical projects, he works at international festivals, in the multigenerational theater of a local church congregation or at the fairy tale theater of his home association. In his function as BDAT president, he attends a large number of performances throughout Germany and in friendly foreign countries. Professionally, he works in a daycare center and inspires even the youngest for the performing arts.

Joy Kristin Kalu holds a PhD in theater studies and American studies and currently works as a senior dramaturg for theater and performance at Berlin's Sophiensælen. There she curated the festivals Save your Soul (2018), Freischwimmer*innen (2019), Risk & Resilience (2020), and conceives and moderates the ongoing discourse series Politics of Love. Representation in Theater and Society. Her book Aesthetics of Repetition. The US Neo-Avant-Garde and its Performances was published in 2013 (transcript). She is co-editor of the volumes Theatre as Intervention, Politics of Aesthetic Practice (Theater der Zeit 2015) and Art and Everyday Life (De Gruyter 2017). Joy Kristin Kalu has researched and taught at Freie Universität Berlin and New York University and worked at various cultural institutions in Germany and the United States, including the Actors' Gang in Los Angeles, Berlin's Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, New York's Wooster Group, and Kunst-Werke Berlin. She most recently served on the jury of the Forced Entertainment Award (2018), the Stückemarkt of the Berlin Theatertreffen (2018), and the advisory board of the 2017 Impulse Theater Festival, among others. Since 2019 she teaches in the directing department of 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.

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.

Born in 1962, he worked in various capacities for Frankfurt's independent theaters during and after his studies of German, sociology and theater studies in Frankfurt am Main. He was Executive Director of ASSITEJ until 2007 and subsequently of the State Association of Independent Theatres in Lower Saxony. From 1999 to 2008 he was Councillor of the Executive Committee of the International ASSITEJ and from 2009 to 2013 Deputy Chairman of the Federal Association of Free Theatres. Until 2018, he was the responsible editor of "IXYPSILONZETT", the magazine for children's and youth theater, and author of numerous articles in specialized books on the subject of cultural education, among other things, and, together with Alexander Pinto, editor of the volume "Freies Theater in Deutschland - Diskurse, Perspektiven und Entwicklungen". Since 2013, he has been project manager of "tanz + theater machen stark" as part of the program Kultur macht stark. Bündnisse für Bildung at the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste e.V. (Federal Association of Independent Performing Arts).

Sezin Onay was born in Goslar in 1988. After graduating from high school, she studied performing arts and German language and literature at Leibniz University in Hanover. Already at the beginning of her studies, she participated in various projects of the Junges Schauspiel Hannover. Among others, she played in productions of the director Nurkan Erpulat, Marco Štorman and the theater and performance collective "andcompany&Co". She interned in theater pedagogy under the direction of Barbara Kantel and developed her own plays together with people of different backgrounds within the intercultural theater group "Türkisch-Deutsches-Theater" (TDT) of the Theaterhaus Hildesheim. Both during and after her studies, Sezin Onay worked as a freelance theater pedagogue and led theater projects with children and young people at the Junges Schauspiel Hannover, in youth centers, child and youth counseling centers and associations for intercultural communication, migration and refugee work.

Since the 2016/2017 season, Sezin Onay has been a permanent theater pedagogue at the Junges Ensemble Stuttgart. Here she works, among other things, in the kindergarten language support project and is responsible as a leader for various play clubs.

