Ute Kahmann studied cultural studies and acting in Berlin. She learned puppetry externally at the Ernst Busch Drama School and at the Figurentheaterkolleg Bochum. She receives directing commissions for theater and dance, has been staging her own productions for adults and children in close collaboration with artists from the visual arts and music since 1988, and plays in the ensemble at the Konzerthaus Berlin, among other venues. From 2006 to 2016 she served on the board of the Association of German Puppet Theaters and from 2014 to 2019 on the board of trustees of the Fonds Darstellende Künste.

Carena Schlewitt was born in Leipzig in 1961. Since 2018, she has been the artistic director of HELLERAU - European Center for the Arts in Dresden.

She was Director of Kaserne Basel from 2008-2018 and Artistic Director of the Basel International Theater Festival (since 2012). She studied theater at the Humboldt University in Berlin and worked at the Academy of Arts in East Berlin from 1985 to 1993. She worked as dramaturge, curator and deputy artistic director at various independent production houses (Podewil Berlin; FFT Düsseldorf; HAU Berlin) and at international festivals (Theater der Welt; HAU Berlin).

The focal points of her work have included the transformation processes in East Germany, Eastern Europe and China and the development of theater in Poland, France and Italy as well as live art and performance art. She has served on various juries, including for the "Impulse" festival; for the German-Polish expert panel of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes as well as for the "Doppelpass" program of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes; she was a member of the expert commission of the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia.

Carena Schlewitt is a member of the Saxon Academy of Arts, the Saxon Cultural Senate and a member of the Expert Advisory Board for Performing Arts and Music at the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony.

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

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

Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Wagner (born 1961) studied musicology, German philology and art history before working as a cultural manager, curator, researcher and author. He most recently worked as head of the department of music and performing arts at the Kunststiftung NRW in Düsseldorf. Wagner worked at the opera houses in Koblenz and Cologne as a production dramaturge, personal assistant to the artistic director and member of the opera management staff. From 2002 to 2006, he worked as a music referent in the cultural office of the city of Cologne and took over the coordination of the music department during the application of the city of Cologne for the title of European Capital of Culture 2010.

In Cologne, he curated the cultural program for the 2006 World Cup, was artistic director of the festival "Feste Musicali" and the children's and youth music festival "Stadt Klang Fluss". For some time, he has been particularly interested in contemporary dance and theater, the diversity of cultural practice and its visualization.

Since January 2, 2018, the scientist and cultural manager Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Wagner has been head of the office for Nuremberg's application for the title of European Capital of Culture 2025.

Marta Keil is a performing arts curator, dramaturg and researcher. She currently lives in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Her curatorial and research practice seeks alternative processes of establishing and redefining forms of building transnational alliances in the field of performing arts. She is currently curating the artistic research project "Breaking the Spell", co-produced by Residenz Schauspiel Leipzig, Münchner Kammerspiele, Performing Arts Institute in Warsaw and Viernulvier in Ghent, and collaborating with New Theatre Institute in Riga and Rosendal Teater in Trondheim for the project "The Shakedown". Recently, she curated "Forecast. A School of Thinking-With" for the Dublin Theatre Festival (2021) and co-curated (with Grzegorz Reske) "Politics of Listening" for the North East South West program of the Kunsthaus Dresden and the European Center for the Arts Hellerau in Dresden (2022). She has edited several books on curatorial practice and contemporary choreography and regularly gives seminars on curating, currently at Utrecht University and Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Marta is a member of the Performing Arts Institute (InSzPer) collective in Warsaw and holds a PhD in Cultural Studies.

Melat Nigussie (b. 1991) is director of Beursschouwburg in Brussels. Before taking on this position, she worked as coordinator and curator of the participatory project “Next Generation, Please!” at Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels. Melat has contributed to the literary publications “Afro-Europese literatuur uit de Lage Landen” (2018), “Being Imposed Upon” (2020) and has published articles in Belgian media outlets such as De Standaard, Bruzz and rekto:verso.

Matthias Lilienthal began his career at Theater Basel as dramaturge to Frank Castorf and Christoph Marthaler. He then went on to Berlin's Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz as chief dramaturge and deputy artistic director, bringing artists such as Christoph Schlingensief and Johann Kresnik to work at the theatre. In 2002 and 2014, he directed the Theater der Welt festival in the Rheintal and Mannheim, and in the 2000s directed HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, which was named "Theater of the Year" twice during this period in the critics’ survey of the trade magazine, Theater Heute. Lilienthal was director of the Münchner Kammerspiele from 2015 to 2020, transforming it into a hybrid production house / municipal theater. This theatre was also awarded "Theater of the Year" twice during his directorship. Since then, Lilienthal has worked as a festival maker, including "This Is Not Lebanon" at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and "Performing Exiles" at the Berliner Festspiele, as well as working as a dramaturge, university lecturer and actor.