Participants 2017

Agata Siniarska makes works within formats of performances, events, practices, lectures, videos. Having given a chance to different kinds of theatrical forms, having studied choreography, currently she devises feminist fun studies. She is
a founding member of female trouble - a friendship based collective revolving around identity, body, feminisms, pleasure, affirmation and love.

Beim Frühstück des Performing Arts Festival lädt das flausen+ Bundesnetzwerk zum Gespräch ein. Bei Schrippe und Kaffee gibt Andreas Lübbers (Probenzentrum WIESE e.G./Hamburger Sprechwerk) Auskunft zum Modellprojekt und den Zielen des Bundesnetzwerks: 2011 gestartet, setzt flausen+ von Beginn an Standards; durch die Vergabe von Forschungsresidenzen, ein fachspezifisches Mentoring und die bundesländerübergreifende Zusammenarbeit von Residenztheatern. Aktuell versammelt das flausen+ Bundesnetzwerk 20 kleine und mittelgroße Theater aus 13 Bundesländern. Gemeinsames Ziel ist ein Modell aus bundesweiten Forschungsresidenzen, Koproduktionen und Auftrittsreihen mit und für die Freie Darstellende Szene, in dem szenische Forschung als integraler Bestandteil weitergedacht und als Grundvoraussetzung einer innovativen und vielfältigen künstlerischen Praxis etabliert werden kann.

Ania Nowak’s choreographic practice approaches vulnerability and desire as ways towards reimagining what bodies and language can do. She is currently interested in love as a strategy of producing knowledge and in companionship as a dance making tool. Her works have been presented at Sophiensaele and AdK in Berlin, Het Veem in Amsterdam, Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, Arts Santa Mónica in Barcelona and Kulturhuset in Stockholm, a.o. Ania received Einstiegsförderung 2017 from the Berliner Senat as well as DanceWeb scholarship at Impuls Tanz Festival 2014 in Vienna. She graduated from “Dance/ Context/ Choreography” at HZT Berlin.

Anna K. Becker is a freelance designer and dramaturg and studied applied theater studies in Gießen. Since 2004, she and Katharina Bischoff have formed the directorial team bigNOTWENDIGKEIT, which realizes international theater projects, performances and installations. In Berlin, she has worked at Sophiensæle, Theaterdiscounter, the Roter Salon at Volksbühne and at Autokino Berlin.

Bahareh Sharifi ist seit Anfang 2017 die Programmleitung von DIVERSITY.ARTS.CULTURE - Berliner Projektbüro für Diversitätsentwicklung. Sie arbeitete zuvor als Diversitätsbeauftragte für den Berliner Projektfonds Kulturelle Bildung sowie als freie Kuratorin, u.a. für die Kulturprojekte Berlin, das Maxim Gorki Theater, das Deutsche Hygiene-Museum Dresden und beim Festiwalla 2014 am Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

Daniel Bernstorff, born and raised under many roofs. Off the hidden track and onto the pavements of a declining civilization.
Be like a frog, they said.

Daniel Brunet is a director, performer, producer and translator. Born in Syracuse, New York in 1979, he studied theater and film at Boston College. He moved to Berlin in 2001 with the support of a Fulbright Scholarship. Brunet became Producing Artistic Director of English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center in 2012.

Born and raised in Turkey, Enis Turan is a performer, choreographer. Getting through the Dance Intensive Programme at Tanzfabrik Berlin he studied contemporary dance at the University for Music and Dance Cologne and the Iceland Academy of the Arts, Reykjavik. His works have been presented at Tanzhaus NRW, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Barness Crossing. Apart from his own work he hasworked with Josep Caballero Garcia, Jolika Sudermann, Erna Omarsdottir, Paul Blackman and Dewey Dell.

Der Verband Deutscher Puppentheater e.V. ist seit 1968 die Vertretung der professionellen Puppen- und Figurentheater in Deutschland.
Zu den Aufgaben des Verbandes gehören Informationsaustausch, Vermittlung von Kontakten, Diskussionen über künstlerische Entwicklungen sowie die berufliche Interessenvertretung der Mitglieder in verschiedenen kulturpolitischen Gremien. Der VDP steht für basisdemokratisches Arbeiten, die Anerkennung der Vielfalt und des Pluralismus in der Puppenspielkunst.
Der VDP kooperiert mit dem Weltverband der Puppenspieler UNIMA e.V. und ist assoziiertes Mitglied im Bundesverband freie darstellende Künste e.V. (BFDK), der ASSITEJ e.V. und im Bundesverband der Theater und Orchester Deutscher Bühnenverein. Desweiteren ist er Mitgliedsorganisation im Fonds Darstellende Künste.
Der VDP ist Herausgeber der Theaterzeitschrift Puppen, Menschen & Objekte.

