Mentors and guest speakers

During their participation they not only acted as lecturers, but also as true mentors as they engaged in one-on-one discussions with the participants. They were present for multiple days, some for the whole period of the training. They allowed participants an honest and open insight into their careers, including both success stories and failures. You can have a look at the list of experts present during previous edition here.

You can find a list of the experts for Atelier Düsseldorf/Theater der Welt below.

Playwright, project manager at Sustaining Theatre and Dance (STAND) Festival – South Africa [online]

Mike van Graan, founder of the African Cultural Policy Network, has served in leadership positions in a variety of anti-apartheid cultural organisations such as the Congress of South African Writers and the National Arts Coalition of South Africa. He is also an award-winning playwright, who has written thirty plays to this date. He was appointed as Artscape’s Associate Playwright from 2011-2014 and is considered one of South Africa’s leading contemporary playwrights.

He is the 2018 recipient of the Sweden-based Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture Award in recognition of his contribution to the fight against apartheid, building a post-apartheid society, and the interface of peace and culture both in South Africa and across the African continent.

You can read his full bio here.

Artistic Director at Reykjavik Festival – Iceland [in person]

Vigdis Jakobsdottir is an Icelandic theatre director and educator and has been Artistic Director and CEO of Reykjavik Arts Festival since 2016. The multidisciplinary festival is the leading arts festival in Iceland and has been running since 1970.

Vigdis is passionate about the ability of the arts to challenge conceptions, shape society and celebrate humanity. She feels strongly that access to the arts should not be reserved for the privileged few but should be accessible to all. Throughout her practice as theatre director, educator and festival director she continuously explores ways to reach out to an ever broader audience demographic through meaningful artistic exchanges.

Before Reykjavik Arts Festival Vigdis directed performances at the National Theatre of Iceland and with numerous independent theatre companies. She was Head of Education at the National Theatre of Iceland from 2002-2011 and adjunct and later programme director for MA studies in Theatre Education at the Iceland Academy of the Arts from 2002-2016. She is the founder of Þjóðleikur – The National Youth Theatre festival in Iceland which she led from 2008-2017 and UNGI -an international performing arts festival for young audiences in Reykjavík, (artistic director from 2013-2016).

Vigdis was elected on the executive committee of ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People) in 2011 and was vice president of the association from 2014-2017. In 2021 she was elected honorary member of ASSITEJ.

Vigdis was elected on the executive committee of ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People) in 2011 and was vice president of the association from 2014-2017. In 2021 she was elected honorary member of ASSITEJ. 

Director at Yabous Cultural Centre – Palestine [online]

Director of the Yabous Cultural Centre in Jerusalem, Palestine since 1998, Rania Elias has been dealing with local and international public relations, business management, events management, project coordination and funding. She has been the director of the Jerusalem Festival since 1998, which is the main annual activity of the Yabous Cultural Centre. 18 festivals have been successfully organised over the years. Each festival encompasses a unique theme and vision, which consequently defines the character, the atmosphere and the programme of the festival. The festivals have featured renowned Palestinian, Arab, and international artists.

Rania Elias is on the board of trustees of several organisations and networks, both Palestinian and international. She is a often invited as a speaker for international and local conferences dealing with cultural issues in Palestine.

She contributed to several studies during her work as a Fieldwork Researcher and has been active in voluntary social work involved in dealing with cases of abuse in various human rights issues. Recently she was elected as the Chairperson of Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights.

Rania Elias was the acting Director of the Bethlehem International Festival 1995 – Palestinian Ministry of Culture, and the Administrative Director of Riwaq - Center for Architectural Conservation – Ramallah (1995-1998).

In 2007, she was appointed as a member of the national and executive committee for Al Quds – Capital of Arab Culture 2009 and head of the events committee.

Artistic Director Bayimba Foundation - Uganda [in person]

Faisal Kiwewa (1983) is the founder of Bayimba Cultural Foundation and the Artistic Director of the annual Bayimba International Festival of the Arts (12 editions) as well as DOADOA - East Africa Performing Arts Market (7 editions).

Curator of the Amakula International Film Festival (12 editions) and the Co-Curator of the Kampala International Theatre Festival (5 editions). As a founding Director, together with a skillful team of he has worked hard to transform the arts scene in Uganda from a rather static state to its current level of vibrancy.