Matthias Pees, geboren 1970 in Georgsmarienhütte, hat als Intendant und Geschäftsführer des internationalen Produktionshauses Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt am Main (2013–2022), Leitender Dramaturg der Wiener Festwochen (2010–2013), Gründer und Ko-Geschäftsführer des internationalen Produktionsbüros prod.art.br in São Paulo (2004–2010), Programmdramaturg der Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen (2003–2004), Theaterdramaturg am schauspielhannover (2000–2003) und an der Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (1995–2000) sowie zuvor als Kulturjournalist und Theaterkritiker Erfahrungen in verschiedenen Bereichen und auf mehreren Seiten der darstellenden Künste gesammelt. Perspektivwechsel, kooperatives Arbeiten und „transformative Praktiken“ standen dabei erklärtermaßen im Zentrum seines Interesses; Themen wie globale Solidarität und Postkolonialismus, Zusammenhang und Zukunft von Internationalität und Diversität prägten seine Spielpläne und Projekte. In Frankfurt und der Rhein-Main-Region initiierte oder mitgestaltete er große interdisziplinäre Festivals und Kooperationsprojekte u. a. mit dem Ensemble Modern, dem Jüdischen Museum Frankfurt, dem Hessischen Staatsballett oder zuletzt mit dem Schauspiel Frankfurt, dem Museum Angewandte Kunst und der Frankfurter freien Szene für die Ausrichtung der Festivals „Politik im freien Theater“ der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb und „Theater der Welt“ des Internationalen Theaterinstituts (ITI).

Matthias Pees is also a member of the management board of Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (KBB) GmbH, which continues to include Mariette Rissenbeek, Charlotte Sieben and Bernd M. Scherer.

Haiko Pfost (*1972 in the Black Forest) is a trained industrial clerk and studied theater and religious studies as well as psychology in Berlin. He worked as a festival dramaturge at the Theaterformen festival in Braunschweig and Hanover (2003/04), at steirischer herbst in Graz (2005-2006), at the International Schiller Days in Mannheim (2007 and 2009), and in 2010/11 as a member of the program jury of the Politik im Freien Theater festival. In 2004/05 he was director of the opening, dramaturg and curator of the Volkspalast, the cultural interim use of the Palast der Republik in Berlin. Together with Thomas Frank he founded brut - Koproduktionshaus Wien in 2007 and directed the house until 2013. In 2009 they received the Nestroy Special Award for the best program. From 2014 to 2017 he worked as a freelance curator, dramaturg, lecturer and consultant, including as director of the three-year workshop and development program The Autonomous Actor (2015-2018) in Finland. He was a jury member for bestOFFstyria, Performancepreis H13 as well as Hauptsache Frei and teaches at A!DRAMA - applied dramaturgy in music and performing arts in Vienna. For the festival editions 2018 to 2023 Haiko Pfost is artistic director of the Impulse Theater Festival.

Peer Mia Ripberger (*1987) is co-director* of the Zimmertheater in Tübingen. He studied "Staging of the Arts and Media" in Hildesheim and Zurich, majoring in theater, literature, philosophy and cultural politics. Already during his studies he started his practical work with numerous artistic projects as director* and author*. He staged and developed world premieres for theaters in Augsburg, Trier, Hamburg, Göttingen and Eggenfelden, among others, and was a member of the artistic direction of the Pilkentafel theater workshop in Flensburg. In 2018, he founded the "Institute for Theatrical Futurology" at the Zimmertheater Tübingen. In addition, he exercises various jury activities.

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.

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.

Lisa Schneider has been active in the Franconian Passion Play Sömmersdorf since childhood. Every 5 years, the village of 700 souls brings the Passion to northern Bavaria's largest open-air stage. In the years in between, other productions are also shown. All players and helpers are volunteers, the direction is done by professionals.

As a member of the board of directors and a tour guide, Lisa is familiar with the many tasks involved with the stage: "My husband and brother help with the technology, my dad is jointly responsible for stage construction, and my mom was head of costumes for years. The fact that theater is not just about acting is also demonstrated by her leadership of the youth group YÄSS! - Young Äction Stars Sömmersdorf, she passes on to the next generation the fact that theater is not just about acting and imparts initial knowledge in as many areas as possible.

Trained as an industrial clerk. 1964 founds the political cabaret group "Die Widerständler," 1968 founds the political-cultural club "Manufaktur" in Schorndorf. At the same time, he begins his professional career as a TV director, author and documentarian for SDR television, later also for other television stations. The music films "P" and others.