Mădălina Dan, maker and facilitator. She studied at HZT in the MA program “Solo/Dance/Authorship”. In 2015 she received a CNDB award for her contribution brought to the development in contemporary art in Romania. Latest collaborations together with: Sergiu Matis, Tahni Holt, Mihaela Dancs, Alexandra Pirici.

Manuel Bürger (*1980, The Laboratory of Manuel Bürger, Berlin) conceives and designs identities and communication for customers within the culture sector. His work is based upon the idea of highly referential density, strange narrations and over complexity/irritation. Together with Leif Randt and Jakob Nolte, he has also recently began operating the Internet label Tegel Media.
www.manuelbuerger.com

Murat Dikenci is a freelance actor and theater director. Following various appearance on television and in films, he has performed at numerous theaters, including Schauspiel Hannover, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Deutsche Nationaltheater Weimar and Maxim Gorki Theater. In 2016, he directed the novel adapation Sesperado – Revolution of Color, which can be currently been seen at Ballhaus Naunynstraße

Philine Rinnert is a scenographer and director. She was involved in the founding of Oper Dynamo West in Berlin and has developed music theater projects since then with Johannes Müller. Their most recent production, Reading Salomé, was presented at Sophiensæle during the Performing Arts Festival. She works continuously with the writer Gerhild Steinbuch, as well as with the performance collective Freundliche Mitte in Vienna and the choreographer Colette Sadler. Her work has been presented, amongst many other locations, at Sophiensæle in Berlin, brut in Vienna, at the Hamburg culture factory Kampnagel, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Southbank Centre in London, the Tramway art centre in Glasgow as well as at Nowy Teatr in Warsaw; her work has also been presented at the 2016 Favoriten festival, the ECLAT festival for new music and at steirischer herbst in Graz. Alongside her theatrical work, she develops site-specific research projects and interventions.

Shlomo Lieberman graduated the MFA program for theatre directing in Tel Aviv University in 2008 and created several performances for the Israeli fringe theatres. Since 2014 he works as an independent theatre artist in Berlin and created the performances: The Other/Promised Land (with Ulrich Leinz), LOVERS1 (with Tomer Zirkilevich) and Shlomo’s Friends in the English Theater Berlin ǀ International Performing Arts Center.
Blanche (with Sabrina Strehl) was premiered in Holzmarkt and since was performed also in Tel Aviv and in Sydney. In 2015 he received the Arbeits- und Recherchestipendium der Senatkanzlei Berlin for Der polnische Messias Jakob Frank, a performance in the making.

Studied theater arts, philosophy and sociology. At the same time, she held her first positions as an assistant director and assistant to festival director Marie Zimmermann at the international theater festival “Theaterformen” (Hannover/Braunschweig). She has worked as a freelance director and writer since 2002 and in 2007 co-founded and became Artistic Director of the independent Berlin theater company spreeagenten. She directed several national and international, multilingual productions for spreeagenten (coproductions with Romania, Czech Republic, Serbia). She also directed at city and state theaters all over germany and in Czech Republic (Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Staatstheater Hannover, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Theater Osnabrück, Theater Magdeburg, Theater Letí, Prag). As a writer she works for theater and film.
Between 2007 and 2009 Susanne Chrudina was cofounder and board member of LAFT Berlin – Berlin State Association for the Independent Performing Arts e.V.. Besides her artistic work she is since 2016 working as Program Coordinator for the Performing Arts Festival Berlin.

AGENTUR FÜR ANERKENNUNG is a performance company as well as a platform for social recognition. Next to literary and theoretical texts we particularly focus on personal experiences of the participating artists. We condense their stories to dramatic scenes, and by adding comments, songs and various stage actions we develop an adequate form for each of our topics. Through this personal approach we invite our audience to engage in our questioning of the present and the future.

The academy "On the road", initiated and conceived by the Federal Association for the Independent Performing Arts (BFDK), drives the qualification and professionalization of actors of the independent performing arts and the networking of the actors at the federal level and deals in detail with the needs of the different federal state associations.

Amr Karkout is a dancer from Syria. His dance lives from his openness and curiosity for new ways of expression and his rich experience in Contemporary Dance.

Ana Mendes studied animation film in France, photography at Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany and Performance at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK. Her performance career started accidentally when she wrote Self-portrait, a play on her identity. Her work has been exhibited at MAC, Belfast, Ireland; Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, USA; Sophiensaele, Berlin, Germany; Peter Robertson Gallery, Alberta, Canada; Kunstraum Niedereosterreich, Vienna, Austria.
Selected prizes and fellowships include: MAC International Ulster Bank Prize, MAC, Ireland (finalist); Fellowship Akademie Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany, 2016/17, Writer in Residency City of Vienna 2014, Kulturkontakt Austria; Prize of the Jury Sophiensale, Festival 100º Berlin 2013; Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian Fellowship 2010.

