Bodil Alling

is an actress, director and dramaturge. She joined the theatre group Gruppe 38 in 1981 and took over the group’s artistic direction in 1990. Furthermore, she is involved in cultural politics, was a member of the board of directors for ASSITEJ Danmark and for the Danish Children Theatre Committee. Bodil Alling has been honoured with numerous theatre prizes, among others the renowned Reumert Prize for “Du må være en engel, Hans Christian” (“You must be an angel, Hans Christian.”)

Claudia Castellucci

dramaturge, theater theorist and dance educationalist, founded the theater collective “Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio” together with Romeo Castellucci and Chiara Guidi in 1981. In 2003 she brought into being “La Stoa”, a school for rhythmic movements and philosophy. In 2009 she founded “Mòra”, the dance company of “Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio”, and produced the piece “Homo Turbae” shown at Berlin’s 2009 Italian Autumn Theater Meeting and other festivals.

Wolfgang Bergmann

is a psychologist and family scientist and directs the Institute for Child Psychology and Learning Therapy in Hanover. After studying education, he worked in media in among other roles as editor-in-chief of the “Deutsche Lehrer Zeitung” (“German Teacher’s Newspaper.”) Bergmann has authored a number of works about the topic of raising children; in March 2009 the Beltz publishing house released his book “Warum unsere Kinder ein Glück sind: So gelingt Erziehung heute” (“Why our children are such a joy: Successfully raising children today.”) Bergmann is married and the father of three children.

Hans-Peter Frings

went to Magdeburg in 1990 in order to work as a dramaturge at the newly founded Freie Kammerspiele theatre after completing his studies in Berlin. Between 2000 and 2005 he was dramaturge and later chief dramaturge at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. Afterwards, he received a position at the “schauspielfrankfurt” which he held until 2009. After a temporary employment at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus during the 2009/10 season, he transferred to the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, where he will be chief dramaturge for the season of 2010/11.

Isol

is a young Argentine children’s book author and illustrator who has been selected twice as a finalist for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award and has won a Golden Apple at the Biennale of Illustrations Bratislava. Many of her books have been selected to be part of the White Ravens list (Internationale Jugendbibliothek, Munich). Isol is also an advertising illustrator, a professional singer, a comic book writer and an active blogger (www.isolisol.blogspot.com). She lives in Buenos Aires.

Annett Israel

studied theatre sciences in Leipzig and afterwards worked as dramaturge at the Kleist-Theater in Frankfurt an der Oder as well as pedagogical assistant at the Children’s and Young People’s Theatre Centre in the Federal Republic of Germany (KJTZ). Since 2001 she works at the Berlin office of the KJTZ. She is co-editor of “Das andere Publikum. Deutsches Kinder- und Jugendtheater” (“The other audience. German children’s and youth theater”) and “Theaterspielen mit Kindern und Jugendlichen. Konzepte, Methoden und Übungen” (“Playing theatre with children and young people. Concepts, methods and exercises.”)

Petra Kohse

earned a PhD in theatre sciences. She is an editor and author as well as a founding member of the theatre portal nachtkritik.de. Currently, she teaches cultural journalism at the UdK (Univeristy of the Arts) in Berlin. She blogs at the Wanderlust-Fund-Website of the Federal Endowment for Culture and has published books on Friedrich Luft and Marianne Hoppe. Petra Kohse lives with her husband and two school-age children in Berlin.

Hans-Werner Kroesinger

worked after his graduation from university as assistant director for Robert Wilson and Heiner Müller. In 1997, at the documenta x in Kassel, he showed the theatrical sketch “Don’t look now.” Since then, he has created interdisciplinary projects such as performances, installations, plays and music theatre productions all over Germany, for example at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, at the HAU Berlin and at the Theater an der Parkaue in Berlin as well as at the Theater Freiburg.

