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.

Aufgewachsen in Holstein. Studium der Theaterwissenschaft, Germanistik und Philosophie an den Universitäten Hamburg, LMU München und FU Berlin. Nach Lehrjahren in der schwäbisch-badischen Provinz als Dramaturg und Regisseur und im Kultuamt Offenbach freies theaterpädagogisches Arbeiten in verschiedenen Institutionen. Daneben Kritiker und Publizist mit zahlreichen Veröffentlichungen zum Thema Kinder- und Jugendtheater. Redaktion: Reclams Kindertheaterführer. Leiter der Dramaturgieabteilung an der Theaterakademie Spielstatt in Ulm, in gleicher Funktion, sowie Leitung der Theaterpädagogik und Szenisches Schreiben an der Theaterakademie adk-ulm (bis 2014). Szenische Arbeiten in Ulm und Stuttgart mit Studenten, dramaturgische Mitarbeit und Inszenierungen bei freien Gruppen in Österreich und der Schweiz (Figurentheater und Schauspiel). Träger des ASSITEJ-Preises. Juror, bzw. Kurator bei „Augenblickmal“, dem nationalen Treffen für ein junges Publikum (1981 und 2011), sowie langjähriger Juror bei dem Kindermusiktheaterfestival „Traumspiele“ in NRW bis zu deren Auflösung, in der LAFT-Jury Baden-Württemberg.

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.

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.

Dörte Kiehn ist Gründerin des Tandera Theaters, hat am Lübecker Marionettentheater und der Augsburger Puppenkiste das Figurenspiel erlernt und ist auch kulturpolitisch aktiv: Von 2008 bis 2012 war sie Mitglied im Kuratorium des Fonds Darstellende Künste und saß mehrfach in der Jury des Freisprung Theaterfestivals. Darüber hinaus war sie Mitglied im Kulturrat Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und ist seit 2018 erneut Geschäftsführerin des dortigen Landesverbands Freier Theater. An der Hochschule für Darstellendes Spiel in Berlin und Stuttgart war sie als Dozentin tätig und ist als Workshopleiterin u.a. nach Kenia und Ruanda gereist. Außerdem ist sie immer wieder als Regisseurin in der Figurentheaterszene gefragt.

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.

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".