During the past years, under his guidance, Bayimba has trained, supported and created numerous platforms to celebrate the arts in Uganda. As such, Bayimba has developed into a house hold name among artists and professionals, not only within Uganda but also within the East African region and other corners around the world.

Initiator and Director of MIT+ at MITsp – São Paulo International Theatre Festival – Brazil [online]

Natália Machiavelli is a multimedia artist, graduated in Audiovisual Arts  from the art Academy “Gerrit Rietveld Academie”, in Amsterdam. She acts professionally in the fields of music, theater and audiovisual. Natália directed the documentary “Troca o Trópico (Northwards)”, shown by main film festivals in the Netherlands, such as the World Cinema Amsterdam, the Nederlands Film Festival, among others. 

She produced and directed the animation "It Trims", first place at the “Curtacom Festival”, 2012. Natália has composed soundtracks for her films and for theater performances. She also created video mappings for productions such as the show “Terra” (2012), by dancer Marina Monteiro and “Gavião de Duas Cabeças” (2016), by Andreia Duarte. In 2016 she was 1st assistant director in the short film “Vazio”, by Giuliano Saade Barrone. In May 2017, she directed the pilot for the series “DDM - Women's Police Station”. In the same year, she did production design for the feature film “Três Reis” (in post production). In August 2019 she toured as a cinegraphist,  with the production of “Guerrilheiras or Para Terra Não Há Desaparecido”, by Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha and Georgette Fadel, through 9 cities of the Midwest and North of Brazil. 

Since 2013, Natália works at the São Paulo International Theater Festival - MITsp, next to Antônio (Tó) Araújo and Guilherme Marques, as International Relations and audiovisual producer.  MITsp won in 2017 , the national Bravo Award for “Best Cultural Event”.

In 2020, Natália Machiavelli opened  the Virtual Platform MIT+, the virtual axes of the São Paulo International Theater Festival.

In 2021, Natália launched her first music album,  entirely authorial, produced by Chico Saraiva and Bruno Buarque, with:  Simone Sou, Yedo Gibson, Ian Gottlieb, Enrique Menezes, Janja Gomes and Thomaz Panza. The creative process of the project was documented and broadcast live through the online platform atraves.tv .

Associate Professor and Head of the Wits School of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, former CEO of the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (Absa KKNK) – South Africa [online]

Brett Pyper is a South African arts, culture and heritage practitioner with over thirty years' experience advancing and studying the country’s cultural-democratic transition in its international contexts. He grew up between Johannesburg and the then Pretoria, where his background as a classical musician informed his efforts to open up programming as a young arts organiser in the final years of the performing arts councils. In the early 1990s, he arranged the first post-exile performances in Tshwane by returning jazz icons as well as showcasing the work of an emerging generation of ‘young lions’. He also worked with singer-songwriters, choirs, Afrikaans counter-cultural artists and colleagues in related performance disciplines including dance and theatre. Based on this work, as a Fulbright scholar, he earned Master’s degrees from Emory University in Atlanta (in Interdisciplinary Studies) and New York University, where he earned his Ph.D. on contemporary jazz culture in South Africa in 2014. He has taught arts, culture and heritage policy and management at Wits, as well as ethnomusicology and popular music studies at Wits and Rhodes Universities. From 2008 to 2013 he was CEO of the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK), a major festival of art, popular and vernacular culture. Currently, he is Head of the Wits School of Arts, where he pursues ongoing research alongside his leadership responsibilities and supervises postgraduate work in music, theatre, dance, heritage and cultural policy. He also serves as a mentor for The Festival Academy, having co-hosted Atelier Johannesburg in 2018 – the first on the African continent. 

Author, one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World (2015), one of Fortune Magazine's World’s 50 Greatest Leaders (2017), member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences - Nigeria/United States of America [online]

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1977. She grew up on the campus of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where her father was a Professor and her mother was the first female Registrar. She studied medicine for a year at Nsukka and then left for the US at the age of 19 to continue her education on a different path.

She graduated summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree in Communication and Political Science.

She has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts degree in African History from Yale University. She was awarded a Hodder fellowship at Princeton University for the 2005-2006 academic year, and a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University for the 2011-2012 academic year. In 2008, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. 

