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Photo: Johanna Senger
Ali Aykar works as an actor and voice-over artist for theatre, film and television in German-speaking countries. After graduating from the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre, he worked at Neues Theater Halle, Junges Schauspiel Düsseldorf and Stadttheater Gießen. What he considers to be some of his most meaningful works were created in collaboration with Franziska Autzen, Ebru Tartıcı-Borchers, Gregory Caers, Thomas Kruppa (tba) and Bonn Park. In the 2025/2026 season, Ali Aykar will be a permanent ensemble member at Stadttheater Gießen and a guest performer at JES.
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Emel Aydoğdu is a director and a writer. She studied Scenic Research, Religious Studies, Art History and Modern and Contemporary Art and worked with Rimini Protokoll (among others) during her studies. She was also the assistant director at Oberhausen Theatre from 2017-2019. Research trips have taken her to Israel and Paris. In 2011, she was awarded the special prize of the Mercator Foundation at the Federal Chancellery for her documentary film ‘Meine Oma, Meine Wurzel, Meine Heimat’. In 2020, she was awarded the jury prize at the Monospektakel X festival together with actor Burak Hoffmann for her film ‘Die Nacht kurz vor den Wäldern.’ She was also a scholarship holder at the West-Windfestival NRW and a young talent scholarship holder at the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW. Previous works include productions at Schauspielhaus Bochum, Junges Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, Theater Osnabrück, Theater Oberhausen and Junges Staatstheater Braunschweig.
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Hello! My name is Azoumi, I’m 13 years old and live in Stuttgart. I love dance, music and creativity. I also love participating in a range of different projects.
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My name is Nela. I am 10 years old. I love all animals, but especially horses and guinea pigs. I ride horses and play the piano. And I really enjoy being on stage.
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EDUCATION
I was born in Nürtingen in 2006. I successfully completed my A-levels in 2024. I have been passionate about ballet since I was 6 years old and have worked as a counsellor at the Protestant holiday camp in Nürtingen every year since I was 15.
JES! AND ME
This year (2024/2025) I am working as an FSJ volunteer at JES. I am particularly interested in working with children and in the field of dance. In the 2024/25 season, I will be involved in the project ‘OWN IT! SICH DEN RAUM NEHMEN’, the club ‘JES philosophers’ and the club ‘BLUE ZONES’.
CONTACT
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Photo: Felix Adler
Hannah Baumann, born 1991, will finish working as a dramaturge at Theaterhaus Jena in 2024. She studied dramaturgy at Leipzig University of Music and Theatre and Spatial Strategies at Weißensee Kunsthochschule in Berlin. She has worked on projects at different theatres such as Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt and was the curatorial assistant for the Performing Exiles Festival (curated by Matthias Lilienthal with Rabih Mroué). In 2023, together with Christina Jung, she staged the play ‘nüchtern (monsters dancing in the dark)’ at Staatstheater Augsburg, a research project about alcohol addicts’ loved ones. She has also given workshops and worked as a conceptual consultant for various political education associations in the field of anti-discrimination (including 7xjung). She is also a Muay Thai trainer for women and non-binary persons. In 2019, she received the Elsa Neumann Scholarship from the State of Berlin to support young artists. She was the dramaturge and part of the writers’ collective for ‘Die Hundekot-Attacke’ (director: Walter Bart), which was invited to the Heidelberger Stückemarkt and the Berliner Theatertreffen. The team also received the 3sat Theatre Prize for its collective authorship. Her work focuses on the development and performance of research-based and documentary plays as well as on accompanying collaborative writing processes as a dramaturge and theatre director.
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Heike Bröckerhoff works as a dance dramaturge and performance artist in Germany and France. She studied Media and Cultural Studies in Düsseldorf, Philosophy in Nantes and completed her M.A. in Performance Studies in Hamburg. Dance appeals to her as an exploratory activity that deals with bodies in the context of socio-political issues. She therefore enjoys collaborating with artists who are interested in non-human beings, choreographic processes and sensitive practices in dealing with resources. After a decade based in Hamburg and many independent projects at Kampnagel and K3, she moved to Hanover. Here she most recently initiated the performance series ‘Sargasso Sea’, which deals with artistic recycling processes and was inspired by an algae. In addition to her artistic work, she develops formats that promote dialogue between artists and audiences. She co-hosts the radio programme - PLATEAU with Juliana Oliveira on FSK and is currently working on a series of audio features about actors in Lower Saxony's independent dance scene (Freie Tanzszene Niedersachsen).
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Christine Börsch-Supan, born in 1987 in Herdecke, studied jazz singing and completed a master's degree in digital music production and live electronics at the University of Music in Würzburg. As a composer, singer and stage musician in various performing arts contexts, as well as a singer in the avant-garde pop band Hope, Christine Börsch-Supan combines sound art, voice and performance in her work.
In recent years she has realised, among other projects, the sound installation ‘Usambaraveilchen’ (Spielart Festival, November 2021), ‘Wie der Fisch zum Meer fand’ (music and dance theatre, Bavarian State Opera Munich, 2022), ‘Snitmønster’ (dance and music performance for deaf and hearing audiences, FELD Theater Berlin, January 2022), ‘re-member’ (dance production for intergenerational ensemble, Kampnagel, September 2020 & Kunsthaus Sootbörn Hamburg, October 2021), as well as the spatial choreographies ‘Narziss Echo’ (Impulstanz Vienna, 2017) and ‘Narkosis’ (Open Spaces Berlin, 2018). She was awarded a residency in Hellerau in November 2022 for her solo work ‘The Ritual Within’.
christineboerschsupan.com
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John is a composer and sound designer based in Leeds, England. After studying music, he worked as a classical singer in London for several years, performing as a soloist and with vocal ensembles on numerous concert tours, radio programmes and recordings and working with world-renowned composers such as Arvo Pärt, James MacMillan and John Tavener.
In the course of his studies, however, he also became interested in theatre and began working as an actor during this time. He has subsequently performed in theatres throughout the UK, including the Bush and Unicorn in London, the Sheffield Crucible and Royal Exchange in Manchester and The Traverse in Edinburgh, as well as in many dramas and plays for BBC Radio.
More recently he has returned to his first love: music. He composes for many theatre companies including Leeds Playhouse, National Theatre Wales, Sheffield Theatres, Conde Duque in Madrid and LA Theatre Works in California as well as for radio and podcast projects including the award-winning ‘Dead Honest’ podcast and ‘Discover Your Inner Astronaut’ for BBC Studios (forthcoming). He is excited to be working at JES and hopes to improve his German language skills from his school days.
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EDUCATION
In summer of 2024, I completed my studies in cultural and media education at the Ludwigsburg University of Education with a focus on art and theatre.
JES! AND ME
I first became aware of JES during my studies. Since summer 2022, I have worked at the counter and box office during performances and as well as in in public relations. Since the 2024/25 season, I have been a fixed staff member for the organisational team.
CONTACT
Jonas Bolle is a music producer, performer and writer. He creates solo and collective works in theatres, art spaces and clubs. In 2014, he was a founding member of the Citizen.KANE.Kollektiv, for which he took on tasks such as artistic and musical direction, performance and text development. In 2019, together with colleagues, he founded the research project ‘Powerlessness and Theatre’, which has since explored various aspects of power structures in the cultural sector and in theatres.
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Education:
Training as a designer, followed by art studies, artistic photography, costume painting
Elsewhere:
Has worked in theatre since 1996. Stage decorator and technician at Altes Schauspielhaus Stuttgart
Costume painter at Stage Entertainment Stuttgart/Berlin/London
Assistant set designer for sets of the city of Bonn
Freelance set designer and costume painter for theatre and film
Set design for Junges Ensemble Stuttgart
Costume designer for Staatstheater Stuttgart
Jes and me:
Started in set design in 2004 before the theatre opened and stayed until 2021.
Saw and experienced a lot of wonderful things and met great people.
Connections.
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Education
I completed my vocational training as an event technician at Theater Heilbronn between 2007 and 2010.
Elsewhere
This was followed by work at the Junges Theater Bonn.
JES! and me
I have been working in the technical department at JES since March 2011.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Grandma Monika – what happened?
Education
I completed my vocational training as an event technician at Theater Heilbronn between 2007 and 2010.
Elsewhere
This was followed by work at the Junges Theater Bonn.
JES! and me
I have been working in the technical department at JES since March 2011.
CONTACT
Sebastian “Jupp” Bertels has been supporting the JES technical team since the 2022/23 season.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Felix Berner completed his dance training at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and graduated with the Josef and Else Classen Foundation dance prize. As a dancer, he has worked with numerous international choreographers such as Pina Bausch, Ann van den Broek, Sharon Eyal, Tero Saarinen, Club Guy & Roni, Jan Pusch and many others.
His work as a choreographer has taken him to the Residenztheater in Munich, Staatstheater Oldenburg, Staatstheater Mainz, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Theater der Jungen Welt in Leipzig, among others. His work with professional dancers and experts of daily life has received numerous awards and invitations to various festivals. In addition to teaching at various universities, he gives advanced training courses on dance education throughout Germany, is a jury member for the Berliner Festspiele's ‘Tanztreffen der Jugend’ and was on the management team for the Tanzkongress 2022.
