Maria Aberg is a director based in London, UK. She is the Artistic Director of PROJEKT EUROPA and an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Born and raised in the south of Sweden, Maria moved to the UK twenty years ago and started her career at the Royal Court Theatre. She has worked closely with contemporary writers like Alice Birch, Dennis Kelly, Mark Ravenhill and Polly Stenham, but also on texts by Kroetz, Strindberg, Kafka, Bergman and Ionesco. At the RSC, she has focussed on classic English language texts such as those by Shakespeare, Webster and Marlowe, often restructuring and reframing them to create unconventional interventions and interpretations.

In addition, Maria has directed shows at the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Exchange, Donmar Warehouse and Theatre Royal Bath, and internationally at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Malmö Stadsteater and at the Staatstheater Mainz.

©Hanna-Katrina Jedrosz

Sylvia Botella is a Brussels-based freelance performing arts critic for belgian and international media (radio and television, newspapers, magazines, including RTBF, TV5 Monde, L’Echo, W+B-Wallonie-Bruxelles International, Howlround, L’Art Même, Nouvelles de danse, ADC, Mouvement, Toute la Culture, etc.). From 2010 to 2015, she is Editor-in-chief of Scènes Magazine in Brussels. In 2017, she receives the SACD Prize for her critic work. She teaches Theater studies (critic, gender and dramaturgy, scientific writing) in Master Arts du Spectacle vivant at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). She lectures Contemporary Performing Arts Approach at Institut des Arts de la Diffusion (IAD) in Louvain-La-Neuve.

©s.botella

Sebastian studied business administration and political science in Mannheim and Baltimore. PhD at the HU Berlin on how German corporations dealt with their Nazi past. From 2005 to 2007 assistant director, first at Nationaltheater Mannheim, then Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. From 2007 to 2016 he worked as a dramaturge with the theatre group Rimini Protokoll. Since 2016 he has been working for the German Federal Cultural Foundation. He is managing the funding program "Doppelpass - Theatre Cooperation Fund“ and he has been developing new funding approaches such as "Jupiter - Theatre for Young Audiences“ or a pilot project for carbon footprinting in cultural institutions.

©Candy Welz

Gina Calinoiu (1978, Romania) is an actress, academic and theater-maker. She holds a PhD in Theater from the National University of Theater and Cinematography I.L. Caragiale Bucharest (2009) and a MBA from the University of Craiova (2013). After graduating from acting studies (2001) she became a permanent member of the ensemble at the National Theatre Marin Sorescu Craiova until 2016. During these years she intensified her artistic collaborations with directors such as Janusz Wiśniewski, Peter Schneider, Robert Wilson, Anatoly Vassiliev.  In addition to acting, she worked as an assistant director and stage manager. 

She was the Head of Artistic (2013-2014) and the coordinator of international projects of the National Theatre  Marin Sorescu Craiova (2014-2016). She taught acting at the University of Theater and Cinematography I.L. CaragialeBucharest (2003-2007) and at the University of Craiova (2010-2016). 

Since 2015, she also began working with the French company le Balagan retrouvé and took part in two performances as an actress and director - LE JOUEUR and LES ANALPHABÈTES. 
 
Most recently she was on stage in the production GYPSIES by werkgruppe2 at the Staatstheater Braunschweig and has been a permanent member of the ensemble at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden since the 2017/2018 season.

MARINA, a short film by werkgruppe2 in which Gina Calinoiu plays the leading role was awarded the Golden Dove for the best short documentary and the Healthy Workplaces Film Award for the best documentary on the subject of work at the DOK Leipzig 2018 and Goldener Zollstock für die beste künstlerische Einzelleistung, Wendland Shorts 2019. 

Currently resident artist by ERT Emilia Romagna Teatro Nazionale. He wrote, among others: Variazioni sul modello di Kraepelin (awarded by Theatertreffen Stückemarkt 2009; Prize Marisa Fabbri 2009; Prize de les Journées de Lyon 2012), Ritratto di donna araba che guarda il mare (Prize Riccione 2013), Sweet Home Europa (Schauspiel Bochum, 2012), Menelao (ERT, 2018). He also wrote and directed Ein Porträt des Künstlers als Toter (Münchner Biennale 2018 / Staatsoper Unter den Linden) and Lorca sogna Shakespeare in una notte di mezza estate (ERT 2019). His plays, presented in various international seasons and festivals, are published by Einaudi and Actes Sud and translated into twelve languages.

©Bianca Vignato

Christos Carras was born in London (UK) in 1962. He read philosophy at Cambridge University and then at the Sorbonne where he earned his PhD.
From 2000 onwards, he has been working in the cultural sector, initially as the Project Manager of the EU funded MediMuses network. In 2006 he became General Manager of the B & M Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts and Music.
In 2009 he joined the Onassis Foundation as the Executive Director of the Onassis Cultural Centre. He is responsible for the music program and other interdisciplinary projects, developing European networks and the overall coordination of the Centre.