1970 Establishment of the self-administered youth center Hammerschlag Schorndorf. 1970 together with Wolfgang Dauner founded the band "Et Cetera". 1975 again together with Wolfgang Dauner foundation of the all-star band "United Jazz + Rock Ensemble". 1976 together with Wolfgang Dauner, Albert Mangelsdorff, Volker Kriegel and Ack van Rooyen, foundation of the independent record label "Mood Record".

1985 together with Peter Grohmann and Gudrun Schretzmeier, foundation of the Theaterhaus Stuttgart. Since then, director of the Theaterhaus.

1993 first production for the Theaterhaus: VERMUMMTE by Ilan Hatsor (1994 the production receives the 2nd prize of the Kleintheater-Festival Baden-Württemberg). Many more follow.

In June 2004, Schretzmeier is awarded the Stihl Prize in recognition of his successful work in the Stuttgart region.

In 2007, he offers Eric Gauthier to found a dance company.The success story of "Gauthier Dance", the dance ensemble of the Theaterhaus, begins.

In 2009, he is awarded the Medal of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg for having "created a successful cultural institution in Stuttgart for over 25 years with perseverance, expertise and a great willingness to take risks, a novelty in the cultural landscape of Europe."

On January 21, 2016, Werner Schretzmeier, Gudrun Schretzmeier and Peter Grohmann receive the Golden Staufer Medal of the State of Baden-Württemberg.

In June 2018, the Theaterhaus receives the Monica-Bleibtreu Prize at the Hamburg Private Theater Days for the production "7 Minutes," directed by Werner Schretzmeier.

Since 1970 married to the stage and costume designer Gudrun Schretzmeier.

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, including the Wolfgang Langhoff biography "Den Kommunismus mit der Seele suchen" (Searching for Communism with the Soul), published by "Kiepenheuer und Witsch" in 2011. Another focus is Jewish postwar history in Germany. She is particularly interested in the consequences of digitalization for the traditional cultural technique of theater. She is co-inventor of the conference Theater & Netz.

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".

After studying theater studies and German language and literature, Dorothee Starke was initially employed at various municipal and state theaters as a dramaturge and press officer before establishing and leading the Theater im Fischereihafen GmbH in Bremerhaven as managing director and artistic director from 1997-2008. From 2008 - 2016, Dorothee Starke was director of the Theater Hameln. Since May 2016, she has headed the Bremerhaven Cultural Office.

From 2000-2022, Dorothee Starke held a lectureship on cultural financing and sponsorship in the Cultural Management course at Bremen University of Applied Sciences, which was discontinued in 2022. She has written various papers and publications on the topic of " Sponsoring and Medium-Sized Businesses".

Dorothee Starke is president of INTHEGA (Interest Group of German-Speaking Cities with Guest Theaters).

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.

Prof. Dr. Gerd Taube, studied theater at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Since 1997, he has directed the Children's and Youth Theater Center in the Federal Republic of Germany in Frankfurt am Main and is the artistic director of the national biennial of theater for young audiences "Augenblick mal!" in Berlin. From 1997 to 2014, he was a lecturer at the Institute for Youth Book Research at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, and has been an honorary professor at the Institute since 2014. From 2005 to 2010 he was chairman of the board of trustees of the Fonds Darstellende Künste. Since 1999 he was a member of the board of the Bundesvereinigung Kulturelle Kinder- und Jugendbildung (BKJ) and from 2009 to 2018 its chairman.

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.

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.

Studierte Germanistik, Geschichte und Philosophie in Tübingen und München. Regieassistent am Schauspiel Frankfurt bei Peter Palitzsch und am Schauspiel Köln bei Jürgen Flimm. 1979 in Bremen in der Concordia die erste Inszenierung. Von 1980 bis 1983 Regisseur und Dramaturg am Hamburger Schauspielhaus. 1986 Eröffnung der Kampnagel-Fabrik: „Penelope“ mit Barbara Nüsse, das acht Jahre lang durch ganz Europa tourt. 1988/89 zusammen mit Tom Stromberg und Elke Lang in der künstlerischen Leitung des Frankfurter TAT.