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Education
I studied theatre, political science and education in Mainz and Vienna, performed in theatres myself and wrote and developed plays.
Elsewhere
For three seasons I worked at the Staatstheater Mainz as an assistant director and play director in the acting and children’s and youth theatre divisions. I was able to gain a lot of experience with youth club work both at Theater Mainz and in independent contexts.
JES! and me
Since the 2017/18 season, I have been supporting JES as a cultural mediator. In doing so, I lead, among other things, the “Club der Schaulustigen (Club of Onlookers)”.
I have been on maternity/parental leave since June 2021 and will return starting April 2023.
CONTACT
Amelie.barucha@jes-stuttgart.de
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Education
I came to Stuttgart to study interior design at FHT and stayed here - but not as an interior designer! Pretty soon I was happily letting myself fall into the waters of the theatre seas...
Elsewhere
In addition to the waters of the Staatstheater Stuttgart, the current has also repeatedly driven me further north, e.g. to Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin.
JES! and me
I started at JES as a temporary set sailor, but after immersing myself in other film and theatre worlds, I have always enjoyed sailing back to JES and have been a permanent member of the colourful set team since 2016.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
joined the technical and engineering team at JES in the 2016/17 season.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Sebastian Brummer was born in Ludwigshafen am Rhein and grew up in Göttingen. He completed his acting training at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz (Austria).
Since then, he has worked as an actor at various theatres in Germany and Austria, including Stadttheater Bremerhaven, Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Theater Lüneburg, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Schauburg in Munich and Theater Baden-Baden. He has also been a guest dramaturge for Theater Baden-Baden since 2018 and was head of the ‘Junges Theater Baden-Baden’ section in the 20/21 season. He currently lives in Lübeck and works as a freelance actor.
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Patricija Katica Bronić works as an actress, performer and director in the independent scene and in municipal theatres in Germany and Switzerland. After studying theatre and media at the University of Bayreuth, she trained as an actor and completed a master's degree in Expanded Theatre at Bern University of the Arts until 2018. Parallel to her first job as an actress at Junges Nationaltheater Mannheim, she began working as a director and performer in the independent scene, including performances with her duo BRONIĆ/RÖHRICH at zeitraumexit Mannheim, which was invited to the International Women's*Theatre Festival in Frankfurt with their first work ‘Das Baubo Reenactment’. Since then, she has developed works for both young audiences and adults. Her works have been shown at the ROXY Theatre Birsfelden, Fabriktheater Zürich, Schwankhalle Bremen, Naxos Halle Frankfurt and Junges Nationaltheater Mannheim, among others. Patricija Katica Bronić was a fellow of the Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation for the Performing Arts 2022.
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Laurence Cook is a dramaturge, theatre maker and audio producer based in Scotland. His current work includes ‘Drive Your Plough Over The Bones Of The Dead’ by Complicité, an adaptation of the novel by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk. ‘Land Behind the Curtain’ is his fourth theatre production with Josie Dale-Jones. Previous collaborations include the multi-award-winning shows ‘Dressed’, ‘Mother Earth’ and ‘The Family Sex Show’. Selected other works include: ‘WE WANT YOU TO WATCH’ - National Theatre and RashDash, ‘The Broken Heart’ - Shakespeare's Globe, ‘Ages’ - Old Vic New Voices.
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JES! AND ME
Iolanda Carrozo was part of the JES organisation from 2017 to 2024.
Since the 2017/18 season, I have been working as a marketing, organisation and administration officer at JES. In 2018, together with my former colleagues Paul-Maurice Röwert, Amelie Barucha, Denise Hafermann and Anna-Lena Hitzfeld, I founded the Inclusion Working Group to enable more open access to theatre for everyone by questioning and improving theatre structures. I also run the ‘Club der Schaulustigen’, a club where young people interested in theatre can discover Stuttgart's cultural landscape together.
CONTACT
Iolanda.carrozzo@jes-stuttgart.de
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Fabrizio di Salvo, who grew up in Basel, studied sound art, composition and contemporary arts practice at Bern University of the Arts. His work as a sound artist focuses on overcoming essentialism and anthropocentric notions of being, examining the question of where the boundary between human and non-human lies and, above all, where these boundaries dissolve. In the interweaving of biological and technological contexts, his artistic practice of sound art attempts to dissolve hierarchies and power relations in order to enable an intimate space of understanding.
His works have been shown at Kunsthalle Bern, Kunsthaus Pasquart Biel, Kunstmuseum La Chaux de-Fonds, Museum der Kulturen Basel, Landesmuseum Zürich, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Milano Musica, Wien Modern, Ars Electronica Digital, Festival Sonica Glasgow, SPOR-Festival Copenhagen, Blooming Festival Italy, Theater Roxy Birsfelden, Dampfzentrale Bern and Festival Klang-Basel, among others.
https://www.fabriziodisalvo.com/
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Josie Dale-Jones is a theatre maker, producer and performer. Josie works primarily as ThisEgg. Theatre Royal Bath selected Josie as the Leverhulme Arts Scholar 2019. She has been nominated as a finalist for the Arts Foundation Theatre-Makers Award 2021. She was recently commissioned by Arts Council England and BBC Culture in Quarantine and completed a remote residency as a director for the British Council's Taking the Stage residency programme in Ukraine. She has continued to work on the project ‘Are you there? We are here...’ as part of the British Council's UK-Ukraine season with The Albany.
ThisEgg is Josie, who produces shows and theatre performances herself and creates and performs with many other artists. ThisEgg makes theatre that plays with theatrical forms and celebrates the here and now of a live event. In response to the world we live in, ThisEgg invites the audience to imagine a potentially better future. ThisEgg's work is firmly rooted in the hope that theatre can be a motivating force for social change. Josie is currently a project producer with Complicité, an international touring theatre company based in London.
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about good and bad, but probably mostly about the complicated mess in between
Actor, choreographer, specialist in biomechanics according to W. Meyerhold
The Belgian film and theatre actor was born in Brussels and studied at the Koninklijk Vlaams Conservatorium in Antwerp (B) with Ivo Van Hove. He then continued his training for years in workshops with Luk Perceval, Minako Seki, Enrique Vargas, Thierry Salmon and many others.
In 1996 he met Gennadi N. Bogdanov in Berlin (lecturer in biomechanics at the former GITIS in Moscow). This was the beginning of an extremely intensive collaboration that enabled him to make Meyerhold's biomechanics his own in practice.
De Maeyer is probably one of few actors in the world who has achieved the perfect assimilation to biomechanical principles in his acting, both on stage and in film. For many years, De Maeyer has taught and given workshops in biomechanics at theatre schools in Germany and abroad, such as the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, the University of the Arts (UdK), the Academy of Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg (AdK) or the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, as well as at private acting schools in Germany.
As a biomechanics expert, he has been working as a choreographer at state theatres for many years (Theater Weimar, Volksbühne Berlin, Theater Bonn, Theater Aachen...) as well as in theatre ensembles to artistically supervise theatre productions by training the actors, familiarising them with the principles of biomechanics and staging bodies in motion. He has worked with Luise Voigt, Christian von Treskow, Dimiter Gottschef and Darijan Mihajlovic, among others.
De Maeyer has set himself the task of freeing Meyerhold's biomechanics from its overly dogmatic historical context and developing it further as a modern acting method. Alongside the work of K. Stanislavski, he considers biomechanics to be extremely relevant and indispensable for craft of acting.
From 2006 to 2020 he worked as a biomechanics teacher at the Mime Centrum Berlin. As an actor, De Maeyer received the award for Best Actor at the Brussels International Film Festival in 1993.
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Daniel Dömölky is the music director for the production “Mentsvár / Zuflucht” in the 2022/23 season.
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Franzy Deutscher is a martial arts choreographer and movement teacher based in Munich. She has been training in various martial arts and forms of movement since the age of 11.
Her modern stage fighting style incorporates elements from contact improvisation as well as principles from various blade and ‘weaponless’ martial arts systems and martial arts.
She studied German (B.A. University of Freiburg) and theatre studies (M.A. University of Leipzig) and teaches movement at various universities (including Folkwang University Essen, August Everding Munich). Since 2019, she has been the first chairwoman of the Professional Association for Intimacy Coordination and Combat Choreography (BIK). Her choreographies can be seen on stages all over Germany.
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Angélica Topfstedt is a Brazilian dancer, performer and teacher. Her work focuses on contemporary dance with an emphasis on improvisation and body awareness and on traditional Brazilian dances. Since 2017 she has been living in Stuttgart and getting to know new cultures. She has been a dance teacher at JES since 2022 and participated as a dancer in the dance theatre piece ‘Aus der Kurve fliegen’. She is also a member of the artists' association Produktionszentrum and is in contact with local and international artists. She has participated as a dancer in festivals such as Ethno Portugal (2018) and Ethno Germany (2019), as well as in the Social Festival of Tudanzas (Spain). She is currently part of the organising team of Ethno Germany. She began her dance training in 2009 at Escola Técnica de Artes in São Paulo and graduated in dance from the University of Campinas in 2014.