Anna-Lise Hearn is a dance artist, teacher and award winning choreographer from London UK now based in Berlin. She has choreographed and produced many collaborative projects and commissions; commercially and artistically. Her work is deeply rooted in collaboration. She has an open curiosity to the creative process, and a deep fascination with the exploration of the body, as a tool for communication and artistic expression.

Aurora Kellermann was educated in acting and theatre science in Rome. 2007 she moved to Berlin where she has been involved in many different projects in the official and in the free scene. Her work questions the distribution of power and its dynamics, where her interest concentrates on the outskirts of society. 2012 - 2013 she produced together with the Ballhaus Ost and with a grant from Italian Ministery of Culture the documentary performance about sex work WHAT’S LEFT OF. Since November 2014 she is the artistic director, in team with Chris Wohlrab, of TATWERK | Performative Forschung. 2016 she starts her new project mixed_me, which has been premiered in November 2016 at Südufer (Freiburg).

Lea Barletti and Werner Waas met each other many years ago in Rome. Since that time they live and work together: first in Rome, then in Munich, later in Lecce and now in Berlin. Together they have made several plays and two children.

The Berlin Summer University of the Arts, located within the Berlin Career College at the Berlin University of the Arts offers an exciting and artistically diverse schedule of 3-day to 7-day workshops between June 16 and October 11, 2017 that cover all artistic disciplines that are part of the Berlin University of the Arts – from visual art to design, music and the performing arts. Over 300 participants from more than 30 different countries will be guests of the program and create a unique atmosphere in which artistic exchange and networking are as much a part of the focus as the development of new horizons. In this information event, the schedule of programming with specific offers in the field of the performing arts will be presented.

Bernadette La Hengt is the former singer and guitarist of the band Die Braut haut ins Auge. She has worked as a solo artist since 2000 and has released five albums featuring electronic pop chansons with political content. Her (music) theater work has been presented since the middle of the 2000s on various stages, including Sophiensæle Berlin, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, FFT Düsseldorf, Theater Freiburg and Thalia Theater Hamburg.

The Berlin performer Bridge Markland is a virtuoso of role change and transformation. She is an artist who effortlessly crosses boundaries between dance, theatre, cabaret, gender performance, childrens and puppet theatre.
Her specialtiy are one-woman-lip-sync shows of classical German theatre pieces using pop music and puppets. Faust I/Goethe, The Robbers/Schiller, Leonce and Lena/Büchner.
With her incredible talent for transformation she performs all the roles, sometimes as hu-man being sometimes as puppet. She edits the texts and enhances and contrasts them with the fitting pop music snippets. Her performances delight people of all ages starting at 13 years old and have been toured in Germany, Europe, Canada, USA and Australia.

Der Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste (The German Association of Independent Performing Arts) is the federal umbrella organisation of all state associations for professional independent performing arts in Germany. Founded in 1990, it is today one of the largest theatre associations in the country.

On a federal level, the association represents the interests of around 1.500 members nationwide – individual artists, groups, dance and theatre venues, and production structures. Altogether, the association thus represents circa 20.000 dance and theatre makers across Germany.

»[…] burgund t brandt is not. is process. is question. is suspicion. is relation. is performance. […]«

Caramel Mafia became a DJ after making a start as a party animal with a detour into radio moderation. With his mix of R&B, hip-hop, afrobeats, trap and a dash of electro, he was named DJ of the month by the city magazines Siegessäule and Kaltblut and played during the 50th birthday part of the electroclash legend Peaches.

The cie. toula limnaios was founded in 1996 by the choreographer Toula Limnaios and the composer Ralf R. Ollertz. Thanks to the lean, but highly effective structure and international co-productions, the company, which has been institutionally supported since 2014, continuously ensures the high quality of its ensemble work and belongs nowadays to one of the most successful dance companies in Germany. It tours worldwide as a German Dance Ambassador of the Goethe Institute and the Federal Foreign Office. The choreographic method of the company strives for an imbuement of movement in order to make a personal and emotional core glow. The cie. toula limanios presents dance, which keenly, critically and bravely takes a stand for mankind, made by and for humans.

ANDERPLATZ (Germany, Italy, Argentina, USA, Spain) is an international collective of multi-disciplinary artists based in Berlin, who navigate the space between dance, theater and music, some of them performing and directing with companies such as Familie Flöz, Blue Man Group and Faizal Zeghoudi. They embrace the collision of their varying artistic experiences as vehemently as they do their divergent cultural backgrounds.
In ANDERPLATZ the material is generated by the entire group.
DETACHED, directed by Valentina Bordenave and Natasha Nixon, is their premiere.

ANDERPLATZ are: Irene Fas Fita, Javier Ferrer Machín, Clara Gracia, Valentina Bordenave, Marina Rodriguez, Patrick Rupar, Laura de Arcos, Filippo Serra and Piet Starrett.