Theaterstücke (u.a. „Küssebisserisse – Eine Komödie über Männer“, „Zapping – Die Komödie der neuen Generation“, „Blaubarts Orchester“, „Einmal Casanova sein“, „Der Lord von Barmbeck“ und „Die Jungs mit dem Tüdelband“). Zahlreiche Arbeiten für das Kabarett u.a. mit Matthias Beltz, Horst Schroth, Arnulf Rating oder Gerburg Jahnke.

Von 1995 bis 2003 zusammen mit Ulrich Tukur künstlerischer Leiter der Hamburger Kammerspiele. Seit August 2003 künstlerischer Leiter des St.Pauli-Theaters in Hamburg.

Neben Klassikern des Unterhaltungstheaters wie „Die Dreigroschenoper“ oder „Cabaret“ inszenierte er die UA und DEA zahlreicher zeitgenössischer Stücke u.a. von Florian Zeller, Yasmina Reza oder Ronald Harwood. 2011 Regie des Udo Lindenberg-Musicals „Hinterm Horizont“ in Berlin. 2018 die erste Opernarbeit: „La divisione del mondo“ in Kiel.

He made documentaries such as "Der geile Osten - eine Reise durch die letzten Tage der DDR", "Der unerwartete Osten", "Der vergessene Krieg" for NDR and most recently "Amara terra mia - Mein bitteres Land" for arte. Has been running the Hansa Varieté Theater with his partner Thomas Collien since 2009.

Franziska Werner has been artistic director of Sophiensaele Berlin since 2011.

She studied Theater Studies/Cultural Communication, Art History and European Ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin (M.A.) and Etudes Théâtrales at the Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris.

Since 2001 she has worked as a freelance production manager and dramaturg with various artists in Berlin and for festivals and production venues throughout Germany, since 2008 increasingly at the Sophiensaele Berlin.

She was co-founder of the artist collective Pony Pedro, which realized interventions in urban space at the interface between performance, graphic/screen printing and installation in the field of urban communication strategies between 2005 and 2010.

Co-author of the founding petition of the "Coalition of the Free Scene Berlin" in spring 2012.

Member of Laft Berlin e.V. and Pro Quote Bühne.

2013-2015 Mentor activity for the Performing Arts Services program of Laft Berlin e.V..

Since 2012 until today member of the Council for the Arts Berlin, working focus on funding policy/ strengthening the interests of the independent performing arts.

Maren Witte, Dr. phil., is a dance scholar and dramaturg. She is professor for theater and dance theory, mediation and movement research at the Ottersberg University of the Arts in the Social. There she directs the B.A. program "Dance and Theater in the Social." Maren Witte is a member of the initiative TANZSCOUT in Berlin, which she founded in 2009, as well as a board member of the Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung (GTF).

Raphael Nicolas Wohlfahrt is a literature and cultural studies graduate (M.A.) and has worked for many years as a cultural and project manager in both honorary and full-time positions. When he's not organizing theater festivals with more than 100 participants from 16 nations with his amateur theater association Aktionstheater Donzdorf e.V. on the edge of the Swabian Alb, he's there as a player on stage or as artistic director. His main occupation is working for the Landesverband Amateurtheater Baden-Württemberg e.V., where he is responsible for press and public relations, member consulting, international projects as well as the Landesamateurtheaterpreis "LAMATHEA". His thematic interests include hybrid and multiple identities, identity and representation politics, mental health and rural space.

Lisa Zehetner studied cultural and media studies in Düsseldorf and cultural education and cultural management in Mönchengladbach. From 2011 to 2017, she was a dramaturge specializing in children's and youth theater at the FFT Düsseldorf. In 2016, she was a member of the jury for the German Children's Theater Award and the German Youth Theater Award. From 2017 to 2020, she is dramaturg at the Junge Nationaltheater, where she works with Monstertruck, Hannah Biedermann, James & Priscilla, Mathias Becker, subbotnik and Carlos Manuel, among others. Since December 2018 she is a member of the board of ASSITEJ Germany. She currently works as a freelance dramaturg.