©Stavros Habakis

Clémentine Daubeuf is Associate Director at KEA, responsible for outreach, public relations and partnerships as well policy issues related to culture and creative crossovers. She has more than 6 years of experience in European research in culture and creative industries as well as managing international online networks. As a researcher, she contributed to studies and projects at the crossroads of culture, innovation, science, economy and society as well as international relations and artistic mobility. Clémentine has an operational knowledge of EU culture-related policies and projects through European project management and dissemination including Creative Europe, Horizon 2020 and Interreg Europe. Clémentine holds a MA from Sciences Po Bordeaux (FR) in Cultural Project Management. She previously worked at the Regional Agency for Cinema, Books and Audiovisual heritage in Aquitaine (FR) for a study of the regional publishing economy. Clémentine speaks French, English, Spanish and Italian.

@KEA European Affairs

Ian De Toffoli (1981, Luxembourg) is a writer, playwright, academic and publisher. He holds a PhD title in contemporary French Literature, from the University Sorbonne, Paris IV. In 2012, he is the “author in residence” at the Théâtre National de Luxembourg, where two of his plays, Microdrames and L’Homme qui ne retrouvait plus son pays, are staged. His next play, 99%, co-written with the Catalan author Elies Barberà, was shown in Luxembourg and Barcelona, in 2015. Other plays include a rewriting of the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin (Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, 2017), the monologue Tiamat (Théâtre du Centaure & Centre dramatique national du NEST, 2018) and AppHuman (Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, 2020). In the fall of 2018, he is a guest author at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. Ian De Toffoli is also the co-owner of Hydre Editions publishing house and teaches literature and drama at the University of Luxembourg.

©Philippe Matsas

Anita Debaere is Director of Pearle*-Live Performance Europe. This European sector federation counts, through its member associations, more than 10 000 organisations in the live performance sector across Europe. Pearle* is also recognised as European employers association, taking part in European sectoral social dialogue. Anita Debaere holds a master in Political and Social sciences and Communication Science from the University of Ghent. She also holds a post-degree in Arts Management from the City University of London. Anita Debaere worked in the classical music sector and in the energy sector, before joining Pearle*. Anita Debaere sits in different steering committees of European projects, she is regularly invited for studies and at conferences or stakeholder meetings to give expert views on sectoral questions, in particular in relation to cultural mobility.

After completing studies in dramaturgy (Leipzig, Germany) and arts management (London, UK), Martine Dennewald worked for theatres and theatre festivals in Luxembourg, Germany, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Switzerland and Austria. She then joined Niels Ewerbeck for a few years as dramaturg at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt. From 2015 to 2020, she was the artistic director of Festival Theaterformen – an eleven-day performing arts festival which takes place alternately in the cities of Hanover and Braunschweig (Germany) every summer.

©Katrin Ribbe

Natalie Driemeyer is the curator of the climate pop-up theatre. She is the founder of the world-climate-theatre, connected to theatre-makers all around the world who are working on the topic of climate change or the relation between nature and human beings (if you like to separate). She created the international festival “Odyssey : Climate” and describes how differently the topic of climate change is treated in theatres internationally. In the framework of a one year research trip in Southeast Asia and South America, examines how theatre people worldwide deal with anthropogenic climate change in their productions. And she created, along with local artists, performances like the Climate Walk through Nitiprayan (Indonesia). Since 8 years she is working together with international scientists like from the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Change on different projects. Since 2018 she is dramaturg at the Hans Otto Theater Potsdam.

©Thomas Jauk

Laurence Farreng was elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2019. She is a member of the Renew Europe group and of the European Democratic Party. As a full member and coordinator in the Culture and Education committee, Laurence Farreng fights to bring out a strong European cultural ambition through the support of the actors of the sector and the recognition of their importance for the European Union.

Her latest dedicated work lead to the successful vote of the European Parliament of her report urging for a structured and well-provided recovery plan for all actors of the sector of Culture facing the COVID-19 pandemic.

She is also working to democratize and adapt to environmental challenges the European Union's flagship programs in Education and Culture: Erasmus +, the mobility program for students and apprentices, the European Solidarity Corps for volunteering and Creative Europe which supports and finances creation and production in Europe.

©European Parliament 2019

Stephan Fischer-Feld was born in 1964 in Berlin. He studied Acting, Education, Psychology, and Sociology. Fischer-Feld Worked as a football coach, dramaturg, and theater pedagogue. Between 2003 and 2011, and again since 2016, he is Artistic Director of Junges Schauspiel / Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. Between 2011 and 2016, he was Artistic Director of Grips Theater Berlin. Fischer-Feld is a member of the Executive Committee of Assitej International since 2011 and a member of the board of Assitej Germany since 2003.

©Thomas Rabsch

Sanna Ekström Forsberg recently switched from doing costume work mainly for film and television, to doing costume work for the stage instead. After 18 years as a freelancing costume designer / costume assistant, among other costume related things, Sanna Ekström Forsberg found her place at Skånes Dancetheatre. The creative process here is very similar to the processes she is used to doing film work. But there is the advantage of having stable employment, for which she is very grateful in these strange times.

Mariya Gabriel is the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, Youth and Sport. Under her leadership the new Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, and the cultural strand of Creative Europe programmes (2021-2027) will be defined and implemented.