Compagnie des Wanderers is a theatre company led by three argentinian directors in three different cities: Federico Schwindt in Berlin, Valeria Urigu in Paris and Denise Cobello in Buenos Aires. The Wanderer meet after long distance preparation periods for intensive residencies in one location, bringing together the elements to create all sorts of performances, from music-theater, to documentary or text-based shows.
The company seeks to produce performances that are born from the interactions and shared knowledge of their members while empowering themselves through one common label and economic fund. Their diverse artistic backgrounds allow them to question themselves and explore new theatrical languages with every show; this aesthetical research is the essential part of their work.

The Berlin and Hamburg based costa compagnie was founded by Felix Meyer-Christian as an open collaboration of interdisciplinary working emerging artists. Their latest works combine documentary, performative and choreographic methods and where invited to the IMPULSE-Festival, the Koerber Studio Junge Regie and other venues and galleries in Germany, Israel, Austria and the United States. The focus of several works has been global transformational processes and the human within. COSTA CIE. thus conducts interviews and collects audio- and video-footage on-site, such as in Afghanistan, the USA, Israel, Russia, Fukushima/Japan and the Lebanon. All members also work in other contexts and sometimes a production includes 2 or 3 and sometimes up to 15 artists.

dorisdean is an independent mix-abled performance company from North Rhine-Westphalia that has created performances since 2011 examining different questions pertaining to human coexistence, communication and the unease in direct interaction. In doing so, the attention is always placed on the defect, the imperfect in/about human beings and the stigma. The group attempts to shift the perceptions of the audience and the members of the group and offers itself up for discussion in exactly the same way.

All GANG members are active in the alternative dance scene in Berlin. The "Performomat" laboratories organized by impro-per-arts and the Impro-Lab laboratories organised by Imprevú have been hubs inspiring their artistic collaboration.
The Gang-ers share a curiosity for overstepping the boundaries of traditional dance and ongoing research in fields such as somatic practices, instant composition, intermediality and the nature of performance and its relationship with the audience.

Hendrik Quast and Maika Knoblich create happenings and actions as a duo whose dramaturgy brings together spatial situations, everyday expertise and the real time of the performance. They work regular at numerous venues, including Sophiensæle Berlin, Künsterlhaus Mousonturm and FFT Düsseldorf.

Henna-Elise Ventovirta is dance-artist, pedagogue and activist in Berlin. She passionate about researching what makes people, groups, ideas and societies move. For Henna-Elise moving is a way of articulating both the inner and outer existence – themes she finds important in this complex and ever-unfolding ecosystem we are living in. Henna-Elise believes in the transformative force of movement: Movement has the potential of changing us, the spaces and people around us.

Hilla Steinert shifts between dance and performance art. She started her dance studies 1978. In the mid 80s she got involved with performance art. Since 1989 she established herself as a freelance artist in Berlin. She creates her own work, performs in the work of others and teaches internationally.

The performance collective Interrobang, consisting of Till Müller-Klug, Nina Tecklenburg, Lajos Talamonti and guests, develops new performative forms. In theatrical installations participatory setting, and sound play, spectators can experience communication models performatively. From 2012-14, together with the Sophiensælen, they received the Double Pass Fund from the Federal Cultural Foundation, with which they realized “Preenactments”, a series of performative proposals for the future. Their production “Callcenter Übermorgen” was invited to the Heidelberger Stückemarkt in 2015.

Four syrian refugees, one german high school graduate, one palestinian and one german director and a estnian visual artist have met together to work on a play for the children in the refugees hostels. An experiment.

Katherine Leung is a choreographer, designer and performance maker. She has extensive experience in back stage, working in original productions from start to finish; these include design, producing and movement directing. Her work utilises both dance and design as mediums for performance making, to investigate and challenge the reception of themes and concepts.

Keegan Luttrell is a multi-media artist living and working in Berlin. She completed her MFA in sculpture at Mills College in Oakland, California in 2013. She graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008 with a BFA in Art History, Theory and Criticism and a concentration in Photography. She has shown works in San Francisco, Oakland, Brooklyn, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Aix-en-Provence, France, Geneva, Switzerland, Berlin, Germany and Athens and Santorini, Greece.

KOLONASTIX- theatre for children and young people - was founded by Florentine Schara, Juliane Torhorst and Angela Hundsorfer in 2010. Our first production,„the fearsome Five“, was based on a graphic novel by Wolf Erlbruch, followed by „the little Ghost“(2013) and „Max and Moritz“ (2016).
Each production is devised and directed collectively by the artists involved.
With everyone of us working in a variety of fields of the performing arts the collective unites actors, directors, choreographers, musicians and performance designers.
With our work we aim to encourage children to question the given authorities and to stand up for their rights and needs.
KOLONASTIX produces theatre FOR children - the kind of theatre that takes them seriously and yet is fun to watch for children and adults.