She has received honorary doctorate degrees from Eastern Connecticut State University, Johns Hopkins University, Haverford College, Williams College, the University of Edinburgh, Duke University, Amherst College, Bowdoin College, SOAS University of London, American University, Georgetown University, Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Northwestern University.

Ms. Adichie’s work has been translated into over thirty languages. 

Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), won the Orange Prize. Her 2013 novel Americanah won the US National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013.

She has delivered two landmark TED talks: her 2009 TED Talk The Danger of A Single Story and her 2012 TEDx Euston talk We Should All Be Feminists, which started a worldwide conversation about feminism, and was published as a book in 2014.

Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, was published in March 2017.

Her most recent work, Notes On Grief, an essay about losing her father, has just been published.

She was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015. In 2017, Fortune Magazine named her one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. She is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Ms. Adichie divides her time between the United States and Nigeria, where she leads an annual creative writing workshop.

TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year (2018), photographer, writer and human rights activist, initiator of Chobi Mela International Photography Festival – Bangladesh [online]

Shahidul Alam  obtained a PhD in chemistry from London University, before taking up photography. Returning to his native country Bangladesh in 1984, he campaigned to bring down autocratic general Hussain Muhammad Ershad. In his pursuit of social justice he set up the award winning organisations, Drik, Pathshala and Chobi Mela, through media, education and culture.

His book “My journey as a witness” has been described by John Morris, the legendary picture editor of Life Magazine, as the ‘most important book ever written by a photographer’. A recognised public speaker, Alam has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford and Yale universities. He has been exhibited at MOMA, Tate Modern and Centre Georges Pompidou.

His awards include the Lucie Foundation award considered the Oscars of photography, as well as the Shilpakala Award, the highest cultural award given to Bangladeshi artists. Alam is the only person of colour to have chaired the prestigious international jury of World Press Photo.

He is a visiting professor of Sunderland University and an honorary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. In 2018 he was jailed and tortured for speaking out against his government’s repressive practices

Activist for Justice, Sovereignty and Wellbeing, Director/Choreographer Catalyst, Bessie Awarded winning Choreographer, Guggenheim Fellow and Doris Duke awarded artist - Yup'ik Nation/United States of America [online]

Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work. She is a land and water protector and an activist for justice, sovereignty and well-being. A Bessie Award-winning choreographer, Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award, she is based in Lenapehoking / New York City. Emily is of the Yup’ik Nation, and since 1998 has created work that considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance. Her dances function as portals and care processions, they engage audienceship within and through space, time, and environment- interacting with a place's architecture, peoples, history and role in building futures. Emily is trying to make a world where performance is part of life; where performance is an integral connection to each other, our environment, our stories, our past, present and future.

Director of 32° East Ugandan Arts Trust – Uganda [online]

Teesa Bahana is director of 32° East Ugandan Arts Trust, a not-for-profit that promotes the creation and exploration of contemporary art in Uganda. As director she has supported the development and execution of projects such as KLA ART Labs for research and critical thinking through public practice, the third edition of KLA ART, Kampala's public art festival, and residency exchanges with partners such as Arts Collaboratory, and Triangle Network.

She is also currently overseeing 32° East's capital project, raising funds to build the first purpose-built art centre in Kampala. With an academic background in sociology and anthropology, she is particularly interested in the intersection between art and Ugandan society, and how artistic environments should be protected and nurtured.

Before her directorship at 32° East, she was on the inaugural organisation committee for Nyege Nyege International Music Festival, and worked in communications and external relations for educational non-profits in Rwanda, Burundi and South Africa.

Arts consultant, curator, creative producer, founder of The Art X Company – India [online]

Rashmi Dhanwani is the Founder of the Art X Company, a strategic consultancy for the cultural sector focused on strategy, audience development and sector research.

Prior to founding Art X, Rashmi has worked with NCPA Mumbai, Breakthrough in Delhi, the newspaper Daily News and Analysis (DNA); Kalaghoda Arts Festival, and The Goa Project. 

She holds a Masters in Cultural and Creative Industries from King’s College London. She has also been a recipient of the ARThink South Asia Fellowship (2011-12), a participant fellow at The Academy — a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute’, a scholarship grantee of the JN Tata Trust and Charles Wallace India Trust, and a 2017 Global Fellow of the International Society for Performing Arts (ISPA), New York.

Rashmi has also founded Arts Culture Resources India, a network and platform for cultural professionals in India and South Asia.