Her main priorities are excellence in research, innovation and education (ERA, EEA, EIA) ; tackling the R&I divide in Europe ; Europe as a leader in strategic innovation areas through the digital and green transition, with a particular attention to young people and regions. “No one left behind” and “Think out of the box” are her mottos.

Between 2017 and 2019, Mariya Gabriel was European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. She proposed the new Digital Europe programme, worked on EU Strategy on AI, disinformation online, cybersecurity and launched the EuroHPC strategy. She has extensively engaged with external EU partners to enhance digital cooperation, in particular with the Western Balkans and Africa.

She was elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Mariya Gabriel is First Vice-President of the European People's Party (EPP), and since 2012 Vice-President of EPP Women.

©Gaspare Dario Pignatelli

Máté Gáspár is a cultural manager, university lecturer and NGO expert. Between 1998-2010 along with Árpád Schilling he was the co-founder and director of Hungary’s internationally acclaimed independent theatre company, Krétakör (Chalk Circle). The past decade he’s been equally involved in the art sector, education and civic life. He served as the deputy of the Arts and Culture Program of the Open Society Foundations for four years. As the director of a major Hungarian family foundation (Polgár Alapítvány) whose mission is providing Roma people with equal chances, he’s been working for a more solidary and inclusive society. Since 2014 he taught art mediation and management at the University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest where he also became Head of Art Theory and Mediation Department and member of the Senate. In reaction to the forced transformation of the University from public institution to a private foundation he resigned from all his functions and decided to leave the faculty as of September 30th.

©Árpád Kis-Kuntler

Paulien Geerlings (Amsterdam, 1970) is a Dutch dramaturg with an Indo-European background. She is vice-president of the European Theatre Convention. After her high school education, she studied Philosophy and Theatre studies at the University of Amsterdam. In 2004 she graduated at DasArts (currently DAS Theatre), a master’s programme for artistic practices in the field of theatre at the Amsterdam University of the Arts. Since ten years she is head dramaturg of De Toneelmakerij, the Amsterdam theatre company for young audiences. She has a strong focus on the development of new repertoire and the coaching of playwrights. She translated several plays into Dutch. Also she is responsible for the international collaboration projects of the company, like the playwrights festival Theatre Café, the European Writers Lab, Young Europe and the Nadia project. Next to her work in theatre, Paulien Geerlings is a yoga teacher and practitioner.

©Lucas Evers

Born in Belgium with German nationality, Barbara Gessler lived and studied in Konstanz, Paris, Buenos Aires and Bruges. She joined the European Commission in 1994. From mid- 2011 until 2016, she ran the Culture Unit at EACEA, which implements the EU’s funding programmes in these areas. Since 2017 she is responsible for the culture sub-programme at Directorate General Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. Since 2017, she is Head of the Unit Creative Europe, the European Commission’s framework programme for support to the culture and audiovisual sectors.

Morten Gjelten is the Managing Director of NTO (Association of Norwegian Theatres and Orchestras) which members include the major Norwegian public funded theatres, orchestras, operas, dance companies and music ensembles.
His professional experience includes serving as Administrative Director at Det Norske Teatret and as Financial Director at Trøndelag Teater. He is at the moment President of PEARLE* (Performing Arts Employers Associations League Europe), the European trade federation of Performing Arts organisations.

Rasa Goštautaitė is a Researcher at PPMI, one of the leading European research and policy analysis centres. While working at PPMI, Rasa has contributed to the implementation of such culture-related projects like “Culture and creative sectors in the European Union - key future developments, challenges and opportunities” (commissioned by European Parliament, 2019) and the “Evaluation of the European Heritage Label action” (commissioned by European Commission, DG EAC, 2017-2019).

©PPMI

Born 1957 in Wolfsburg. Studied German, Romance languages and literature and philosophy at the Free University of Berlin. After graduating she worked as a dramaturgy assistant at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin, then as Dramaturge/chief dramaturge in Bremen, Lübeck, Graz and Hamburg. From 2000 to 2008 chief dramaturg and deputy to the acting director at the Staatstheater Hannover, from 2008 to 2013 in the same function at Schauspielhaus the Graz. Since 2013 Professor of Dramaturgy at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.

©Regina Guhl

Caroline Guiela Nguyen is a writer and director for both stage and screen. After starting out as a sociology student she joined TNS drama school. In 2009, she created her own theatre company, Les Hommes Approximatifs. Their work, drawing on their own life stories, gives centre stage to bodies and histories that the theatre has generally paid little attention to. Their shows include: Se souvenir de Violetta (2011), Ses Mains, Le bal d’Emma (2012), Elle brûle (2013), Le chagrin (2015), Mon grand amour (2016), SAIGON (2017).

Since 2015, she has also collaborated with Joël Pommerat and his company Louis Brouillard, and with Jean Ruimi creating shows at the Maison Centrale d’Arles Prison, including Désordre d’un futur passé and Marius. In 2016, she wrote and devised a radio play with Alexandre Plank and Antoine Richard, Le chagrin (Julie et Vincent) for the radio station France Culture as part of their Radiodrama series.