Liz Erber creates original, body-based dance and theater performances for stage, site-specific locations and film. Her performance work ranges form pure contemporary dance to original plays incorporating dance, theater, live music, video, and audience interaction; from street dance to the integration of historical forms of dance; from working with professional performers to integrating non-professionals, and groups, like youth from the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe in Washington state (2006). In addition, she enjoys collaborating with people from different fields, disciplines, and walks of life. One of her main interests in creating work is to draw new and unexpected connections between people, themes and genres. Working with juxtaposition creates new insights about ourselves, others and our environment, as well as laughter.
Liz, originally from the United States, has been living and working in Berlin since the middle of 2008. Her work has been shown at a variety of venues in Berlin, including English Theater Berlin (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016), Sophiensaele (2014), ada Studio (2010, 2011, 2013), Tanzfabrik (2010, 2013), K77 Studio (2009, 2011-16), Eden*****Studios (2014), amongst others. 
Liz holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance (2005, University of Washington), a bachelor of arts in Theater Performance, Theory and Production (2005, University of Washington), a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts (chemistry major with a language certificate in French), a Certificate in Laban Movement Analysis (CLMA) and Somatic Education (2011-15, Eurolab, Berlin), and is a classically trained violinist. Since 2000, she has worked part-time in the fields of publishing, writing, editing and translation (Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese).

Daniela Marcozzi is a freelance performer, theater director, educator and researcher based in Berlin since 2013.
Her creations are characterized by different poetic languages (body expression, voice work, spoken text, text and movement improvisation) outdoing the performative categories and reaching her own special expression.
Since 2013 Daniela has collaborated with many artists (Louis De Cicco, composer – musician, Peter Rose – theater director, performer; Christina Kyriazidi – playwriter, actress; Sara Kuster, Dancer; Angelika Liddel – theater director, performer etc.) to create physical theater performances: RIGHT ON!, INSITU, Elefantinho, LIGHTBEAT, Watermouth, etc.

Maren Kames was born in 1984 in Überlingen am Bodensee and studied cultural studies, philosophy and theater studies in Tübingen and Leipzig and then at the Institute for Literary Writing in Hildesheim. Her texts play with various literary registers and she prefers to describe them using musical vocabulary such as rhythm, dynamics and tone instead of with classic genres. She has produced her texts as live radio plays, sound performances and installation at many venues, including Berlin’s House of World Cultures, Galerie König and most recently at Literaturhaus Stuttgart as a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude. Halb Taube Halb Pfau (Half Dove Half Peacock) is her debut and was published in 2016 by Secession Verlag für Literature.

Martin Clausen’s collaboration with the musicians Doc Schoko, his brother Mario Schulte and Harald Wissler is entering its sixth year. Martin Clausen und Peter Trabner can now look back at a 15-year collaboration, reaching back to the beginnings of Clausen’s first performances, which started them on their professional lives with TWO FISH. Both of them deal in different ways with improvisation, Peter Trabner in street theatre as well as in newer, improvised film formats, for instance with director Axel Ranisch. Rahel Savoldelli, whose work in socio-cultural projects at Jobact has brought her into contact with laypeople of all colours, is also active in the social muscle clubs. In addition to the outside eye of Werner Waas, a theatre director with a longstanding career, above all with greats from the Italian theatre, “Come Together” also includes collaboration with a former TWO FISH colleague, Javier Aléman, a Spanish dancer, choreographer and actor, working as a coach for choreographic elements and the connection between acting and elements of movement. In its collaboration with the costume designers Anna-Lisa Kentner and Malena Malena Modèer, the stage designer, Nestroy prize winner and visual artist Ivan Bazak – Karpatentheater as well as with the light designer Benjamin Schälike, the production and PR firm björn & björn and HAU Hebbel am Ufer, the group is pursuing the principle of a long-term, constant and faithful collaboration.

Melanie Jame Wolf makes work under the name Savage Amusement, sometimes solo, sometimes with friends. This work is always performance based, often invites participation, and increasingly incorporates video and the screen as performance objects or spaces. Melanie Jame makes work about love, gender, economies, and ghosts of many forms. She has presented work in various contexts including: Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art; NGBK; Münchner Kammerspiele; HAU - Hebbel Am Ufer; Sophiensæle; Hitparaden Festival of Performance Art & New Theatre; & FOLA – Festival of Live Art

Merlin Puppet Theatre was founded in 1995 in Athens, Greece. They’ve run hundreds of performances , including workshops on puppet creation and play.
They’ve participated in festivals, exhibitions, conferences and educational seminars. They’ve co-operated with a number of performing artists such The Tiger Lillies, Dirty Granny Tales and Opera Chaotique. They are members of the Greek Puppet Center of UNIMA .
Merlin Puppet Theatre lives and works in Berlin.