Vice-President of ASSITEJ International, Vice-Chair of ASSITEJ Germany, Director at Junges Schauspielhaus – Germany [in person]

Stefan Fischer-Fels, born in 1964 in Berlin. Actor, dramaturg, theaterpedagoge and soccer-coach. Artistic Director of  Grips Theater Berlin 2011-2016; Artistic Director of Junges Schauspiel Düsseldorf 2003-2011 and again since 2016. Stefan Fischer-Fels has been Vicepresident and member of the Board of Assitej 2011-2021.

Dramaturge at D'haus Junges Schauspiel, Equity forum – Germany [in person]

Kirstin Lea Hess is a Dramaturgue at Junges Schauspiel D’haus. She has worked in free Theaterscene Berlin, City theatre in Dresden and Duesseldorf. Here Core Area is theatre for young audiences, which she developes with Ensemble, directing teams and authors, accompanied by audiences. Longterm international Collaborations with theatres in Brasil, Nigeria and Japan are a Focus in questioning and developing theatre.

Performer, Choreographer, Director, Embodiment Facilitator, Community Builder, Leadership Developer, Advocate, Change-maker – Canada [online]

Shannon Litzenberger (she/her) is an award-winning dance artist, embodiment facilitator and experienced cultural leader working at the intersection of art, ideas and transformational change.  

As a dancer and performance maker, her work explores our relationship to land, the politics of belonging, and the forgotten wisdom of the body. She has been an invited resident artist at Soulpepper Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, Atlantic Ballet Theatre, Banff Centre, and the Gros Morne Summer Music Festival. She collaborates frequently with the Dark by Five Inter-arts ensemble and the wind in the leaves collective. 

As a skilled freelance strategist, programmer, leadership developer, policy thinker and embodiment facilitator, she works with leading organizations in the arts, academia, and the corporate sector. She is currently a faculty member at Banff Centre’s Cultural Leadership Program; a Program Associate with CPAMO; a guest facilitator at the Ivey Business School; a Trudeau Foundation Mentor; and a Chalmers Fellow, exploring the relationship between embodiment, leadership and social change. 

Associate Professor and Discipline Leader of the Tourism Discipline Group in the University of Queensland Business School – Australia [online]

Associate Professor Judith Mair is Discipline Leader of the Tourism Discipline Group at the UQ Business School, University of Queensland, Australia.  Her research interests include the impacts of tourism and events on community and society, and consumer behaviour in tourism and events. She is the author of over 50 academic papers in international peer reviewed journals and four books, and is the editor of ‘The Routledge Handbook of Festivals’.

Assistant Curator at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen – Germany [in person]

Florentine Muhry is an academic researcher at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen and curatorial assistant to Isabelle Malz, Catherine Nichols and Eugen Blume for the exhibition Everyone Is an Artist (2021) at K20. She studied history and art history in Graz, Paris, and Vienna. Muhry has worked as a curatorial assistant in the Department of Photography and New Media at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg and at the Halle für Kunst in Lüneburg. She also runs the exhibition space muhry in Hamburg.

Founder of Society in Motion and the New Faces toolkit – Netherlands [online]

Hooman Nassimi (born in Iran, raised in Germany, working in NL) commits to creating an inclusive society through & with newcomers, both locally and globally.  Hooman's vision is to empower newcomers through events and festivals and create social cohesion.

In 2018, the free New Faces toolkit was developed after seeing the enormous benefits of newcomer participation at cultural events. In the last two years, more than 2000 newcomers have directly participated in a variety of roles at the largest venues and festivals in the Netherlands. More and more cultural organizations are embracing this as the standard approach for newcomer inclusion.

Art Culture and Conflict Transformation, IMPACT Leadership Circle – Argentina [online] 

Carmen Olaechea, Argentina, has been working with the Latin American civil society for over 32 years, in NGOs, networks and in an international donor foundation. Her responsibilities have included: the design, development and supervision of projects and programs; knowledge and risk management and the promotion of networks. She has developed conceptual and strategic frameworks; led institutional change processes; designed and implemented collaborative learning architectures; evaluated local and international projects and managed risks at both operational and strategic levels.