CONTACT
angelica.topfstedt@jes-stuttgart.de
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Probelauf: SHAME – The Musical
TanzTheaterClub III: Carry Together
Brigitte Dethier was and artistic director and director at the Junges Ensemble Stuttgart from 2002 to 2022 as well as artistic director of the festival “Bright view”. She has also been active in international associations and organizations for the promotion of professional children’s and youth theater for years, for example as the first chairwoman of the German ASSITEJ. In 2014, she was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg for the foundation and successful work at JES.
In 2009, together with the Belgian choreographer Ives Thuwis-De Leeuw, she received the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST for her production “Noch 5 Minuten”. As a lecturer for acting, directing and theatre management she works at universities in Stuttgart, Hamburg and Munich.
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Florian works as a dancer, choreographer and facilitator in dance and movement theatre. He is currently collaborating with Evangelos Poulinas (Survival Kit 2023), Beatrix Simkó (It Contains Hard Parts 2022/23), as well as choreographing in collaboration with Seulki Hwang in the theatre company ‘Flying Elephant’ (Busy Bodies 2020, Bound by Body 2021, Loose Connection 2021/22, Friendly Hunting 2023).
He was previously a member of the Folkwang Tanzstudio and danced in productions at Staatstheater Hannover (International Dance Festival Think Big 2021), Staatstheater Braunschweig (Rotemberg 2020-23) and was involved in productions such as: Beschränkt Beziehungsfähig (Lutz, Wels 2020), Atlas II (Soavi incompany, Cologne, Bochum, Zurich 2019), Tantalus (Chu-Wu, 2019), Embodied (Mtaki, Kampnagel Hamburg 2018), Kairos (Herrmann, Kampnagel 2018), Rito de Primavera (José Vidal Compania, Kampnagel 2018), Tiresias (Symsiris, Theatre Lab RADA London 2017), CAGED (Page, London & Oxford 2017/18), There is no Parade (Alleyne Dance 2017).
He received a B.A. Prof. Dance & Musical Theatre (Bird College UK, 2017) alongside an M.A. Dance Composition - Interpretation (Folkwang, 2020) and studied Performance Studies (M.A.) at the University of Hamburg (2018).
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AUSBILDUNG
Ich wurde 1995 in Gießen geboren. Nach einem FSJ-Kultur am tjg. theater junge generation Dresden studierte ich Theater- und Kulturwissenschaften an der Universität Leipzig und anschließend Kulturvermittlung an der Universität Hildesheim.
AN ANDEREN ORTEN
Während meines Studiums war ich als Regieassistentin und freie Kunst- und Theatervermittlerin in unterschiedlichen Projekten und Kultureinrichtungen tätig- u.a. am Schauspiel Leipzig, bei FLIPPO, die Kinderzeitung der GfZK Leipzig, an den Cammerspielen Leipzig sowie am Schauspiel Hannover. Nebenbei arbeitete ich als politische Bildnerin für ein Schulaufklärungs- und Antidiskriminierungsprojekt. Dabei gab ich Workshops zu geschlechtlicher und sexueller Vielfalt für Schulklassen unterschiedlicher Jahrgangsstufen.
Meine Arbeitsschwerpunkte liegen auf der Verbindung zwischen Kultureller und Politischer Bildung und der performativ-experimentellen Theaterarbeit mit jungen Personen.
JES UND ICH
Ab der Spielzeit 2024/25 arbeite ich fest als Theaterpädagogin am JES und leite u.a. den Spielclub „Das Labor der Ängste“ und das Ferienprojekt „Queer*Town.“
KONTAKT
katharina.felde@jes-stuttgart.de
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Studied political science and philosophy in Mannheim. From 2009 to 2013, he was an assistant director at the Freiburg Theatre under Barbara Mundel and directed his first productions there. Since 2013, he has worked as a freelance director in Freiburg, Essen, Stuttgart and Zurich, among others. In addition to various world premieres (e.g. by Tina Müller and Reihaneh Yuzbashi Dizaji) and his own novel adaptations (e.g. ‘89/90’ by Peter Richter), he developed the series ‘Die NSU-Protokolle’, the multi-generational project ‘Mehrheitsgesellschaft’ with young refugees and senior citizens and ‘Silent Service’ with carers in training. He was a fellow at the 18th Schiller Festival in Mannheim and at Stage@Play at TheaterRampe. His productions have been invited to various festivals and guest performances. For example, ‘Ich, Moby Dick’ and ‘Die besten Beerdigungen der Welt’ in 2018 and 2020 to the Bright View festival, ‘Schoggiläbe’ to the Jungspund Festival 2020 (Switzerland) and the Mülheim Children's Play Prize, ‘Penthesilea - Love Is To Die’ (in the Bambi Bambule collective) to the Berlin Performing Arts Festival 2020. In 2021, he created the performative spatial installation ‘Der Eleusis Effekt’ with his group team:team. He also works as a production manager for the International Festival of Performing Arts ‘Performing Democracy’ 2024, among others.
At JES, he has so far created ‘Scream - a populistisches Mash-Up’, ‘Wir so: Welt retten’ and ’Die Bremer Stadtmusiktiere’.
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EDUCATION
I was born here in Stuttgart in 2006 and also grew up here. I graduated from the Königin-Olga-Stift grammar school in the west of Stuttgart in 2024. In 2021, I joined the LOKSTOFF! collective in 2021, where I was involved in the production ‘Gegen das Vergessen- Erinnern für das Morgen’. I also am a contemporary dancer in a small dance studio here in Stuttgart.
JES! AND ME
In the 24/25 season, I am completing my FSJ here at JES. I already knew JES beforehand, so it was immediately clear to me: if I was going to do an FSJ, then it would be here at JES! During this season, I will be accompanying various acting clubs as well as taking part in and supporting workshops and holiday programmes.
CONTACT
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Hello, I'm Jonas and I'm 13 years old. I love music, dancing and theatre very much. I have the feeling that I can be myself, immerse myself and I enjoy this feeling. I am particularly enthusiastic and fascinated by everything that has to do with rhythm, e.g. playing the drums and beatboxing. I also like sport and exercise, especially swimming, trampolining and ball sports. I also like going to amusement parks, think Lego is really cool and enjoy things like Star Wars and Lego Ninjago cards. I like to create my own fireworks on a simulation app and find it really exciting. At my previous school, I was in the band group and the theatre group. At my new school, I'm in the weekly folk dance group and regularly take part in eurythmy therapy. I started dancing (Tanzschule Wolf, Bad Cannstatt) through inclusive cooperation projects run by Diakonie Stetten e.V. and then joined the inclusive programme Club Mosaik at JES. Here I took part in the pieces ‘Familienmenschen’ and ‘ABC der Liebe’.
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EDUCATION
I was born in Filderstadt in 2004 and grew up in Freiberg am Neckar. I graduated from high school there in spring 2022.
JES! AND ME
In the 22/23 season, I completed my FSJ in theatre education at JES. I was part of the clubs ‘Die Philosoph*innen’ and ‘Queer*town’, sat in on the production ‘Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht’ and organised the open space format EINMISCHEN with other FSJ volunteers.
From autumn 2023, I will be working at JES as a guest assistant and guest intern on various productions, starting with the solo ‘All das Schöne’.
ELSEWHERE
In summer 2023, I was part of the production ‘Auerhaus’ at the Wilhelmatheater in Stuttgart as an assistant director, directed by Brigitte Dethier and acting students from the HMDK.
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Thilo Grawe worked as a theatre educator at JES from 2020 to 2022.
He studied Scenic Arts and Staging of the Arts and Media at the University of Hildesheim. At the Theaterhaus Hildesheim e.V. he worked as SCHREDDER festival director as well as a board member. His collective ‘taft.’ was invited to the Körber Studio Junge Regie 2019 with ‘Listen’. He was a lecturer at the University of Hildesheim and the PH Ludwigsburg, works as a moderator and curator and has been working as a dramaturge for participation processes and acting director of the theatre academy at the tjg. theatre junge generation in Dresden since the 2022/2023 season.
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Peter Galka has been a theatre educator at JES since the very beginning and was previously director of the Theater im Zentrum in Stuttgart, among others. After countless clubs and workshops, productions with the ensemble, meetings in associations and organisations and tireless work in cultural politics, he retired in summer of 2021.
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Education
Originally, I trained as a carpenter.
Elsewhere
After that I worked first as a stage technician at Nationaltheater Mannheim, then as a self-employed event technician and finally as deputy head of the studio technology department at the Nationaltheater (as an employee of the technical directorate from 2001 to 2007). My responsibilities included the management of the “Event Technology” department, technical management and event-technical supervision of performance operations in Studio Werkhaus as well as rehearsal operations at the Nationaltheater, as well as special events and guest performance tours and the production management in all four sections of the Nationaltheater.
I also took over the technical and spatial conception and supervision of the reconstruction and renovation of the rehearsal stage centre in Mannheim as well as the conception, planning and construction management for the reconstruction of the studio stage, including the complete stage, lighting, sound and building services of all foyers, dressing rooms, storage and prop/mask rooms. During my time at Nationaltheater Mannheim, I completed various further training courses: Master of Event Technology specialised in stage/studio as well as lighting, as an electrician for event technology and business economics of the trade.