—
Awards:
2015 : Nominated for a Molière in the category of best director for Elle brûle
2016 : Prix Italia in the fiction category for new radio plays for Le Chagrin (Julie & Vincent), Grand Prix for new radiophonic fiction awarded by the Société des gens de lettres also for Le Chagrin (Julie & Vincent), nominated to the grade of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.
2017 : SAIGON is the winner of ARTCENA’s bursary for artistic creation.
2018 : Nominated for a Molière in the category best living French-speaking author, won SACD’s Best New Theatre Talent prize.
2019 : Jürgen Bansemer and Ute Nyssen Dramaturgy Prize awarded by Goethe-Institut Paris for SAIGON

©Jean-Louis Fernandez

Yvette Hardie is a theatre director, producer, educator and advocate. She is national director of ASSITEJ SA and serves as President of ASSITEJ (2011-2021), which networks across 100 countries. She was responsible for hosting the 19th ASSITEJ World Congress & Performing Arts Festival, Cradle of Creativity for the first time in Africa, in 2017. She produced the award-winning Colonnades Theatre Lab production, Truth in Translation, which toured widely for several years. She was awarded the Mickey Miner Award for Lifetime Achievement from IPAY (International Performing Arts for Youth) for her contribution to theatre for young audiences locally and globally.

©Simon Sephton

From 2012 to 2018 Julia Dina Hesse was the Artistic Director of the Young Theatre Muenster where she among others directed two plays for toddlers, both invited to international festivals (Austria, France, India, Sri Lanka, Senegal).
At present Julia Hesse works internationally as a freelance dramaturg and director in TYA. She holds workshops for children, teenager and adults and has published texts in TYA related books and magazines. Since 2014 she is a lecturer at the theatre department of the University of Muenster. She recently received a post graduate scholarship and is researching about theatre and sustainable transformation processes. She has been on the board of ASSITEJ Germany since 2015.

©Oliver Berg

Florentina Holzinger studied choreography at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Her Diploma solo work Silk was awarded the Prix Jardin d’Europe at the lmPulsTanz Festival 2012. She collaborated with Vincent Riebeek for a trilogy of pieces, Kein Applaus für Scheiße, Spirit, and Wellness followed by Schoenheitsabend- Tänze des Grauens und der Extase (2011-2015). Her second solo work premiered in 2015 – Recovery is an experimental consideration on a traumatic stage accident she had suffered and critically explores various kinds of female representation as well as the potential of female corporality. In her latest works she continued dissecting the narratives of ballet: first with Apollon (2017)-a hack on Balanchines’s 1920s Apollon Musagete, followed by TANZ, an action ballet that reflects on tradition and narrative departing from the romantic ballet La Sylphide. Her latest work Etude for an Emergency, is a stuntopera developed with a cast of opera singers and stunt actresses- a musical composition for 10 bodies and a car.

©Apollonia Bitzan

Francine Houben (the Netherlands, 1955) is Founding Partner and Creative Director of Mecanoo architecten. Her work ranges from theatres, museums and libraries to neighbourhoods, housing and parks. Each design is founded on observation of people, location, culture and climate. This analysis amounts to designs that respond to current needs, yet are also prepared for (un)predictable change.

With her practice, she has gained international acclaim. Selected works include Delft University of Technology Library, Delft (1997), La Llotja Theatre and Congress Centre, Lleida, Spain (2008), Library of Birmingham, United Kingdom (2013), Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, Boston, United States (2015) and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, Taiwan (opened in 2018). Currently, she is working on the renovation of the New York Public Library and the central library of Washington, DC – designed by Mies van der Rohe which will both re-open in 2020.

@Mecanoo

Working as a producer in the New Theatre institute of Latvia, coordinating Creative Europe project: "Art. Climate. Transition". Also, culture journalist and news anchor on Public Latvian Television. Studying Biology and Environmental studies after studying Philosophy.

©Tatjana Vlasova

Joachim Klement studied in Cologne and Munich (Germany). Later he had various engagements as a dramaturge, among others in Wilhelmshaven, at the theatre in Graz (Austria) and at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. From 1996, he was Senior Drama Dramatist at the National Theatre Mannheim for three years. Subsequent to this in 2004, he became Chief Dramaturge and deputy to the General Intendent at Bremen Theatre. In 2006/2007, he moved to Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus in the same capacity. Joachim Klement was then General Director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig before becoming General Director of the Staatsschauspiel Dresden.

©Sebastian Hoppe

Barbara Klepsch is State Minister for Culture and Tourism of the Free State of Saxony since December 2019. Mrs. Klepsch was born on 23rd July 1965 in Annaberg-Buchholz. Graduated in public and business administration, she was head of finance at the district hospital in Annaberg-Buchholz from 1988 to 1992. Afterwards, Mrs. Klepsch was treasurer of the city of Annaberg-Buchholz. In 2001, she became major of Annaberg-Buchholz for more than thirteen years. Between 2014 and 2019, Mrs. Klepsch was Saxon State Minister for Social Affairs and Consumer Protection. She is also Member of the Saxon Landtag (parliament of the Free State of Saxony) since October 2019.