Possible World is an inclusive theatre group located in Berlin. Made up of deaf, hearing impaired and hearing actors and teenagers. We work through inclusive working methods and on an inclusive form of theatre. We rehearse and play in sign language and the spoken voice. Our current production “The Deaf Time Tunnel” is a controversial Lecture Performance about the history of the Deaf and hearing impaired in Germany.

MS Schrittmacher was founded in Berlin in 1998. From the beginning the dance/perfomance group grasped itself as a pool of free artists whereby choreograph Martin Stiefermann succeeded in giving the company a unique artistic identity.
In the past years MS Schrittmacher has made a name for itself with very different pieces and formats. Thereby the group questions constantly the classical situation of the spectator and looks for new perspectives for the audience.
Next to their stage plays MS Schrittmacher went more and more into the public space with their research and performance formats. On their consequent search for the gro-tesque in the real the group is standing for a socio-political debate that always intervenes in people’s direct experience.

multicultural city is an international collective of artists, which was founded by Monika Dobrowlanska in September 2012. We are looking for an artistic involvement with the living situation of social marginal and minority groups. We are inspired by the location of Berlin as multicultural metropolis. We claim that different religions, skin colours and worldviews belong to Germany. We want to support mutual understanding, tolerance and respect through dealing with prejudices and stereotypes. We explore and develop experimental stage varieties which result from the encounter of different cultures and arts. The first premiere of multicultural city „Displaced Women“ took place on the 22th of Mai 2013 at the Maxim Gorki Theater.

Nazis & Goldmund sees itself as a multi-headed, poetological monster that critically observes the developments and actions of the right-wing in Europe and their international alliances while examining and attacking their narrative and intervention strategies. The initiators and performers are: Jörg Albrecht, Thomas Arzt, Sandra Gugic, Thomas Köck and Gerhild Steinbuch.

BERLIN’S FOURTH OPERA HOUSE is unique in the diverse cultural scene of the capital. Who else could look back on a productivity of 160 world premieres and debut performances in all genres in only 38 years? The NO is market leader and trademark for a vital, committed, and “deviced” musical theatre – opera is more than new productions of a known and limited repertory to which a few new commissioned works are occasionally added. The NO is living proof that musical theatre can and needs to be self-made in order to bring our own life experience and subject-matters onto the stage, thus making mutual experience and exchange possible.

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p.u.r.e is an interdisciplinary collective focussing since August 2015 on the concept of urban ecology of sound and movement.
We perceive the city as a performative process in which we are all taking part. The urban space is being produced by these performative acts.
We are interested in uncovering a complex system of ephemeral relationships between structures and actions. From there the improvisation can unfold, oscillating between cognition and creation. Led by the question “How does the city shape us?” and “How do we shape the city?” we keep developing minimalistic aesthetics of urban performance. Our explorations – the perfomative city walks – are open it to external participants.

PAUL is a collective for performing artists by performing artists. PAUL is a place for artistic exchange, a place for collaboration, and a place for community. PAUL is the conglomeration of Vera, Elena, Zahra, and Jojo, four performing artists who support one another in their work and have created this platform together. PAUL is collectively run, without hierarchies. Together we strive for the same concepts and goals.

The Performing Arts Festival team consists of young and experienced artists, festival designers, organizers, editors, publicists and more…it is definitely worth taking a look at their individual biographies – many members of the team are also active as members of Berlin’s independent performing arts community.

Together, we shape this festival from work created within Berlin’s independent performing arts community and offer the festival for Berlin’s independent performing arts community.

You can meet us personally during the festival – we look forward to it!

The LAFT Berlin Performing Arts Program is intended for all independent theater and dance makers in Berlin. We work in four areas to professionalize the independent performing arts, strengthen their infrastructural support and increase their visibility. All offers of the program are free of charge and are specifically oriented to the circumstances and needs of the members of the community.
The Performing Arts Program is supported by the State of Berlin - Senate Department for Culture and Europe from funds of the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRE) within the program "Promoting the Innovation Potential in Culture II (INP II)" and the European Social Fund (ESF) within the program "Qualification in the Culture Industry (KuWiQ)".
You can find a detailed schedule of events and more information at www.pap-berlin.de.

Phinsterbush (formerly: Nadine and the Prussians) are Nadine Finsterbusch and Bruno Bauch. Their first album, Magnets, was produced by Ramin Bijan (die Türen, der Mann, the Burning Hell, Chuckamuck).

Phyla was founded by Jennie Zimmermann and Gisbert Schürig in 2014, serving as a platform for their activities in music and performance. In cooperation with Vincenz Kokot, thea concentrate on the further developement of Minimal Improvisation, preferably working with voice and movement, electronics, guitar and ukulele.