 Her publications include two co-authored books on art and social transformation, and three children’s books. Carmen is chairwoman of Fundación Cambio Democrático, an NGO specialized in dialogue and conflict transformation, member of the advisory board of Crear Vale La Pena, a leading Latin-American NGO in the field of arts for social transformation and co-responsible for Learning Exchanges actions in IMPACT: platform for Art, Culture and Conflict Transformation (ACCT) a worldwide, values-driven collaboration to design and activate strategies to strengthen the ACCT ecosystem and a member of ITAC knowledge sharing & digital learning Advisory Committee. 

 In addition, Carmen offers in Argentina, Spain, and Latin-American countries workshops on art and social transformation, sustainability and on how to respond to a paradigm shift. Also works as an independent advisor to individuals, social, and business leaders and their organizations, helping them integrate new perspectives in their thinking and action. As expert in sustainability she accompany individuals, organizations and schools in the development of programs for their transformation processes towards sustainability. 

 http://www.cambiodemocratico.org/

https://www.crearvalelapena.org.ar/

https://www.brandeis.edu/ethics/peacebuildingarts/impact/

 Executive Director at Ladima Foundation – Nigeria [online]

Edima Otuokon is an experienced communications specialist, creative sector reform expert and humanitarian and conflict analyst with over 25 years’ experience.  In the last decade, she co-founded the Ladima Foundation, a not for profit organisation established with the aim of contributing to correcting the major gender imbalances within the film, TV and content industries across Africa. Through training and networking programmes, Ladima uplifts, connects and includes.  Ladima operates in the spirit of positivity, excellence and integrity.

Across Africa, Edima has worked in the Creative Sector, providing advisory and programme management services to organisations such as the Afrieximbank, DW Akademie, DISCOP Markets, Zanzibar International Film Festival, Cape Town International Film Festival, and Nairobi Film Market.

Director of Cultural Leadership at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity – Canada [online]

Diane Ragsdale is a speaker, writer, researcher, lecturer, and advisor on a range of arts and culture topics. She is currently serving as Director of the Cultural Leadership Program at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity and is adjunct faculty at Yale University where she teaches an annual workshop series on Aesthetic Values in a Changed Cultural Context for the Theater Management MFA. Among other roles, Diane previously built an MA in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship for performance-based artists at The New School in Manhattan; served as a program officer for theater and dance at The Mellon Foundation; was managing director of the contemporary performing arts center, On the Boards; and ran a music festival in the beautiful North Idaho town of Sandpoint. Diane is currently a doctoral candidate at Erasmus University, Rotterdam; she holds an MFA in Acting & Directing from University of Missouri - Kansas City and a BS in Psychology and BFA in Theater from Tulane University. She writes the blog, Jumper which is published on ArtsJournal.com and she recently penned the essay, “To What End Permanence?” for the 2019 Haymarket published book, A Moment on the Clock of the World. 

Director of ITI Germany – Germany

Thomas Engel obtained PhD in Theatre Studies from the Humboldt-Universität Berlin in 1988. Between 1983 and 1992, he worked as a dramaturge at German municipal theatres. From 1988 to 1990, he was Assistant Director of the German center of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) in German Democratic Republic, and between 1992 and 2003 Assistant Director of the ITI centre of the German Federal Republic. He was project manager for several national and international projects of the ITI, and editor of ITI’s publications. Since 2003, he has been Managing Director of the German ITI. He represents the German ITI in national and international organizations and networks of theatre, culture politics and performing arts. 

Member of ITI Germany board, Head of Programme, Stiftung Humboldt Forum, Berlin – Germany

Jan Linders, born in Hamburg, studied German Literature and Philosophy in Hamburg and at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Internships with and assistant to George Tabori, Robert Wilson, Heiner Müller, Achim Freyer. Theatre work as dramaturg for drama, experimental performance, musical theatre, digital theatre etc.. International collaborations with Brazil, France, Georgia, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, Thailand. Vice-President of the European Theatre Convention 2013-2019. Member of the board of the ITI-Germany since 2018. Currently head of programme, Humboldt Forum, Berlin.