©Christian Hüller

Jan Jaap Knol (1963) is director of the Boekman Foundation, Institute for Arts, Culture and Policy. The Boekman Foundation collects and disseminates knowledge and information about the arts and culture in both policy and practice. It stimulates research and the development of opinion on the production, distribution and take-up of the arts and on national and international policy on the arts and culture. The foundation stimulates research and the development of opinion on arts-related policy.
Before becoming director of the Boekman Foundation in 2019 Jan Jaap Knol directed the Netherlands Fund for Cultural Participation that promotes participation in culture with programmes for cultural education during school time. He studied Dutch Language and Literature at Groningen University and held various positions at the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Communication Adviser, Project Manager Culture and School and Head of the Department for Cultural Outreach).

Master Degree at the University of Vienna, experienced in Production- and Project Management at major international festivals and theatre houses, EU projects and networks. She successfully developed and managed EU funded projects, such as modul-dance (2014-2014) and EDN - European Dancehouse Network (funded since 2014). Since Septembre 2017 she has been managing director of the IG Freie Theaterarbeit, promoting the service and information tools for freelance artists throughout Austria, working closely with artists and cultural politicians on new decision making and funding. In 2018 she became the president of the newly founded umbrella organization The European Association of Independent Performing Arts.

©Erich Leonhard

Christoph Lepschy, Dramaturg, Professor for dramaturgy, Chair of the Senate of University Mozarteum Salzburg, worked as dramaturg at several renowned municipal and state theatres and developed numerous international performance projects. Since 2012 he is working continuously with Paper Tiger Theatre Studio Beijing. 2009 he has been appointed professor for dramaturgy at University Mozarteum. A focus of his work is the development of international and transcultural higher education in the performing arts. He gave lectures and workshops on dramaturgy and transcultural performance practice at theatre academies, universities and cultural institutions in many countries.

©Christian Schneider

Angélica Liddell founded AtraBilis Teatro in 1993, with which she has staged twenty-five works. Her plays have been translated into different languages such as French, English, Russian, German, Portuguese, Polish and Greek.

Liddell has won several awards, amongst them the 2003 Casa de América Award for Innovative Drama for her play Nubila Wahlheim; the 2004 SGAE Theatre Award for Mi relación con la comida (My Relationship with Food); the 2005 Premio Ojo Crítico Segundo Milenio Award in recognition for her works; the 2007 Notodo del Público Award for best performance for her play Perro muerto en tintorería: los fuertes (Dead dog in the Dry cleaner’s: The strong ones). The play Belgrado (Belgrade) won second place in the Lope de Vega 2007 Award while El año de Ricardo (The Year of Ricardo) won the Valle Inclán Award in 2008. She has also won the Sebastiá Gasch Award in 2011. Her latest works, El año de Ricardo, La casa de la fuerza, Maldito sea el hombre que confía en el hombre, and Todo el cielo sobre la tierra (El síndrome de Wendy), Qué haré yo con esta espada, have been premiered in Festival d’Avignon, Wiener Festwochen and Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris. Her last piece The Scarlet Letter is in tour during 2019-2020

She has received the National Prize of Drama Literature 2012 for La casa de la fuerza, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Leone d’Argento of Theatre in La Biennale di Venezia 2013, and she has been condecorated Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 2017 by the Culture Ministry of the French Republic.

©Angélica Liddell

Constanza Macras was born in Buenos Aires where she studied dance and fashion design. She continued her dance studies in Amsterdam and New York at Merce Cunningham Studios. DorkyPark was created in 2003 under the artistic direction of Constanza Macras and the dramaturgy of Carmen Mehnert. It is an interdisciplinary ensemble that works with dance, text, live music, and film. The company works in affiliation with state theatres such as Schaubühne Berlin (2004-2015) and currently Volksbühne and the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, as with independent scene theatres like HAU.

Since 2003, Constanza Macras | Dorky Park have created more than 25 works that have been touring across the world, including Festival d’Avignon, the Wiener Festwochen in Austria, the Seoul Performing Arts Festival, the Buenos Aires International Festival, Attakalari–India Biennial in India, and Dance Umbrella Johannesburg, among many others.

In 2008, Macras received the 'Goethe-Institut Award for an outstanding German production' for “Hell on Earth,” the same year she was awarded the national German theater prize 'Der Faust' for best choreography for her piece “Megalopolis.” In 2021, she will be developing a piece at arts and science at MIT where she already was awarded with the Arts at MIT William L. Abramowitz Residency in 2010. Macras created the choreography for the 2018 film “The Favourite”.

©Thomas Aurin 

Kopano Maroga is a performance artist, writer, cultural worker and co-founding director of the socio-cultural arts organization ANY BODY ZINE. They are a curator and dramaturg at Kunstencentrum Vooruit in Ghent, Belgium and currently a Masters candidate in Interdisciplinary studies in Public Spheres and Performance Studies at the Institute for Creative Arts through the University of Cape Town. Their debut anthology of poetry Jesus Thesis and Other Critical Fabulations is forthcoming through uHlanga Press in November 2020.