Suzanne Lebeau

was born and raised in French-speaking Canada. She worked as an actor and author before she founded the theatre Le Carrousel in Montreal in 1975, together with Gervais Gaudreault. Today, she is still its artistic director. She has written numerous plays for children and young people and has been awarded various prizes, such as the Prix Francophonie Jeunesse and the Prix des Journées de Lyon des auteurs.

PeterLicht

is one of the most sensitive observers and most exciting musicians in the German-language Pop music scene. In 2006 his “Book at the End of Capitalism” appeared; in 2008, published by the Blumenbar Verlag, “The Story of My Assessment at the Beginning of the Third Millennium” followed. Recipient of the 2007 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in Klagenfurt, he was also honored with the 3sat prize and Audience Award. In addition, he curated the 2008/2009 “Festival of unsichtbaren Menschen” (The Festival of Invisible People) at the Munich Kammerspiele. In 2010 the reworking of Molière’s “The Miser” was premiered in Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater.

Peggy Mädler

earned a PhD in cultural sciences. She lives and works as a dramaturge, director and author in Berlin. She is a member of the artists’ collective “Labor für kontrafaktisches Denken” (“Laboratory for contra-factual thinking”). From 2007 to 2009 she was a board member of the state association “Freie Theaterschaffende Berlin e.V.”. From 2004 to 2007, Peggy Mädler received a PhD-scholarship from the Heinrich-Böll foundation; in 2008/09 she received a scholarship from the artists’ community in Schöppingen. In 2010 she has been awarded the Alfred-Döblin scholarship.

Dennis Meyer

is artistic director of Het Lab in Utrecht (Netherlands), a production house for theatre and dance made for young audiences. It gives young professional directors and choreographers the opportunity to realise projects and inspires experienced directors to develop their first works for young audiences. Before, Dennis Meyer worked at the HETPALEIS in Antwerp (Belgium) and the Netherlands Theatre Institute. He regularly publishes articles about theatre for young audiences.

Sarah Michelson

is a dancer and choreographer. She was trained in London and the USA. Her work has been presented in the USA and Europe, e.g. at the Brooklyn Academy of Arts, the Biennale di Venezia, Tanz im August festival in Berlin and Theaterspektakel Zürich. She has been awarded various prizes, such as three New York Dance and Performance Bessie Awards and the festival award of the Theaterspektakel Zürich. Sarah is an associate curator of dance at The Kitchen (NYC) and teaches yoga on a regular basis.

Miriam Gabriela Möllers

is a cultural and literary scientist. From 2002 to 2008 she was responsible for the international children’s and youth literature program at the “internationales literaturfestival berlin”; she also served as the festival’s deputy manager. Since 2009, she has been working as project manager and literary mediator for the topic of international children’s and youth literature. Currently, she is occupied with planning the “White Raven” festival of the international youth library Munich.

Gabriele Naumann-Maerten

is Cultural Attaché – Performing Arts (dance, theatre, music) at the Canadian embassy in Germany. Her main field of activity is the networking and dissemination of the performing arts within all related areas and institutions. Before assuming this position, she was the artistic director of the festivals TANZtheater International in Hanover, the International Summer Theatre Festival in Hamburg and DANCE 2000 in Munich. She is member of the governing body “Tanz Deutschland – Ständige Konferenz Tanz” (Dance Germany – Permanent Conference for Dance) and from 2007 to 2009 acted as a member of the jury of the Capital Cultural Fund.

Richard Maxwell

artistic director of the New York City Players, studied acting at the Illinois State University. As actor, director and composer, he is considered one of New York’s most important theater makers. His works have been honored with several Obie Awards and translated into six languages. With the New York City Players he has guest appeared at many theaters and major festivals worldwide. In 2004, in the framework of “Biennial Bonn: New York”, Maxwell presented the productions “Good Samaritans” and “Showcase”.

Suzanne Osten

is a theatre and film director. In 1975 at the Stockholm city theatre, she founded the Children and Youth Theatre UNGA KLARA, for which she serves as artistic director. She is author of numerous plays for children and young people. Furthermore, she has been professor for directing at the Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm since 1995. She has won numerous prizes, such as the Swedish PEN-clubs Berns Prize (2002) and the Assitej International Prize (2002).