From 2007 onwards I worked as a self-employed event technician, among others at the Schwetzingen Festival, at Moers Schlosstheater and at the Bayreuth Festival in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
JES! and me
Since the 2009/10 season he has been technical director of Junges Ensemble Stuttgart.
CONTACT
Steven.gorecki@jes-stuttgart.de
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
EDUCATION
After an apprenticeship as a tailor at Strenesse in Nördlingen, I graduated from the German Master School for Fashion in Munich as a master craftswoman and fashion designer. I later studied social work in Ludwigsburg.
ELSEWHERE
I got my first taste of theatre and costume design during a production at the Otto Falckenberg School at the Münchner Kammerspiele. Last year I had the opportunity to design the costumes for Anna-Lena Hitzfeld's performative theatre piece ‘Stutenbiss’ at Studio Theater Stuttgart.
In the past, I worked at a bookshop, a tannery and an art darning workshop, sewed and developed wedding dresses and jumpers for private customers and companies and also gave workshops for young people. When I'm not at JES!, I work in a fair fashion shop.
JES! AND ME
I got to know (and love) JES! during the production ‘Als der Baum mit den roten Haaren weinte’. Back then, I helped out with the costume production. Since the 2021/2022 season, I have been a permanent member of the set design team.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Milan Gather was born in Aachen in 1993 and grew up in Dortmund. He developed his first theatre works as part of the directing workshop at Schauspielhaus Bochum and in the independent scene in Leipzig. From 2014 to 2018, he studied acting at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart and joined the acting studio at the Stuttgart State Theatre in the 2017/18 season. He then became a member of the ensemble at JES Stuttgart. There he wrote his first play, ‘Astronauten’, which was invited to several festivals in 2020 and was awarded the Youth Play Prize at the Heidelberger Stückemarkt together with the two other invited productions. He also made his directorial debut at JES in 2021 with his second play ‘OMA MONIKA - was war?’. In 2022, the play won the KinderStückePreis at the 47th Mülheimer Theatertage and 1st prize at the 25th Hessian Children's and Youth Theatre Week KUSS and was translated into several languages. Since the 2022/23 season, Milan Gather has worked as an author and director at various theatres, including Theater Dortmund, Theater Baden-Baden, Landestheater Marburg, Theater Heidelberg, Theater Münster and in the independent scene
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I was born in 1956.
I became a mother myself 40 years ago.
I have had three wonderful children in my life for 30 years.
I have been a hospital clown for 20 years
and have had a companion by my side.
For the last 10 years I have enjoyed walking alone and travelling far.
I have been making art collectively in public spaces for 5 years.
I have been dancing for 2 years.
I also love collaborative projects,
I like to cook vegan food and am curious to see what else I come across.
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Lina Höhne is a dance mediator and choreographer specialising in dance for young audiences. She studied contemporary dance education, movement studies and performance studies in Vienna, Jerusalem and Hamburg. She brings her expertise to numerous formats, both in excluded social spaces and in professional and university settings. She also conducts research at the interface of social realities and dance. She understands dance as an activist and socially critical practice, which is subject to the constant updating and questioning of contemporary body images and her own work. Over the years of her work in an international, intercultural, socially critical and cross-generational context, she has acquired an artistic language and methodology that focuses on its intended audience and is therefore able to respond sensitively to diverse people and their backgrounds in order to reach them through the medium of contemporary dance.
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Teresa Hoffmann is a dancer, mother, choreographer and dance mediator living in Hamburg. Since 2016, she has mainly focussed on producing dance performance pieces for and sometimes with young people. For her, the relationship and difference between the worlds of adults and children is symptomatic of her interest in being confronted with ways of thinking, moving and feeling that she has unlearnt or forgotten as an adult. Her vision is to create dance performances in which the separation between young and older people becomes obsolete, both in the ensemble and in the audience. For her, dance is a space in which she can constantly reinvent herself and other people as well as the way we live together, a space that enables us to see things through different eyes.
www.teresahoffmann.com
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I have been working full-time as an interpreter for German Sign Language and German since 2017. I also completed a degree in cultural education with a focus on art and film in 2019 and I really enjoy combining interpreting with artistic work and occasionally accompanying exciting theatre projects throughout Germany or interpreting on stage.
In addition, I work regularly at forums, festivals and workshops in the field of inclusive theatre.
I was part of Bright View at JES twice. Since the 2022/2023 season I have been involved as an interpreter in the productions ‘Aus der Kurve fliegen’ and ‘Unbändig’. In spring 2023, I also had the chance to give a holiday workshop for deaf and hearing youth with Tanja Frank.
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Steve Heather is interested in the repetitive, acoustic fields of everyday life that influence his own and other sound effects. His research centres around the physicality of sonic boundaries and how they influence compositional methods, materials and structures as well as the physical interpretation by listeners. Drums / Percussion / Electronics / Composition / Improvisation / Installation / and more www.steveheather.net
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Daphna Horowitz was born in Würzburg in 1997 and grew up in Düsseldorf. During her childhood and youth she spent a lot of time at Junges Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf. She was active in the youth club as well as in the improvisation theatre club of Theatersportler*innen. After graduating from high school, she completed a year of voluntary service at Walder Theatertage Solingen and at the same time assisted at the children’s club of Junges Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf. In 2016, she began her studies in cultural studies and aesthetic practice with the subjects of theatre and media at the University of Hildesheim. There she was part of the student initiative for researching theatre pedagogy (PROBE:BÜHNE Hildesheim), in which she regularly designed workshops for and with her fellow students that playfully tested theatre pedagogical work. One of her student projects was the feminist performance “reclaiming hysteria”, in which she dealt with female rage in a collective. In addition, Daphna worked as a freelance theatre pedagogue in various projects of Junges Staatstheater Braunschweig and Cluster e.V. Hildesheim.
In the 2021/22 season, Daphna Horowitz was a permanent theatre pedagogue at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart. Here she worked, among other things, in the kindergarten language support project and was responsible as a leader for various clubs. In addition, she accompanied the production “Oma Monika – was war?”.
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Anne Hölck has been a freelance set designer since 2002. Her work has been shown in theatres in Germany, France and Switzerland. She lives and works in Berlin. During her studies of fine arts, art and educational sciences at HdK Berlin, she worked as an assistant set designer for several theatre productions, including at Deutsches Theater Berlin and Schauspielhaus Hamburg. She then began her 3-year stage and costume design assistantship at Schaubühne Berlin in 1999. Since then, she has worked as a stage and costume designer on productions for various theatres for contemporary and classical plays. She has collaborated with director Gian Manuel Rau and his Compagnie Camastral for many years for productions at Théâtre Vidy Lausanne, Comédie Française Paris and Comédie de Genève, among others. Since 2017, she has been working with director Grete Pagan on plays for children and young people, including at Junges National Theater Mannheim, Württembergische Landesbühne Esslingen and Schauburg Munich. In addition to her theatre work, she is a board member of Meinblau Projektraum Berlin and has been realising curatorial concepts, artistic and scenographic works for exhibition projects in the research field of human-animal studies since 2014.
Website
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Born in Haan in 1981, Lena Hinz grew up in Wuppertal. She studied stage and costume design at the ‘Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht’ (Netherlands) and at the ‘National Academy of Arts Sofia’ (Bulgaria) from 2004 to 2008.
Following her studies, she worked as a prop designer at RO Theatre in Rotterdam (Netherlands). At the same time, she worked on several independent dance and drama productions, including at Theaterschool Amsterdam, Frascati WG and RO Theatre.
From 2009 to 2011 she was an assistant set designer at Junges Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. Since 2011 she has been working as a freelance stage and costume designer throughout Germany, including at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart, Junges Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Moks Theatre Bremen and Grips Theatre Berlin.
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Denise Hafermann studied European Cultural and Ideological History and Applied Cultural Studies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
During her studies, she was involved in the student council for the humanities and social sciences, the GeistSoz theatre and the zoon politikon university group for political philosophy in Karlsruhe. She also completed internships as a director and dramaturge at Theater Baden-Baden and Staatstheater Karlsruhe and was an assistant to the theatre laboratories and co-head of a laboratory in Karlsruhe in the Volkstheater division, under the direction of Beata Anna Schmutz, as part of an FSJ Kultur.
In the 2017/2018 season, Denise Hafermann worked at the Volkstheater as an assistant director and staff member for the Volkstheater Festival. From the 2018/2019 season until 2022/23, she was an assistant director at JES, where she celebrated her directing debut with the production ‘Archiv der Körper’.
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Foto: Sarah Domandl
Carmen Yasemin Ipek, born and raised in Munich, gained her first theatre experience in the youth clubs of the Münchner Volkstheater and the Residenztheater. She studied acting at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre, where she graduated in 2018. She moved to Berlin as a freelance actress and realised her first film projects. She has performed at Rostocker Volkstheater and Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater, Akademie der Künste in Ludwigsburg, Bayerische Theaterakademie and worked with the Tacheles & Tarantismus collective in Heilbronn. From 2020 to 2023 she was an ensemble member at Junges Nationaltheater Mannheim. She returned to Munich as a freelance actress and voice-over artist in September 2023 and continues to make guest appearances at Nationaltheater Mannheim as well as the opera, sometimes as a presenter. In autumn 2024, she will make her first guest appearance at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart. Carmen has been a volunteer member of the Queer Film Festival Munich team since 2023 to support the queer community and curate great, important films.