©Louis Kerckhof

Current position: councillor for culture and media for the Federal Ministry of arts, culture, civil service and sport at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the EU and in the past having covering policy areas like communication, regional policy, youth, statistics and sports. MBA at the Vienna Economic University; specialised in cultural management and European cultural policy with focus on cross-border and cross-sectorial cooperation, initiatives and programs for the cultural and creative industries at national and European level; worked as a freelancer and cultural adviser as well as years of experiences in the public sector management.

Konrad Michalak graduated from the Acting Department of the Polish National Film Television and Theatre School in Łódź, now he is in progress of his doctoral studies. He also holds a degree of a master of law from the University of Łódź. He worked for two years with and international theatre group based in Italy. From 2013 he is employed as an actor in the Kazimierz Dejmek's New Theatre in Łódź. He also co-operates with other theatres such as Teatr STU in Cracow, Teatr IMKA in Warsaw, Teatr Mały in Łódź, Konsulat Kultury in Gdynia. He is also known for his roles in film and TV series and runs his own dubbing and voice-over studio. Konrad Michalak is also a member of the board of the Polish Actors Union - ZZAP. His hobby is horseback riding.

©Naomi Muras

Dearbhal Murphy is the Deputy General Secretary of the International Federation of Actors (FIA). She coordinates the work of the EuroFIA group within FIA, bringing together performers unions, guilds and professional associations from across the EU and neighbouring countries. Her work centres on European policy-making in the field of labour, culture and social policy, as well as the European social dialogue. She has a special interest in issues pertaining to atypical work in the Arts and Entertainment sector, coordinating a series of European projects for unions in the Media, Arts and Entertainment sector, exploring the different challenges and opportunities in this area. Dearbhal is an Irish national. Her academic background is in International Relations and political science with a DEA from Sciences-Po, Paris.

Thomas Ostermeier (born 1968 in Soltau), studied directing at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst »Ernst Busch«, Berlin. 1996-99 he was the Artistic Director of the Baracke at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin. Since 1999 resident director and member of the Artistic Direction of the Schaubühne. Ostermeier directed more than 50 plays and teaches directing at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst »Ernst Busch«. His productions are touring worldwide. As a director he worked at Burgtheater Wien, Kammerspiele München, Hamburger Schauspielhaus, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne and at the Comédie-Française in Paris.

©Brigitte Lacombe

Elena Polivtseva is Head of Policy and Research at IETM – International network for contemporary performing arts. Before joining IETM, she worked in the corporate sector and international NGOs. She holds a diploma in EU non-profit advocacy and negotiation, and a Master’s degree in European Studies (Université libre de Bruxelles) and International Relations (Tomsk State University).

©Jeremy Gobin

Serge Rangoni studied at the Conservatoire of Brussels. After working in various theatre institutions and at the Ministry of Culture, he was designated in 2004 as General Manager of Théâtre de Liège. Under his leadership, the theatre received the titles of “European center of theatrical creation and choreography” and “Centres for Drama” in the French-speaking area of Belgium, affirming its role in theatrical and dance productions and their dissemination to local and international audiences. Since his arrival at its head, the institution has developed considerably, with now an audience of 65,000 and more than 180 performances a season. Théâtre de Liège is today the leading stage in Wallonia.

©M-F Plissart

Ása Richardsdóttir is the secretary general of IETM – the largest international network in the performing arts - www.ietm.org. She has led a versatile career in the performing arts, culture, academia, banking, politics and media. She was a television reporter at RÚV Iceland, founder of theatre, Kaffileikhusid, executive director of Iceland Dance Company, president of Performing Arts Iceland project leader of ICE HOT Reykjavík Nordic Dance Platform and Wilderness dance, found of keðja dance network and producer of various artistic projects and international collaborations for the last 25 years. She is co-author of the guide for artists and producers It Starts With a Conversation.

©Saga Sig

Since he started out as an actor, in 1998, Tiago Rodrigues has always looked at theater as a human assembly: a place where people meet, like in a cafe, to confront their thoughts and share their time. His encounter with tg STAN, in 1997, when he was still a student, definitely confirmed his attachment to the absence of hierarchy in a creative group. The freedom he found when he first started working with this Belgian collective would forever influence his future works. In 2003, he co-founded with Magda Bizarro the company Mundo Perfeito, with which he created and presented about 30 performances in more than 20 countries, becoming a regular presence in events such as Festival d’Automne à Paris, METEOR Festival in Norway, Theaterformen in Germany, Festival TransAmériques in Canada, kunstenfestivalsdesarts in Belgium, among others. He collaborated with a large number of Portuguese and international theatre artists, as well as choreographers and dancers. He also taught theater in several schools, namely the Belgian dance school PARTS, directed by choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, the Swiss performing arts school Manufacture and the international project École des Maîtres. Parallel to his theatre work, he wrote screenplays for film and television, articles for newspapers, poetry and essays. His latest performances granted him international recognition and a number of national and international awards. Some of his most notable works are By Heart, Antony and Cleopatra, Bovary, The way she dies and his latest piece, Sopro, created at the Festival d’Avignon. Either mixing true stories and fiction, rewriting classics or adapting novels, the theatre of Tiago Rodrigues is deeply rooted in the idea of writing for and with the actors, searching a poetical transformation of reality through theatrical tools.