Artistic Director at Thalia Theater Hamburg, President of the German department of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) – Germany

Born in Münster in 1957, Joachim Lux studied German and History at the Universities of Münster and Tübingen from 1976 to 1982 and directed theatre and music festivals there. From 1984 to 1999 he worked as a dramaturg, chief dramaturg and director in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Bremen. From 1999 to 2009 he spent ten years as part of the team of Artistic Directors at the Vienna Burgtheater, initially as a dramaturg, and later as a chief dramaturg. Many of the productions he has been involved with have been invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen. Joachim Lux holds various lectureships (Max Reinhardt Seminar, Vienna; Goethe Institute, Bogota/Columbia), works for the Salzburg Festspielen and has been appointed to various judging panels (‘Impulse’ Festival at the Off-Theater, ‘Stückemarkt’ at the Berlin Theatertreffen). Furthermore, from 2004 to 2008 he managed the ‘Dramatikersalon’ at the Berlin Theatertreffen, to which he invited numerous contemporary authors (Tankred Dorst, Händl Klaus, Gert Jonke, Falk Richter, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Ilija Trojanow, George Tabori and Urs Widmer).

Joachim Lux regularly stages productions. His credits include Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’, Jelinek’s ‘Sportstück’ and Rainald Goetz’s ‘Jeff Koons’ as well as texts adapted for the stage. Furthermore he has numerous publications, interviews, books, lectures and essays to his name about the likes of Thomas Brasch (Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt), Tankred Dorst (Merlins Zauber, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt 2001), Dimiter Gotscheff (Vorwerk Verlag, Berlin 2008), Elfriede Jelinek (Praesens-Verlag, Berlin 2008; Theater der Zeit), Gert Jonke (Jung und Jung Verlag, Wien 2008), Heiner Müller and Christoph Schlingensief, as well as a diverse range of articles for Theaterheute. Joachim Lux took over the role of Artistic Director at the Thalia theatre in Hamburg in autumn 2009, the successor of Jürgen Flimm and Ulrich Khuon. Since 2014 he is head of the german department of the International Theatre Institure (ITI) and a member of the Executive Council World by the ITI.

Project Manager at ITI Germany – Germany

Malin Nagel is a dramaturge, project and production manager, working at the German Center of the International Theater Institute (ITI). She studied literature, musicology and history in Kiel and dramaturgy at the "Hochschule für Musik und Theater" in Leipzig. After several years working in theater, she is currently building an academy program on the future of transnationality and diversity in German Theatre for the ITI. Since 2013, she has realized interdisciplinary urban space projects, scenic concerts and discourse events. She is a regular lecturer in dramaturgy and a member of the editorial board of POLAR, a magazine on politics, theory and everyday life.

Artistic Director of Theater Der Welt – Germany

Born 1968 in GDR, Stefan Schmidkte studied directing for drama theatre at the Russian Academy for Theatre. From 1996 to 1999 he was part of the artistic team at BARACKE at Deutsches Theater Berlin. Since 2001 he has been Artistic Director of forumfestwochen ff at Wiener Festwochen, 2007 and 2008 director of the festival Theaterformen (Hanover and Braunschweig) and from 2011 to 2014 Chief Dramaturg at Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. Since 2014 he has been Artistic Director of the drama department and Chief Dramaturg of Wiener Festwochen. From 2016 to 2018, he built up the program and event department of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. He is the Artistic Director for the Festival Theater der Welt 2021 in Düsseldorf.

Intendant at Schauspiel Düsseldorf – Germany

Wilfried Schulz studied theatre studies, political science and german studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Nouvelle Sorbonne in Paris. From 1976 to 1981 he was a university assistant at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin before joining Peter Stoltzenberg as dramaturg at the Theater der Stadt Heidelberg. With Frank Baumbauer he went first to the Basel Theatre as head dramaturge and from 1993 to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. From 2000 to 2009 Wilfried Schulz was artistic director of the Schauspiel Hannover and took over as artistic director of the Staatsschauspiel Dresden in the 2009/10 season. „Die Bürgerbühne“ (The Citizens' Stage) was founded as a new section in which citizens of Dresden are invited to actively play theatre themselves. Since the 2016/17 season, he has been the general director of the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. In his role as a cultural producer Wilfried Schulz feels it is his duty to position the theatre as a point of identification for the city.

"Theatre is a very democratic medium, a medium that allows for contradiction and very different feelings about the same thing. We need free spaces where you can deal with things in a controversial way without bashing each other's heads in". 