Alida Breitag, David Czesienski, Robert Hartmann, Holle Münster and Tim Tonndorf form the collective deliberation plant PRINZIP GONZO. Since 2010 they try to offer a platform for meaningful exchange in reply to a theatre scene often ruled by unproductive, competitive pressure. The members of the group work in various teams within the collective and realize productions in the independent scene as well as at municipal and state theatres. With "SPIEL DES LEBENS" (2014) PRINZIP GONZO invented sandbox-game-theatre in cooperation with BALLHAUS OST, a theatrical open-world-simulation, its concept of playing will be further explored and developed within upcoming projects.

An Academy for Producers in the Independent Performing Arts
Bündnis internationaler Produktionshäuser e.V. is developing an academy: production managers, producers, company managers…there are a large number of names for a profession that has become absolutely essential for producing within the independent performing arts and yet lacks both a clear professional designation as well as a training program. Which competencies besides organization, administration and accounting are critical and what constitutes a good collaboration within the triangle between artist, production house and independent producer?
The academy is intended for mid-career producers/production managers and, alongside the communication of competencies for producing within an international context, will be primarily dedicated to reflection on the role of the independent producer as a partner to the artist as well as research into working models for space.

ProtokollB is a performers’ collective, which started in early 2016 in Berlin. The main team of ProtokollB works on all projects with artists and performers of all kinds and nationalities. We produce productions in a wide variety – plays, performances, readings, short films – but organise network parties, workshops, showreels and trainings as well.
We work together with directors, actors, filmmakers, photographers, sound studios and broaden our horizons and our network with each new project. The main goal of ProtokollB is to build a large network and to create a platform where fellow performers can develop projects and share knowledge. At the moment we have 400 performers in our network.

Sabrina Strehl works as a freelancer in the film and theatre business in Berlin.
Her studies at the Academy for music and theatre in Munich from 2000-2004 were followed by several engagements at german thaetres.
Since 2011 she has been realising her own projects. Her first work as a writer, producer and performer was the solo „Missing Alice“ in which she combines different styles of expression such as video, puppet show and acting.
„Blanche“ is another attempt to deal wih the situation of being „alone on stage“ by involving the audience as a partner in the play.

Sanierte Altbauen was founded in Hildesheim by Eva Hintermaier and Sarah Kindermann. The duo develops theatrical performances, as well as room and video installations and usually takes up one core topic over several projects.

Intersectional feminism is a constant theme of their work. Furthermore, a key element is the relationship between them not just as performers, but as friends. Through theatrical tools, arising questions and conflicts become intertwined with the creative process.

Since 2016 Sanierte Altbauten participates in the Mentoring Program of the Berlin-based Performing Arts Programm. Their next work will be staged at Ballhaus Ost Berlin in march 2018.

Sasha Waltz & Guests was founded by Sasha Waltz and Jochen Sandig in Berlin in 1993. More than 300 artists/ensembles have collaborated on over 80 productions. Sasha Waltz & Guests works in an international and constantly evolving network of production and guest performance partners, showing parts of its current repertoire of 20 pieces in about 70 performances around the globe each year. In Berlin, the company cooperates with municipal theatres, opera houses and museums and has contributed to the establishing of innovative production sites for artistic dialogue. For its anniversary year 2013 the company has been named »European Cultural Ambassador« by the European Union. Most recently Sasha Waltz & Guests was awarded the »george tabori ehrenpreis« 2014 by Fonds Darstellende Künste.

Shlomi Moto Wagner has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world: amongst others, he has performed with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra IBA and the Rishon Lezion Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, he recorded with the Deutschen Filmorchester Babelsberg (the German Film Orchestra in Babelsburg). He lives in Berlin and works with numerous opera ensembles and experimental theater makers. He is the founder of House of Mazeltov, a drag performance group, with which he explores the performative limits of voice, gender, tradition and identity.

“Sisyphos, der Flugelefant” (SdF) is an independent production group, founded and led by the director Chang Nai Wen in Berlin. With a wide range of projects from theater and site-specific performances to Live Art, from documentary films to sound-space-video Installations, SdF's working principles have been direct, interactive and collaborative. At various venues in cities such as Berlin, Leipzig, Feldkirch, New York, Rome or Taipei, SdF has created all kinds of immersive “playgrounds” that enable communication between performers and spectators and among audience members and generate dialogue about important yet rarely talked about social and political issues.

Sven Seeger works as a choreographer, project initiator, and dancer He createes dance and performance works in Berlin’s independent, “freie Szene”, in theaters and public spaces. He is a dance and performance instructor, as well as a project director, in various dance and culture houses. Since May 2015 Sven is a member of the directing team at Gärtnerie and directs projects at Schlesischen 27 for refugees and members of the neighborhood.
Sven studied dance at the Ballet Rambert School in London and the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. He was there after involved with the Ismael Ivo Company / DNT Weimar, the Ballett Company Chemnitz as well as with Julie Bougard, Isabelle Schad, Jochen Roller, Felix Ruckert, Daniela Kurz, Paulo Castro and Susanne Lietzow, amongst others.
Sven Seeger’s works have been presented in various locations including ARCUB Bukarest, DNT Weimar, De Vorst Tilburg, Sophiensäle Berlin, Dock11 Berlin, Voxxx Chemnitz, C.C. Jaques Franck Brüssel, Dance Kiosk Hamburg, Podium for New Dance Potsdam, Rote Fabrik Zürich and as part of the Cultural City of Europe 99 in Weimar.