That desire is obvious in projects such as Occupation Bastille, an artistic occupation of Théâtre de la Bastille, in Paris, by almost a hundred artists and spectators in 2016. In 2018 he was awarded with the XV Europe Prize Theatrical Realities and in 2019 he was awarded the Pessoa Prize, one of the most important cultural prizes in Portugal. Director of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon since 2015, Tiago Rodrigues has become a builder of bridges between cities and countries, at once host and advocate of a living theatre.

©Filipe Ferreira

I'm Tara, a 15 year old climate activist from Düsseldorf Germany, attending 11th grade in a German highschool. I'm part of Fridays for Future since February 2019, locally in Düsseldorf I'm part of the team that organises the strikes, as an representative of the Fridays for Future movement in Düsseldorf I have talked to local politicans, representatives of companies and scientists about climate change and sustainability.

Barbara Stacher is from Vienna/Austria and has been working for the European Commission for 25 years in different areas - EU external and trade relations and cooperation with Mediterranean countries, Latin America and Russia, and also cultural and creative sectors/CCIs, both in Brussels and abroad.

Currently, Barbara works at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), in the Cultural Policy Unit. Her field of work is cultural policy making, in particular the crossroads of cultural and creative sectors/ industries/spaces and how to contribute in terms of city and regional development, social inclusion, job creation, participation, linking up creative sectors and policy-makers, creative hubs and cultural and creative spaces. She also works on cultural and creative industries, innovation and finance concerning policies as well as projects.

©BS

Dramaturge of profession. More than 20 years dean of Maastricht theatre academy. Dean faculty of the arts, including theatre, music, fine arts,  design, media architecture and iArts(interdisciplinary arts).
Intiated several bilateral international coproductions a.o with academies in Germany, UK and Russia. Started Pleta, platform European theatre academies, with 8 partner academies in Europe focussed on international cocreation en coproduction since 2016.

©LS

Theatrologist and culture manager. Started organising theatre culture in 1998 as a board member of the RYX Association – one of the first Polish associations to promote culture. Since 2005 she has been the Academy chancellor in charge of organisational and economic matters.
International experience:
• managing the Inter}artes Quality Network for Higher Arts Education thematic network; the Academy was the institutional coordinator of the project involving 68 partners (2004-2007),
• managing the Leonardo project Transmission Art Education (a partner institution 2004-2006),
• managing the budget and the organization of biannual International Theatre Schools Festival; editions of 2005-2017
• Managing the Platform of European Theatre Academies project, (a partner of a project co-financed by Creative Europe programme.

©Bartek Warzecha

Iphigenia Taxopoulou is a founding member and General Secretary of the European theatre network mitos21. She is also an Associate of Julie’s Bicycle, the UK based charity, bridging environmental sustainability and the creative sector. She has served as Associate General Secretary of the International Association of Theatre Critics, as cultural advisor to the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament and has collaborated as dramaturg, artistic advisor, projects manager, sustainability consultant and lecturer, with theatres, festivals and cultural institutions in Greece and abroad. She holds degrees in Philology & Modern Greek Studies, as well as in Cultural Management & Theatre Criticism. She is currently writing a book, The Practitioner’s Handbook of Sustainable Theatre, which will be published by Methuen Drama (Bloomsbury Publishing).

Daphne Tepper is Director at UNI MEI, the division of UNI Europa representing workers in the media, entertainment, and arts. She is responsible for the implementation of projects and campaigns. For the last three years she has been coordinating broad sector partnerships on the issues of gender equality and diversity as well as on professional training and skills development. Daphne graduated in political science and public international law from the Free University of Brussels, and was a researcher at the UNESCO Chair for Peace Culture and Human Rights at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2001-2002.

Katrien Thienpont is Flemish attaché for Culture and Media in the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU. She also works in the Flemish Department for Culture, Youth and Media (Flemish Government) as a policy advisor for EU affairs, focusing on culture and media. Before joining the governement as a civil servant she worked as an editor in the publishing industry. She studied Law in Leuven (Belgium), Leiden (Netherlands) and Strasbourg (France).

©AAVR EU

Goran is a researcher, lecturer and activist working across the intersection of culture, politics and ecology. He is a professor at EDUCONS University in Novi Sad and University of Arts in Belgrade, as well as guest lecture a University of International relations in Beijing and University Lyon II in France. He is an author of Audience Explorations - Guidebook for Hopefully Searching for Audiences, issued by IETM.

Ben Twist has been Director of Creative Carbon Scotland since 2011, combining over 25 years’ experience of producing events and running permanent and temporary venues in the cultural sector with an MSc in Carbon Management and a doctorate in applying complexity theory to social systems in order to bring about more sustainable social practices. He has developed CCS into a leader in both technical support for cultural organisations in carbon management and developing culture’s influencing role in addressing climate change. He was Artistic Director of Contact Theatre in Manchester and Associate Director at the traverse in Edinburgh. He has directed theatre and music theatre as a freelance across the UK, Europe, North America and New Zealand and is Chair of Scotland’s leading contemporary classical music group Hebrides Ensemble.