Member of ITI Germany board, Chief Dramaturge and Festival Manager at Staatstheater Mainz – Germany

Director of Theatermuseum Düsseldorf – Germany

Sascha Förster is Director of the Theatermuseum Düsseldorf. He is currently finishing his PhD in Theatre at the University of Cologne with his dissertation “Zeitgeist and the Scenes of Imagination.” From 2012 to 2021, he was junior lecturer and research associate at the Department of Media Culture and Theatre and at the Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung of the University of Cologne. His research interests include theatre in the Weimar Republic; theatre architecture; Fundus and repertoire; theatre workshops; theatre historiography; memory, history and theatre.

Special Projects Manager at PlayhouseSquare – United States of America [online]

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Megan Anderson is the Special Projects Manager at Playhouse Square helping manage festivals, shows, and a variety of other programs at this performing arts center. She also works for US Quidditch as a Strategic Planning Manager.

Founder and Director of CULTURESCAPES - Switzerland [online]

Jurriaan Cooiman, born in Netherlands, has a MA cultural Management from the University of Basel. He lives and works in Switzerland and is the Founder/Director of CULTURESCAPES since 2003. CULTURESCAPES is a multi-disciplinary Festival and a Biennale since 2015 with focus on countries, cities or regions (2003 Georgia, 2004, Ukraine, 2005 Armenia, 2006 Estonia, 2007 Romania, 2008 Turkey, 2009 Aserbaidschan, 2010 China, 2011 Israel, 2012 Moscow, 2013 Balkan, 2014 Tokio, 2015 Island, 2017 Greece, 2019 Poland). For the future, CULTURESCAPES plans to be in: 2021 Amazonas, 2023 Sahara, 2025 Himalaya, 2027 Oceans. CULTURESCAPES is a Member of EFA since 2007.

Theatre and opera director, festival director and independent producer – Ireland [in person]

Tom Creed is a theatre and opera director, festival director and independent producer based in Dublin. His productions have been seen all over Ireland and at prestigious theatres, opera houses and festivals on three continents. He has previously been Festival Director of Cork Midsummer Festival and Theatre and Dance Curator of Kilkenny Arts Festival. 

He is a member of the steering committee of Ireland's National Campaign for the Arts and the board of GAZE Film Festival and Theatre Forum (Ireland). He has participated as a speaker and moderator in three editions of Festival Readings for the Festival Academy and was on the inaugural EFFE jury in 2015.

Producer and Artistic Director for More or Less Theatre, Artistic Consultant for Science in the City – Malta [online]

Angele Galea has acted in various theatre productions and several films including Largo Winch (Pan-Européenne, 2007), Agora (Cinébiss, 2008), Beat (Falkun Films, 2018), Lost Planet (Latina Pictures, 2019) and Project Icon (Pellicola, 2020). She is the artistic consultant of Science in the City and was the education coordinator for Valletta 2018 Foundation. She has acted in various TV adverts and lent her voice for a number of radio adverts. She holds Fellowships in Piano Performance and Music Theory, and is a presenter on TVM for Maltco Lotteries. Additionally, she taught art at youth.inc as part of their empowerment programme, and is the artistic director for More or Less Theatre. Angele is a registered teacher of Art, history and technique, Piano Performance and Music Theory. She has taken part in various collective exhibitions with her paintings, as well as solo exhibitions, the latest one being “The Insanity of Vanity”.

Senior Arts Manager at Prakriti Foundation – India [online]

Meera Krishnan is a Senior arts manager, working with Chennai based Prakriti Foundation for the past 12 years. She is the festival director of Short+Sweet theatre festival, and spearheading the multi-disciplinary art festivals (Poetry with Prakriti, Park’s New Festival, Festival of Sacred Music and a Bi-annual Contemporary Dance Award– PECDA), events and outreach initiatives of the organization – Music, Contemporary dance, theatre, poetry, heritage conservation and literature.

An ARThink South Asia Fellow (2017-18), International Society for performing arts’ Global Fellow (2018 &2019), Online Atelier For Solidarity Fellow by The Festival Academy, Belgium (2020). she was invited to participate in the Culture du monde programme, Paris hosted by the Ministry of Culture France in 2019.

Presently she is managing the foundation’s new initiative “Mental Well Being with Prakriti” for the arts community.