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Michael is from the United States and moved to Germany in 2021. He was recently part of a local Christmas pantomime called ‘Hänsel und Greta’. He was a Christmas angel at Stille Not Stuttgart e.V. association for the last two Christmases, reciting poems and singing carols for the Stuttgart community. Michael loves dancing and has taken hip-hop and ballet lessons.
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Amy Josh currently works as a freelance professional dancer in Germany. She was born in England and grew up in Vancouver, Canada. Her professional dance training began at the Arts Umbrella Dance School in Vancouver, where she graduated in 2011. She then moved to the Netherlands to work with Noord Nederlands Dans and Club Guy and Roni. In 2014 she joined the Tanzmainz Company under the direction of Honne Dohrmann, where she worked with choreographers such as Sharon Eyal, Guy Weizman & Roni Haver, Rui Horta, Koen Augustijnen & Rosalba Torres Guerrero, Guy Nader & Maria Campos, Eleonore Valère-Lachky, Garry Stewart, Jose Navas, Jo Stromgren and Guiseppe Spota. Since 2018 she has been working as a freelance artist with the choreographers Alba Castillo and Bryan Arias (Snorkel Rabbit, CH), Alexandra Waierstall (NRW), Dunja Jocic (Bird Productions), Edan Gorlicki (Inter-Actions Heidelberg), Jill Crovisier (JC Movement Productions, Luxembourg) and John Wannehag (Sweden).
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Foto: Yen Lee
Selina studied at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo. She received her bachelor's degree in contemporary dance in 2019 and has since worked as a freelance dancer for and with choreographers such as Tanztheater Erdmann-Rajski, MIRA-Company, Johannes Blattner, Julia Brendle, Claudia Senoner and Yolanda Guitterez, Milan Pesçl, as well as with Lee Brummer and Israel Aloni, with whose junior company ilYoung she worked in Sweden in 2022. Since 2020 she has worked closely with Smadar Goshen in several productions. She choreographed the solo ‘the pluralist deconstructed humerous body of her’ for Smadar Goshen, which was performed at Stuttgart International Theatre Dance Festival. In 2023, she was employed as a guest dancer and worked with Hege Haagenrud for Theater der jungen Welt, Leipzig.
The duo Remanenz, which she created together with Mira Plakat, won the prize for best newcomer duo, as well as the audience award at the SoloDuo Festival Cologne and first prize at the SzólóDuó Festival in Poland. In 2023, she received a scholarship from Marie Desoubeaux and her organisation Présomtions de Présences to support her in her own artistic work. Her solo ‘the vertical expression of horizontal feelings’ was shown at the Signes d'Automne festival in Paris. In 2024, she choreographed ‘sketches on bewildered bodies’ in collaboration with Julia Brendle, which the two are currently presenting in various theatres in Limassol, Cyprus.
Selina is a certified Gyrokinesis teacher and is currently training to become a Gyrotnic trainer.
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I was born on March 3rd, 1987, in Düsseldorf and graduated from high school in 2007. I then studied acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Ulm. During my studies, I was able to gain stage experience at the Academy Theatre in productions such as ‘Die Räuber’, ‘Penthesilea’, ‘Diener zweier Herren’, ‘Don Carlos’ and many more. After graduating in 2011, I worked at Gärtnerplatztheater Munich, Stadttheater Klagenfurt am Wörthersee and Theaterhaus Stuttgart, among others, before I was permanently employed at the Theaterhaus in 2013. From 2013-2019, I played Dris in ‘Ziemlich beste Freunde’ , Maik in ‘Tschick’, and had roles in ‘Was heißt hier Liebe’, ‘Dirty Dishes’ and ‘Zeit der Kannibalen’, among others. I've been freelancing since 2019. My last role was Romea in ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Tri-bühne Stuttgart.
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Svea Kirschmeier is a musician and performer from Cologne. She started her theatre career in 2017 as an assistant director at COMEDIA Theatre Cologne. She has been composing and performing for theatre and performance collectives throughout Germany, including Comedia Theater Köln, Theater Konstanz and subbotnik, since 2018. She has been invited to festivals such as the Augenblick mal Festival or Impulse Theater Festival with her work and was nominated for the German theatre award ‘DER FAUST’ in the category ‘Theatre for Young Audiences’ in 2023.
www.svea-kirschmeier.de
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Sebastian Kempf was born in Munich in 1995. He studied acting in Stuttgart at the University of Music and Performing Arts from 2015 to 2019. In 2018, he performed in Philipp Rosendahl’s “Schöne Neue Welt” at Schauspiel Stuttgart and in Kjell Moberg’s production of “bis zum letzten Tanz” at the Wilhelma Theatre. In the 2018/2019 season he was an ensemble member at the Nationaltheater Mannheim and performed as a regular guest from 2019/2020. Since 2019 he has been working primarily as a freelance actor for film and television and as a voice actor (including Tatort, the Netflix series “Biohackers”, the feature film “Oskar’s Dress”, etc.).
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works in the JES technical team. He has been deputy technical director since the 2019/20 season.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Grandma Monika – what happened?
I was born in Bremen in 1996 and first came into contact with theatre there. I interned and assisted at Theater Bremen. In 2018, I founded the f.e.t.t.kollektiv with friends, with whom we realised immersive theatre performances in the independent scene. Since 2018 I have been studying directing at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg . In this context, I staged the play ‘CRASH’, which was shown at Thalia Theater Hamburg. At the same time, I created the productions ‘Keine Landschaft’ at the drama school of the University for Fine Arts in Graz and ‘Die 13 Ballacks’ at Hamburg Schauspiel-Studio Frese, as well as the play ‘Luft nach Oben’ which is currently being performed at Stadttheater Gießen.
Yeşim Nela Keim Schaub is the director of “Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht” in the 2022/23 season.
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Öğünç Kardelen grew up in Izmir, Turkey. After studying opera singing at Dokuz Eylül University, he came to Germany in 2002 and completed his second degree in singing with Prof. Langshaw and postgraduate studies in vocal pedagogy at Musikhochschule Köln. Kardelen works as a composer, stage musician and performer at various theatres throughout Germany, including Comedia in Cologne, Staatstheater Mainz, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Deutsches Theater Göttingen and Junges Nationaltheater Mannheim. He writes and sings songs in his mother tongue for his indie-folk band “Kent Coda”. He is behind the music for the productions “Die beste Geschichte” and “Oma Monika - was war?”.
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Eva Lochner, born 1990 in Karlsruhe, studied stage and costume design at the HfBK Dresden (with Barbara Ehnes, Kattrin Michel and Stefanie Wenner) and costume design (film) at UdK (with Lisa Meier). After working as an assistant with a fixed contract at Theater Oberhausen (2018-20), she now lives and works as a freelance stage and costume designer and assistant in Berlin. Her own work was performed at Maxim Gorki Theater, Theater Bonn, Stadttheater Braunschweig, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Theater Krefeld & Mönchengladbach, Theater Osnabrück and Theater Aachen, Theater Oberhausen, Sophiensaele, Hellerau - European Centre for the Arts; she has worked as an assistant at the Berlin State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival , among others. She has also worked on sets and texts for films and independent projects and is part of the Ost-West-AG collective.
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My name is Mathilde and I am 9 years old.
I like animals, plants and nature.
I like making music and I love painting.
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Timea Laza began her studies in the Gangaray Trambulin Programme (now Gangaray Artistic Programme; Hungary). She then received a scholarship from the International Contemporary Dance Programme NOD in Turin (Italy). She has been working as a freelance dancer since 2017.
In Hungary, she worked as a guest artist with Eszter Gál, Beatrix Simkó, MA-ZE Company and Ziggurat Project. As a freelancer, she also had the opportunity to work with the Hofesh Shechter Company and, thanks to the Gaga evening at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten, was able to perform ‘Ohad Naharin's Decadance’. She has also worked with choreographers such as Shahar Binyamini, Guy Shomroni, Yaniv Abraham, Lior Lazarof and others.
She is currently a member of the Willany Leó Improvisational Dance Theatre and works with the Pataky Klári Dance Company.
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Marthe Labes is responsible for staging and costumes for the production “Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht” in the 2022/23 season.
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Education
I completed my bachelor’s degree at Zurich University of the Arts. In summer 2019, I completed my master’s degree in performance studies at the University of Hamburg.
Elsewhere
After my first permanent job at JES, I was drawn to the independent scene and to the stage again and again as a performer. My projects intersect at the interface between performative experiments, especially for young audiences, and mediation work between theatre and real life. These projects have taken me to Gessnerallee Zurich, Kampnagel in Hamburg, Schlachthaustheater Bern, Schauspielhaus Hamburg and Junges Theater Konstanz, among others.
JES and me
After completing my bachelor's degree, I was permanently employed as a theatre educator at the JES from 2012-2015. In the 2022/23 season, I returned to JES as theatre educator, dramaturge and deputy artistic director.