Nina Peters

studied literary and theatre studies in Berlin and London. From 2003 to 2007, she was editor of the magazine Theater der Zeit, since 2005 as its managing editor. Currently, she is working as a juror for the Mülheimer Theatertage festival and the Berlin Senate and teaches at the Universität Hildesheim as well as the Freie Universität Berlin. Nina Peters works as a freelance journalist and editor of the Cologne theatre publishing house schaefersphilippen and lives in Berlin.

Stefan Schmidtke

studied directing in Moscow. In 2000 he curated the summer academy for the “THEATERFORMEN/Kunstfest Expo 2000” festival. Since 2001 he has been working as an independent dramaturge for the Staatstheater Stuttgart and as curator of the “forumfestwochen ff” as part of Wiener Festwochen. After the repositioning of the 2006 THEATERFORMEN Festival in Hanover and Brunswick, he directed the festival in 2007 and 2008. He is an advisor to the foundation for the 2011 European Capital of Culture – Tallinn. Schmidtke has translated numerous plays from Russian into German.

Natalia Skorokhod

writes scripts for stage and cinema. She studied stage production at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy; currently she teaches theatre science there. More than 20 of her plays and productions regularly go on tour in Russia and throughout the world. She has composed numerous scripts and has published over 100 articles in Russian film and theatre magazines such as TEATR magazine and ISKUSSTVO KINO in Moscow and PETERBURGSKI TEATRALNIJ ZHURNAL in Saint Petersburg. She is an advisor to the Russian children and youth theatre festival Arlekin 2010.

S.E. Struck

artist, choreographer and director. She studies Butoh dance and learns body techniques such as the Alexander Technique and Improvisation. Her original productions are combining visual and performing arts. In 2004 she founds the SEE! Performance label. In 2009 she presented in the Munich Kammerspiele: “Räume räumen” (Spaces spaces), the one to one performance MyPersonalWiderstandsjukebox, SEE! and curated the “Festival vom unsichtbaren Menschen” (Festival of the Invisible People) in collaboration with PeterLicht.

Dr. Gerd Taube

is the director of the Children’s and Young People’s Theatre Centre in the Federal Republic of Germany and artistic director of the German children’s and young people’s theatre meeting “Augenblick Mal!” in Berlin. He teaches at the Institut für Jugendbuchforschung (Institute for youth book research) at the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt. He is chairman of the board for the endowment for the performing arts and a member of the advisory board for theatre and dance at the Goethe Institute. He publishes books, magazines and articles on the topics of puppet theatre, youth theatre, youth drama and cultural education.

Beate Völcker

is a film education specialist and film dramaturge. As a media consultant for children’s and youth film, she works at the Centre for Media Pedagogy of the Federal State of Brandenburg. She was artistic co-director of Pygmalion, a European programme for the development of children’s projects across all audiovisual media (children’s film, television, and interactive media). In 2008, Völcker took over the dramaturgical project management for children’s film at the curatorship for young German film. She is author of numerous articles about film pedagogy as well as the publication “Kinderfilm – Stoff- und Projektentwicklung” (“Children’s film – script and project development”).

Christine Wahl

studied German studies, philosophy and sociology in Freiburg and Berlin. She works as a journalist and theatre critic for Theater heute, Spiegel online, the Berliner Tagesspiegel, the taz, among others. She worked as a juror for the Berlin Senate and the Mülheimer Theatertage festival; since 2008 she is a jury member for the German free theatre festival “Impulse.”

Andrea Zagorski

studied German and theatre sciences and has been working for the International Theatre Institute (ITI) since 2002. She is responsible for organising projects in the area of contemporary drama and translation. Amongst other things, she directs the translator meetings during the Mülheimer Theatertage festival or at the Neue Stücke aus Europa festival in Wiesbaden, the international platform Gegenwartstheater (contemporary theatre) and the online platform www.playservice.net.