TEATUR – founded by Nadine Giese and Zettelmann 2013 in Berlin – works between performance, physical theatre and object theatre. Minus Taurus is the first common piece.

Theater o.N. is an almost 40-year old association of artists and managers. Founded in 1979 / 80, it was the first independent theater in the former GDR. Then known as Zinnober the group developed groundbreaking productions like “traumhaft” (1985) and “Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten” (1986). Nowadays the theatre is focusing on two core areas: in the field of theater for children and young people they are exploring and furthering the still emerging genre of theater for audiences 2 years and up. Since 2013 the company present biannual the Festival FRATZ International. The other focus is to create theater with children and young people in culturally disadvantaged areas. In their program for adults, the company is using the methods of biographical theater and puppet theater.

A privately run theatre, we have been able to establish ourselves within Berlin’s extremely dynamic theatre scene as one oft he region’s leading theatres for young audiences.
Since starting out in 1987, we have entertained some 500.000 people with over 2.500 performances, including 40 premieres.
Our audiences span all nationalities und cultures, religions, genders, sexualities, ages, and whatever other grouping or identities there are.

Theater Thikwa is one of the outstanding integrative theaters in the German-speaking world. These pioneers of inclusion celebrated their 25-year anniversary in 2016. Artists with and without officially recognized disabilities create dance and spoken-word performances in which comedy meets the experimental. The foundation of this "miracle of stage" (newspaper „Der Tagesspiegel“) is the first training center in Germany where the performing and visual arts can be chosen as a profession within a workshop for the differently-abled. Theater Thikwa engages to a very large extent with the particular personalities of its ensemble members. Adequate forms for the artistic expression are sought and developed. Thikwa is in constant touch with all kind of artists. Artistic exchange is being on continuously in Germany as well as internationally by collaboration, co-producing and intercultural projects. Thikwa is also regularly invited to festivals, one-off performances, workshops and conferences throughout the world.

Vera Hüller, in Berlin since 1984, studied literature, theatre, theatre education and acting, and since then has been involved in various productions in different roles. As a stage director she develops pieces with everyday life experts on societal issues, in this case the topic of shame. Damit hab ich nichts zu tun - Perlen der Scham integrates research results (Stefan Marks, Brené Brown), interviews and biographical material. With Susanne Grandel, Michaela Günther, Claudia Hafner, Susanna Quandt This is the third production of the women’s ensemble, which presented 9 Frauen – 3 Schwestern after Chekhov and x-Prinzessinnen – Wut, Witz, Wahnsinn based on Jelinek’s Princess Dramas in 2013 and 2015.

Established in 1999, unitedOFFproductions has produced works in the field of theatre, radio plays, the performing arts and video. The primary focus of the company is towards the development of performances for the stage under the artistic direction of Dieter Krockauer (director) and Eneko Sanz (manager, performer). The creative outcomes of the work are further explored through their adaption for various mediums such as radio, live performance and film. With 30-50 shows per year, the international group consisting of members from Spain, Italy, Romania, Greece and Germany discuss on stage problems related to globalization, working and living conditions, and the cultural identity of the young Europeans.

Created in the summer of 2016, the company was formed to realise the theatre piece, Netze. Powerful, uncompromising, sad and touching images take the audience on an emotional and abstract experience of actual life-realities in our close environment. The ensemble is concerned with the aesthetic telling of stories whilst preserving the dignity of the women, whose destinies are negotiated on the stage.

Antonio Villella is actor und stage-director. 2008 he founded the free company "Crab". With his collegues he created his own performces. He acted and stage-managed pieces of Beckett, Kafka, Shakespeare and Lasker-Schüler and productions for children. His last productions were developed with Bruno Franceschini, kooklabelberlin, ConiglioViola and RaumlaborBerlin. He worked with the height-acrobatic-group "Sonics" and the company Tardito/Redina. Since 2015 he specialized in physical theatre and comedy without words.

ZIRKUSMARIA specializes in children's theater performance for viewers aged 2+. The disclosure of artistic processes on stage for the youngest is characterestic for the work of ZIRKUSMARIA. The projects are build on the experiences of the world oft the children, show ideas, may not known by the kids, irritate them productivly and create new ways of looking at their own world. ZIRKUSMARIA offers children the opportunity to look at their own problems with a little help of art and encourages them to discover the beauty of an imperfect world.