CONTACT
fredericlilje@jes-stuttgart.de
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Theater als performativer Aushandlungsraum
about good and bad, but probably mostly about the complicated mess in between
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EDUCATION
I was born in 2000 and grew up in Ellwangen (Jagst). I have been studying media publishing at Stuttgart Media University since 2024.
ELSEWHERE
I have lived in Darmstadt, Mainz and Ravensburg. I worked at a culture and events magazine, at Akademie Schloss Solitude, the Baden-Württemberg State Ministry, as well as at the media house ‘Staatsanzeiger’ and the youth press association
JES! AND ME
I joined JES in 2024, initially as part of the festival office for Bright View. Since the 2024/25 season, I have been supporting the public relations department.
CONTACT
Hello everyone!
I'm Pamela and I'm a guest actress at JES.
I have created small performances at school and organised the art and sign language festival ViFest! - I have a lot of stories!
By small performances I also mean inclusive music performances in sign language. I was able to gain my first experiences on stage.
I came into contact with JES when I joined the sign language club in the 2017/2018 season and performed the play ‘Bubble’ with the group. That gave me a real stage experience and has stayed with me ever since.
Later, from 2019 to 2022, I was selected as an organiser for the sign language festival ViFest! in Berlin and was responsible for children's theatre during this time. Before that, I had already volunteered for the first edition of the festival and was able to take a look behind the scenes of the organisation. After that, I returned for the second edition and now I'm back at JES for ‘Unsere neue Welt’!
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Clara-Marie Müller is a dancer, choreographer and Feldenkrais practitioner in training. As a dancer, she has worked with many different choreographers since 2014, including Mouvoir/Stephanie Thiersch, Georgia Sagri, Anna Konjetzki, Teresa Hoffmann/Lina Höhne and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke.
Her current work ‘vibrant matter/s’ deals with connections between pleasure, anger and eroticism within the body. Feminist themes and emotions are at the centre of her work, as well as their performativity through working with space, voice, poetry and dance. Clara-Marie Müller lives in Cologne and graduated from the master's programme exerce in Montpellier, France, in July 2023.
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Paulina Mandl was a dramaturge at JES from 2019 to 2022.
After a voluntary social year, she studied art as a teacher at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Nuremberg and completed a master's degree in cultural education at the Ludwigsburg University of Teacher Education and the Ludwigsburg Academy of Arts. Since 2012, she has also worked as an assistant director and later as a cultural mediator and dramaturge with, among others, LOKSTOFF! Theatre in Public Space, Citizen.KANE.Kollektiv, backsteinhaus produktion and Theaterhaus Stuttgart. After three seasons as a dramaturge at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart, she returned to the independent theatre scene and now works as a cultural mediator and dramaturge with backsteinhaus produktion, LOKSTOFF! and purple pome grenade, among others.
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Caro Mendelski was born in Stuttgart in 1988. After graduating in Literature, Art and Media Studies with a minor in Sociology at the University of Konstanz, she completed a BA in Speech Arts and an MA in Media Speaking at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. Since then, she has worked as a voice-over artist for various radio and TV formats (including arte, SWR, ARD), dubbing and live audio description.
She writes dubbing scripts and directs radio plays (including the interactive radio play ‘Die schönen Lauen’). She also works as a performer and develops her own artistic stage works. With the performance ‘A Body of one's own’, which she developed herself, she was invited to the Rampe Theatre and to various festivals. She has appeared on stage at Staatstheater Stuttgart, Volksbühne Berlin (P14), Theater Konstanz and as a guest for various collectives in the independent scene. She has worked together with René Pollesch (‘Was hält uns zusammen wie der Ball die Spieler einer Fußballmannschaft’ & ‘Du hast mir die Pfanne versaut, du Spiegelei des Terrors’), SHE SHE POP (‘Oratorium’ & ‘Wir sind der Protagonist’), Showcaste Beat Le Mot (‘Zack fertig!’), Volker Lösch (‘Cocka Hola Company’) and Schorsch Kamerun (‘Sommernachtstraum im Cyber Valley’). As part of her final thesis at HMDK Stuttgart, she developed the radio plays ‘Herzstück’ (2017) and ‘Der erste fiese Typ’ (2019). She has been working as a lecturer at HMDK drama school since 2018.
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Education
Hannes Michl was born in Stuttgart. After successfully completing his degree in scenic arts at the University of Hildesheim, his first permanent employment was the Heidelberg Theatre and Orchestra in 2011. There, as a theatre educator, he led various theatre projects for two years, staged a family concert and appeared on stage himself in the interactive play ‘Speaking deutsch!?’.
JES and me
He then worked at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart for three seasons starting 2013. During this time, was responsible for numerous theatre clubs and cooperation projects (e.g. ‘Amadeus` Erben’, ‘Unterm Strich’) and provided theatre education support for some of the acting ensemble's productions. Since 2016, Hannes Michl has been working as a freelance cultural mediator and theatre educator for the Kunstschule Böblingen, the Landesakademie Schloss Rotenfels and the Hospitalhof Stuttgart, among others.
He currently has a tenured teaching position for acting and theatre education at the Institute for Social Professions (Institut für Soziale Berufe) in Stuttgart. He also works as a moderator at various events and is regularly involved in the federal state programme ‘Kulturschule Baden-Württemberg’. Hannes Michl is also in charge of the senior citizens' club at JES this season.
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Education
I was born in Wuppertal in 2003 and grew up in Stuttgart. I graduated from high school in Stuttgart in spring 2021.
JES! And Me
JES has been a part of my life since I was eight years old. As a child and teenager, I participated in numerous play clubs and was part of the productions “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” from 2017 to 2019 and “Identity” from 2019 to 2020.
In autumn 2021, I did my first assistant directing at JES for the production “Archive der Körper” and have been permanently engaged as an assistant director since the 2022/23 season, starting with the production “Hier ist noch alles möglich”.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Carolin Mittler studied stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and designed her first sets for the Theater der Jugend in Munich after graduating. From 1989 to 1991 she was under steady employment as a stage designer at the Württembergische Landesbühne Esslingen and has been working freelance since 1991. Her work has taken her to the Staatstheater Stuttgart, Schauspiel Bonn, Theater Ingolstadt, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Theater Oberhausen, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Theater Erlangen, SchauBurg München, Staatstheater Mainz and Staatsheater Kassel. For the production “Diese Mauer fasst sich selbst zusammen und der Stern hat gesprochen, der Stern hat auch was gesagt” at HLMT she received the Nachspielpreis of the Heidelberger Stückemarkt in 2019. In addition, Carolin Mittler was nominated for the theatre prize DER FAUST for the stage and costume design of the same production. In addition, the prize for a special artistic achievement of the Hessian Theatre Days 2019 went to Carolin Mittler for the stage and costumes of “Maria Stuart / Ulrike Maria Stuart”.
At JES, she designed the set for “Die erstaunlichen Abenteuer der Maulina Schmitt” and “Oma Monika – was war”.
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Education
I was born in Stuttgart in 1973. After graduating from high school, I attended the Università per Stranieri in Perugia and Siena/Italy for one year. Afterwards I studied German and Italian at the University of Mannheim.
Elsewhere
During my studies I completed an internship in the marketing department of the Nationaltheater Mannheim, accompanied two productions at the opera as assistant director and guided groups of visitors behind the scenes for years.
From the 2000/01 season onwards, I worked as an assistant for 3 years, and later as a member of staff in the marketing department at Nationaltheater Mannheim, focusing on “School and Theatre”.
For the 2003/04 season, I moved to the newly founded Junges Ensemble Stuttgart for 5 years and took over both press and public relations for the house as well as the management of the artistic operations office and scheduling.
During my 3-year parental leave with my first daughter, I founded the day-care centre “Kinderland Pusteblume” in Stuttgart-Feuerbach with 60 places for children from 6 months to six years of age together with other mothers.
From August 2011 to August 2022, I was employed as a public relations and environmental communication assistant at Yves Rocher GmbH.
JES! AND ME
After 14 years, I am back at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart and have been working in the artistic operations office since the 2022/23 season. I am responsible for schedule coordination in the scheduling department.
CONTACT
EDUCATION
I was born in Munich in 1995. I have always been interested in artistic creation and first graduated from a specialised secondary school for design before completing my training as an actress in 2022.
ELSEWHERE
In Munich, I took part in several independent theatre productions (mainly in the field of commedia dell'arte) and was part of Yorick's Company at the FestSpielHaus München.
JES! AND ME
In September 2022 I moved to Stuttgart and am now part of the permanent ensemble at JES.
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After studying stage design at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, Philipp Nicolai worked as an assistant stage designer at Schauspielhaus Hannover from 2004 to 2006. From 2007 to 2009 he was employed there as a permanent set designer, during which time he worked with Ruedi Häusermann, Marco Štorman, Marc Prätsch, Peter Kastenmüller and others.
Since 2009 he has worked as a freelance stage and costume designer in Dresden, Hanover, Hamburg, Stuttgart and elsewhere, including with directors Dominik von Gunten, Schirin Khodadadian and Brigitte Dethier.