Louis Valente is Secretary General of ASSITEJ, the International Association for the Theatre for Children and Young People and Executive Director of ASSITEJ Denmark, one of the 75 national centres of ASSITEJ.

©Ditte Valente

Dario Vecchi has been born into the world of theatre, both local an international, and related to his experience as a political activist for environmental issues this unleashes the opportunity to see and understand theatre in an entirely new way. Being around artists from all around the world he learnded to at least understand many european languages and cultural mixes so feel free to talk to him as one of you, although he is just 16 jears old. The AGORA theatre in St. Vith, Belgium and the KOM'MA theatre in Duisburg, Germany are his main sources of backstage experience. Dario is currently doing his A-levels at Theodor-Heuss high school Dinslaken, committing himself to local and national Fridays for Future groups since the beginning in 2018.

Benjamin Verdonck (b. 1972) lives and works in Antwerp. He is a theatre-maker, writer and visual artist with an idiosyncratic practice both in theatre and outside of it. His work can be seen as an ongoing flow of performances, installations, actions, table-top shows and pamphlets with a recurring undercurrent: pointing up the lack of public debate on the ongoing changes in our ecological system, which are gradually becoming irreversible. As a counterpoint to his large-scale works in public space, Verdonck has in recent years been working on a series of smaller, mobile forms of theatre.
He has been a resident theatre-maker in Antwerp’s renowned municipal theatre Toneelhuis since 2006.

©Vincent Delbrouck

Sabine Verheyen has been a Member of the European Parliament for the German Christian Democrats (CDU) since 2009. In 2019 she got elected as Chairwoman of the Committee for Culture and Education, after having served as coordinator for the European People`s Party in this committee for five years. She focuses in particular on education and media policy as well as digital agenda issues. As former mayor of Aachen (1999 to 2009) she focuses additionally on issues that are of relevance to the local authorities.
She has been co-rapporteur for the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive and has been a Member of the European Parliament’s annual delegation to the Internet Governance Forum since 2009. Sabine Verheyen studied architecture at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences.

©FKHP

Ingrid Vranken (°1987) completed a Masters in Theatre Studies at the University of Antwerp and Freie Universität Berlin and a Masters in the Arts at DAStheatre in Amsterdam. From 2012 until 2017, she was the coordinator of the artist-run platform SPIN in Brussels, where she focused on curatorial projects in which our experiences of time and productivity are questioned. During her time at SPIN she worked to create knowledge for and about artist-run organisations and fair practices in the arts, which she put to work as a consultant on the charter for fair practices, Juist is juist, for the flemish artfield. The collaborative project Common Wallet has shaped her daily life since 2018, a life-experiment sharing finances with nine other people as a way to rethink individual ownership, the commons, precarity and affective relations to money. Currently, Ingrid works as an independent dramaturg, curator and artist, and is a member of FoAM, a transdisciplinary laboratory at the interstices of art, science, nature and everyday life. Her curatorial and artistic practice focuses on enabling a systemic ecofeminist transition in the arts, through engaging with the knowledge and labor of other-than-human beings, and in particular plants. For this, she creates collaborative curatorial frameworks and speculative lecture performances under the umbrella of Rooted Hauntology Lab. Since the spring of 2020 she is part of the multi-voiced curatorial team of wpZimmer, a space for artistic development in Antwerp.

Dubravka Vrgoč holds a degree in dramaturgy from the Academy of Dramatic Arts and a master's degree from the Department of Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. She worked as a theatre critic and culture editor at "Vjesnik" and wrote for cultural magazines in the country and abroad. She was a Fulbright Scholar at City University New York and New York University. She has been the founder and artistic director of the World Theater Festival since 2003. From 2004 to 2014 she was the director of the Zagreb Youth Theatre. In that period, the Zagreb Youth Theatre realized about twenty international and domestic co-productions and numerous guest appearances at prestigious international festivals and European and world theatres. She was president of the European Theatre Convention for three terms. She received the City of Zagreb Award for exceptional international presentation of Croatian theatre and the Order of the Croatian Danica with the figure of Marko Marulić for special merits in culture and its promotion in the Republic of Croatia and around the world. She was awarded the Order of the Star of Italy, which is awarded by the Republic of Italy for outstanding contribution to the promotion of friendship and cooperation and expansion of theatrical cultural exchange between the two countries. Since 2014, she has been the general manager and artistic director of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

Since 2009 she established ETC as a European network for theatres with an international programme of artistic collaboration, professional development and advocacy for Europe’s public theatres. Under her leadership, ETC became a strategic partner of the European Commission and was awarded European prizes for youth theatre and digital theatre productions. She was invited to the European Expert Network on Culture and Audiovisual (EENCA), and co-initiated the European Theatre Forum. Heidi started her career as international producer and touring manager for Victoria Chaplin and the Tiger Lillies touring around Europe and Asia at major festivals and venues. A studied cultural manager with degrees from La Sorbonne and Leuphana University, she lived and worked over the last 20 years in the UK, US, France and Germany.