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.

Veronika Darian is Junior Professor for Contemporary Theatre in Historical Perspective with a focus on transmediality and transculturality at the Institute of Theatre Studies at the University of Leipzig and board member of the Centre of Competence for Theatre there. After studying musicology, theater, German and Italian studies in Bonn and Leipzig, she received her doctorate on "Theater der Bildbeschreibung" (Munich 2011). Other publications (selection): "Gestische Forschung. Perspektiven und Praktiken" (Mithg., Berlin 2020), "Die Praxis der/des Echo. Zum Theater des Widerhalls" (Mithg., Frankfurt/M. 2015) and "Mind the Map! - History Is Not Given" (Mithg., Frankfurt/M. 2006). She researches, publishes, and teaches, increasingly collaboratively, especially on foreignness studies, theater studies of age(s) and thing(s), biography and narration in theater, dance, and performance, theater in society(s) in transformation, and "sites of stubbornness." She is working on the sub-study on the promotion of co-operations together with Dr. Melanie Gruß and Verena Sodhi, B.A., with whom she has already collaborated on the evaluation of the Bündnis internationaler Produktionshäuser (Alliance of International Production Houses).

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.

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.

Geboren 1975, begann er 1994 in unterschiedlichen Funktionen hauptsächlich in den darstellenden Künsten zu arbeiten. Am Anfang hat er viel in Staats- und Stadttheatern gelernt und arbeitet seit 2003 selbständig als Autor, Kurator, Dramaturg und Regisseur. Hier hat er besonders viel Erfahrung als Regisseur von Galen und Charity-Veranstaltungen gesammelt, die wichtige Inhalte und große Unterhaltung miteinander präsentieren. 2013 hat er für das Performing Arts Programm Berlin (PAP) den Branchentreff der Freien Darstellenden Künste Berlin mitkonzipiert und zusammen mit anderen bis 2017 geleitet. Für das PAP konzipiert er auch weiterhin Fachtagungen, die spezifische Themen für ein professionelles Publikum vertiefen.

2016 hat er für das PAP zusammen mit der re:publica die Performersion gegründet, ein Format für Kooperationen der digitalen und der darstellenden Künste, das er seitdem auch mit einem inzwischen internationalen Fokus fortführt.

Die kuratorische Arbeit an der Schnittstille zwischen digitalen und analogen Künsten setzt er in Laborformaten für die Technologiestiftung Berlin u.a. oder als Mitglied des Culture Track Teams der re:publica um. Vermittelnd arbeitet er in diesem Spannungsfeld auch als Beiratsmitglied der bbw – University for Applied Sciences, des Berlinforums der Stiftung Zukunft Berlin, als Speaker oder Workshopgeber.

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).

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.

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.