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Johannes Nehlsen
Johannes Nehlsen was born in Hamburg in 1975. He studied acting at the Hanover University of Music and Theatre from 1998 to 2002. During his studies, he had his first guest appearances at the Schauspielhaus Hannover. He then worked at Deutsches Theater Göttingen until 2006. Johannes Nehlsen has been a freelance actor and director since 2006 and has worked at the Freischwimmer Festival at Kampnagel, Sophiensaele Berlin, the ‘Aua wir leben-Festival/Bern’, the Plattform Festival/Ernst Deutsch Theater Hamburg, Lichthof Theater Hamburg, Theater Bremen, Staatstheater Oldenburg as well as Schauspielhaus and Junges Schauspielhaus Hamburg. He also worked in the independent theatre collectives ‘Die Azubis’ Hamburg and ‘Theater M21’ in Lower Saxony. He is a permanent member of the theatre collectives ‘Show and Tell/Hamburg’ and ‘THEATERBOX’.
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Education
I was born in Goslar in 1988. After leaving school, I studied drama and German language and literature at Leibniz University in Hanover and attended seminars at the Braunschweig University of Art and the University of Hildesheim.
Elsewhere
From the beginning of my studies, I was involved in various projects with the youth devision of Theater Hannover. I performed in multiple productions, including by the directors Nurkan Erpulat and Marco Štorman and the theatre and performance collective ‘andcompany&Co’. I worked as an intern in theatre education under the direction of Barbara Kantel and developed my own theatre performances together with people from different backgrounds within the transcultural, intergenerational theatre group ‘Türkisch-Deutsches-Theater’ (TDT) at Theaterhaus Hildesheim. Both during and after my studies, I worked as a freelance theatre educator and led theatre projects with children and young people at Junges Schauspiel Hannover, in youth centres, child and youth counselling centres and associations for intercultural communication, migration and refugee work.
JES! and me
Since the 2016/2017 season, I have been working as a theatre educator at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart. Among other things, I work in the daycare centre language promotion project and am responsible for the clubs ‘Club Kültür’ and ‘Queertown’.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Aus der Kurve fliegen – Host performance
about good and bad, but probably mostly about the complicated mess in between
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Identity, in and away from the hustle and bustle, stories from real life, with all its little joys and big pains, that's what Shelly writes about as a German-American singer/songwriter. Personal experiences play a significant role in Shelly's compositions – snapshots of the past, which Shelly presents to us as listeners. This is also reflected in Shelly's modern pop sound. Shelly personalises the singer/songwriter genre with orchestral, rock and electronic influences, creating an interplay of energy & calm, longing & contentment, melancholy & joy. With Shelly's lyrics, intensified by posture, movements and playful interactions, Shelly also creates a unique live connection with all audience members. The ease with which Shelly performs on stage is partly the result of several years of experience, including support shows for artists such as Namika, Lary, Lina Maly, Mine and features with SANÓ, Camufingo, Roger Reckless and Dead Rabbit. Authentic, natural and genuine, Shelly Phillips impacts both the heart and ears of listeners and leaves a lasting impression.
www.shellyphillips.com
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Stefan Pinl studied building design in wood (wood architecture) in Salzburg from 2005 to 2010. He dedicated himself to ideas of permaculture and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe in the class of Stephan Balkenhol from 2015-2021. His artistic work currently revolves around the theme of ‘up(s) and down(s)’, which manifests in spatial objects close to the staircase motif. After numerous architectural designs, awning installations, renovation and woodwork as well as bicycle restorations, he currently teaches sculpture at the Waldorf School in Karlsruhe and lives in Mühlacker.
www.pinl.art
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Larissa Probst studied cultural studies and cultural mediation at the University of Hildesheim. She has been working as a freelance theatre mediator and director in Stuttgart since 2020. From 2014 to 2018, she researched new participatory modes of staging strategies for young audiences with her theatre collective BwieZack and developed productions with and for hearing and deaf young people. Her productions were performed at Junges Theater Göttingen, LOT-Theater in Braunschweig and the Graz Opera, among others. Since 2018, her work has focussed in particular on intergenerational staging concepts and collaborations and their positioning in a discourse critical of adultism. From 2020 to 2023 she was a member of the board of trustees of the Children's and Youth Theatre Centre of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since the 2020/21 season, Larissa has been a guest assistant director in dance and theatre productions at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart and a theatre educator in the KiTa cooperation project. In 2022, together with Frederic Lilje, she led the artistic collaboration ‘Kinderarbeitsagentur’. She has been amployed in the dramaturgy department of theatre education since 2024.
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Grandma Monika – what happened?
Kinderarbeitsagentur (Children’s Employment Agency)
Lisa Pottstock is responsible for music in the production “Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht” in the 2022/23 season.
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Meryem Polat was assistant director for the production “Die Bademattenrepublik”.
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David Pagan, born in 1979 on the border between Scotland and England, studied acting/music in London and has been living in Germany since 2008. He first worked as a performer and musical director for NIE theatre. He currently performs and composes mainly in theatres in Germany and Europe for young audiences.
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Education
After graduating from school and a year of various internships, I was an assistant director at JES from 2004 to 2007, after which I studied acting direction at Theaterakademie Hamburg. In 2018 I completed further education in theatre and music management at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
Elsewhere
I have been working as a freelance director in theatre for young audiences since 2010. In addition to JES, I have directed at Staatstheater Mainz, GRIPS Theater Berlin, moks junges theatre Bremen, jungen LTT Tübingen, and at Schauburg Munich, among others. Since 2010 I have also been working as a translator of theatre texts from English into German. Since summer 2019, I have been a member of the board of trustees of the Landesverband der Kunstschulen Baden-Württemberg (State Association of Art Schools Baden-Württemberg).
JES! And ME
As a freelance director, I have staged “Die besten Beerdigungen der Welt”, “Die Abenteuer des starken Wanja”, “Unsere große Welt”, “Die Bademattenrepublik” and “Unbändig” at JES. From 2014 to 2022 I was also one of the organisational and production managers of Bright View. I have been the artistic director of JES since the 2022/23 season.
CONTACT
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Probelauf: SHAME – The Musical
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Daniela Ruocco grew up in Germany and Uruguay. She studied at the Bern University of the Arts (Master Expanded Theatre). Daniela works multilingually (de/es/en/fr/it) and across disciplines in various constellations as an actress, performer, artistic director, co-director, co-author and concept inventor (e.g. with helium-x, fisting*sisters, monika truong, kraut_produktion, criptonite, fleischlin/meser). She is currently touring with her first full-length solo EN MI IMPERIO PERREO SOLA. The performance offers a feminist alternative to the often sexist reggaeton music world. Recurring motifs in Daniela's work revolve around multilingualism on and off stage, intersectional feminism, the power of body norms and questions of her own identity and history.
www.danielaruocco.ch
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Education
I was born in 1966. Before I completed my training as an actor at the Spielstatt Ulm (1989 to 1993), I gained my first theatre experience at the theatre in the Altstadthof in my hometown of Nuremberg.
Elsewhere
Afterwards I worke at Schnawwl, the children’s and youth theatre at the Nationaltheater Mannheim (1993 to 1996), and at Junges Theater Zürich (1996/97). From 1998 to 2004 I worked at the Children’s and Youth Theatre of the Landestheater Tübingen.
JES! and me
I became part of Junges Ensemble Stuttgart in 2004.
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EDUCATION
I was born in Kirchheim unter Teck in the year 2000 and completed my A-levels there. In 2024, I completed my degree in cultural and media education at the Ludwigsburg University of Education, where I specialised in art and theatre/literature.
ELSEWHERE
I already had the opportunity to gain experience in the arts and culture sector during my studies. As a gallery assistant at the LUMAS gallery in 2022/2023, I was able to support art lovers and photographers in their search for the right work of art and advise them on their own photo productions. The following year, 2023/2024, I worked in the office and in production at Theater RAMPE - a wonderful time full of valuable experiences.
JES! AND ME
I discovered JES in 2021, both through my studies and through my work at the box office during performances until 2022. In the 24/25 season,I am part of the team and have started a traineeship in theatre education and dramaturgy, which I am very happy about!
CONTACT
selma.sabotic@jes-stuttgart.de
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My full name is Lonteshia Jayne Stripf. I will be addressed as ‘Jayne’ in the future. I am 26 years old and a bass player, mainly in the pop, soul and funk genres. I play in many different bands and am also in most of the MD. I am currently a student at Popakademie Baden-Württemberg.
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Katherina Sattler, born in 1991, gained formative theatre experience from an early age (e.g. as a green goblin – a crazy experience) and decided to make a career out of acting when she grew up. Since graduating from the HfS Ernst Busch in Berlin and the École Philippe Gaulier in Paris, she has performed at various theatres in Berlin (Schaubühne/Staatsoper/Parkaue), Hamburg (JungesSchauSpielHaus), Hanover (Staatstheater) and Groningen/the Netherlands (NITE production/Club Guy&Roni), collecting minor prizes and a nomination for the FAUST PRIZE along the way.
She is also very interested in singing and bodywork by the way.
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Martha Schmalz supported the organisation of the Bright View festival in 2021 and 2022 and is assistant director of the production “Aus der Kurve fliegen” in the 2022/23 season.