Festival Director/CEO of Castlemaine State Festival – Australia [online]

Glyn Roberts is currently the Festival Director/CEO of Castlemaine State Festival (CSF). CSF is regional Australia's preeminent multi-arts festival. In March 2021 CSF presented a highly flexible COVID safe 17-day festival that welcomed tens of thousands of people to Castlemaine to enjoy and engage with the very best of the arts, culture and ideas. 
Previous to working in Castlemaine Glyn was Creative Producer at Brisbane's La Boite Theatre Company and Curator of Contemporary Performance for Brisbane Festival. In 2017 along with his friend and fellow Atelier alumna, Kate Usher, founded Supercell Dance Festival in Brisbane, now relocated to the Gold Coast. Supercell is Australia's first and only international contemporary dance festival.

He is a proud alumnus of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers (Gwangju, South Korea 2015).

Co-Director at Festival TransAmériques - Canada [online]

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. Between 2015 and 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). From July 2021 Martine Dennewald will co-direct Festival TransAmériques in Montreal (Canada) together with Jessie Mill.

Freelance Festival Director and Festival and Event Management consultant - Scotland [online]

Paul Gudgin has 30 years’ experience in the management of festivals and events including the Aldeburgh Festival, Bury St Edmunds Festival, City of London Festival, Durham International Brass Festival and 8 years as Director of the world’s largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

After receiving a degree in music from the University of Surrey, Paul’s first festival role was for the world-renown classical music event, the Aldeburgh Festival. He subsequently became Director of the Bury St Edmunds Festival before heading to Edinburgh to manage one of the main music venues, the Queen’s Hall. Here he was able to maintain a strong association with festivals as the venue hosted events by the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Following is time at the Queen’s Hall, Paul was appointed Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and over the following eight years saw the event double in scale reaching 1.6 million ticket sales in his final year. Paul’s contribution to Edinburgh’s cultural life was recognised when he became the first recipient of the Arts and Business Scotland Award for Leadership and he was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Edinburgh.

Paul then established his own consultancy working on a wide range of festival projects internationally as well as taking up a position as Visiting Professor of Festival and Event Management by Leeds Metropolitan University and subsequently Senior Consultant at Edinburgh Napier University. He has been engaged to deliver consultancy projects and training events by a host of organisations worldwide including the British Council, Events Tasmania, The New Zealand Association of Event Professionals, Festivals and Events Ontario, Rotterdam Festivals, the Australian Centre for Events Management, Calgary Arts Development, Tourism Queensland, Svenska Kulturfonden, Sweden Festivals, Abu Dhabi Tourism Development Co, Association of Irish Festivals and Events and The National Arts Council of Korea. He devised and presents the Festival and Event Management Masterclass, a popular professional development workshop which has been delivered in 26 countries worldwide.

Audience Development Manager at Festival TransAmériques - Canada [online]

During and after her studies in management of cultural and artistic organizations (master degree) and Intermedia & Cyberarts (bachelor degree) Jeanne-Renée D. Lorrain worked for the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Belgium between 2011 and 2015 and as of 2015 for the Festival TransAmériques in Montreal, Canada. While at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts she participated in creating the Chicago Project with the Youth Home Chicago, a thriving project still in action 10 years later. Back in her hometown of Montreal as audience development manager for the FTA, she is doing what she loves most; immerging the local youths in the contemporary performing arts. 

Garifuna, Librarian, Author, Mother and Screenwriter/Director – Belize [online]

Felene Michelle Cayetano is a Garifuna, Librarian, Author, Mother and Screenwriter/Director. Since 2007, she has served as Librarian at the National Heritage Library branch of the Belize National Library Service and Information System. She is a founding member of the Belizean Writers Guild and currently serves on the boards of directors of the Belize Book Industry Association (BBIA) and Belize Copyright Licensing Agency (BECLA). She has published 2 collections of poetry (Evolution and Crossing Bridges), edited/published an anthology of short fiction by Belizean authors (Belizean Nail Soup) and written/directed a short film (Afieni).

Cultural Consultant, Board member Arab Fund for Arts and Culture – Lebanon/Germany [in person]

Oussama Rifahi is a cultural consultant sharing his time between Lebanon and Germany. Oussama coaches public-benefit organizations on philanthropy and leadership and advises corporations and governments on strategy, governance, communications and fundraising. Oussama is involved in the design and implementation of national cultural strategies, cultural programs and museum development projects in Europe, the MENA region and Africa. Oussama is a board member of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and is supporting the development of similar regional funds internationally.