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Caroline Stauch studied stage and costume design with Prof. Rosalie. During her studies, she was involved as a stage and costume designer in various productions, including at Schlossfestspiele Heidelberg and the Händelfestspiele Karlsruhe. During a stay abroad in Tallinn, she created the performance ‘Department of Desire’ in collaboration with Prof Lilja Blumenfeld's class at the Tallinn Academy of Arts, which was shown at the POT Festival Tallinn and at the ‘Prague quadrennial of performance design and space.’
After graduating, she worked as an assistant at Theater Freiburg and the Stuttgart State Theatres. Since 2017, she has been working as a freelance stage and costume designer at the theatres in Freiburg, Detmold, Heidelberg and Bremerhaven, Landesbühne Tübingen and Reutlingen, as well as with the theatre company ‘Physical Monkey’, which most recently performed at Pumpenhaus Münster and Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen.
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JES staff member, technician, workshop
Wolfram Stöckl has been part of the technical team at JES since the 2014/15 season.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Stefan Stiller, born on November 16th, 1996, is based in Berlin and has been active in the breaking scene as a dancer and teacher since 2013.
Among other things, he has been involved in film projects, toured Europe with street shows and took part in an artist exchange in Cuba as part of the ‘HaBer’ project.
Stefan has competed in international dance battles, was co-organiser of the urban dance festival ‘Sensei Session’ and has been a member of the CampusCompany in Berlin since 2022. He expands on his style of dance with influences from contemporary dance and improvisation concepts from other dance styles.
Since 2018, he has also dedicated himself to the development of interactive media installations and combines these with other artistic approaches.
In 2021 he received his Bachelor of Science in Media Informatics.
2021 erhielt er seinen Bachelor of Science in Medieninformatik.
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Hannah Juliane Steenbeck was born on October 4th, 1993, and is based in Berlin, Germany.
Juliane has been training in many different movement styles since her childhood: from rhythmic gymnastics over house, salsa, breaking, popping and hip hop to contemporary dance. She is very interested in improvisation and unusual movement patterns, which she uses to find challenges in her choreographic and dance work.
From 2015 to 2018, she was a scholarship holder at the University of Applied Sciences for Contemporary and Urban Stage Dance in Zurich (Höhere Fachschule für Zeitgenössische und Urbanen Bühnentanz Zürich). Since graduating, Juliane has worked as a dancer in Germany and Switzerland with choreographers including Giorgio Madia, Shafiki Sseggayi, Béatrice Goetz and Joy Alpuerto Ritter. She is part of the Merge Dance Collective and the interdisciplinary collective zookunft.project.
Her own choreographic works were awarded second prize in the ‘Das beste deutsche Tanzsolo’ competition at the euro scene Leipzig festival in 2017, the audience prize in the LOFFT Theatre Leipzig short piece competition in 2018 and second prize in the tanzspeicher Würzburg solo competition in 2020, and were financially supported by the Tankstelle Luzern platform for young artists and Neustart Kultur Distanz Solo.
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Mo Sommer studied songwriting and singing at Popakademie Mannheim, after Mo had already been travelling through Germany with various band projects since the age of 14. Mo is a freelance artist, musician, producer, performer and leader of the artist collective Meerkatzenblau.
Mo has been writing songs, composing music, poetry and short stories for 15 years. In 2013, Mo was in charge of the musical direction for an independent theatre ensemble in Berlin for the first time (‘Der Besuch der alten Dame’ by Dürrenmatt). This led to collaborations with HMTM Hannover, Nationaltheater Mannheim and independent theatre collectives.
Mo has been travelling with thd solo project MORI since 2014. Between 2016 and 2018, Mo received several awards for songwriting and composition for this project before Mo received the YouTube Early Career Support Scholarship in spring 2018. In summer 2018, Mo founded the Musikkulturverein MKB e.V. and is the chairperson of the organisation.
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Beatrix Simkó was the choreographer for the production ‘Nach dem Ende von allem’ Everything’ in the 2022/23 season. She is a dance artist, choreographer and media artist. She studied media and performance at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design and at the University of Hamburg. She has been active in the contemporary dance scene in Budapest for more than ten years and has worked in several international co-productions since 2015, mainly in German-speaking countries. She was selected for Aerowaves and Life Long Burning, the European platforms for performing arts, and works closely with the Workshop Foundation in Budapest. In her work, she investigates and explores the effects of our immediate environment on the individual, which she depicts through resounding , non-verbal means of expression of the body.
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Education
I originally come from the Czech Republic, where I successfully completed my apprenticeship as a men's tailor.
Elsewhere
Thirty years ago, I moved to Stuttgart. I worked there for nineteen years as a tailor in a photo studio and in the fashion store Beate Mössinger.
JES! And ME
I came to JES via a personal contact, director Klaus Hemmerle, for whose production ‘Nach Schwaben Kinder’ I created my first costumes at JES. Since then, I have worked at JES regularly and am responsible for the realisation of numerous costume designs by the set designers. I live in Stuttgart with my husband.
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Adrian Schmidt produces image films, snippets, teasers and trailers for JES. He has also worked on the productions ‘Bro*Call’ and ‘Corpus Delicti’.
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Ensemble, JES staff member, actor
Education
I was born on August 5th, 1998, in Königsfeld in the Black Forest and spent my childhood and youth there. After graduating from high school, I began a basic theatre education course at the ‘Theater Tempus fugit’ in Lörrach. During my training, I was in charge of various theatre groups, organised my own projects and performed a lot of forum theatre at schools. After my training, I began studying acting at the Zurich University of the Arts at the end of 2018. I attended courses on various acting techniques, gained a lot of experience in collective work and performance and completed my studies in the summer of 2022.
Elsewhere
I spent the 2021/22 season in Chemnitz, where I appeared in several productions at the municipal theatre as a member of the acting studio. I worked there with Matthias Huber and Nicolas Charaux, among others.
JES! and me
I have been a member of the JES ensemble since September 2022.
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Education
I was born in 1973 and studied theatre in Munich. I then completed a PhD in Mainz with a guest residency at the University of Texas/Austin, which I completed in 2002/03 with distinction and the university prize for the best dissertation.
Elsewhere
During my studies I worked as a guest director and freelance assistant director at numerous theatres (e.g. Grillo-Theater Essen, Staatsoper München, Oper Zürich) and festivals (e.g. at the young singers' festival Opera in the Ozarks in Arkansas/USA). During my doctoral degree I was involved in several conferences in the field of PR and organisation and was also the managing director of Projekt Geist & Wirtschaft e.V. in Mainz.
In the 2002/03 season, I was assistant to the press department and personal assistant to the artistic director at Staatstheater Mainz. From 2003 to 2006 I was a fundraiser at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, where I was responsible for sponsoring of the four-part theatre and was involved in the organisation of various festivals, such as Internationale Schillertage.
JES and me
Since the 2006/07 season, I have been head of administration and organisation at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart. Since 2008, I have been a regular lecturer in the programme for further education in theatre and orchestra management at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, and since 2020, I have been a lecturer on contract law at Schauspielschule Stuttgart / Hochschule für Musik & Darstellende Kunst.
Education
I was born in Switzerland in 1996 and gained my first stage experience as a singer in the band EVEN YOU there. I toured with the band for four years. After a year of musical theatre training in Lucerne, I moved to Munich to study acting at August Everding Theatre Academy.
Elsewhere
In the 2021/22 season, I performed in the play ‘Stolz und Vorurteil*(*oder so)’ at the Staatstheater Nürnberg for a year and was on stage in Munich with ‘RAGE’.
JES! and me
I have been a fixed ensemble member at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart since September 2022.
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Elsewhere
I have been drawn to the theatre since I was a child. My first internship in 2008/2009 was at JES in the set design department. Since then, I have worked there on and off as a temp.
At Staatstheater Stuttgart, I worked as a costume and set designer for Christian Tschirner and Corinna Harfouch, among others. I also worked there as a production assistant on the international theatre project ‘Orient Express’. At the Ludwigsburg Film Academy, I was able to immerse myself as a set designer in the world of film. I also worked in the costume department at Altes Schauspielhaus and the Palladium.
My additional expertise includes training as a carpenter, a year studying expressive dance and training as a textile designer in the craft of weaving.
JES! and me
I have been supporting the JES equipment team as a member of staff since the 2021/2022 season.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Education
I studied set and costume design at Central St Martinʼs College of Art and Design in London.
Elsewhere
From 1997 to 2002 I worked as a stage design assistant at theatres in Cologne City, Staatstheater and Thalia Theater Hamburg, where I was able to work with directors such as Michael Thalheimer, Stephan Kimmig and Leander Haussmann.
In Hamburg I met the director Jorinde Dröse, with whom I created numerous productions as a stage and costume designer from 2002 onwards at theatres such as Schauspiel Bochum, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Schauspiel Leipzig and Volkstheater München.
I have also created many stage and costume designs with the directors Sabine Harbeke, Klaus Hemmerle, Alexander Schilling and Hüseyin Michael Circipi at the Heilbronn Theatre, Landestheater Innsbruck and Theater Ingolstadt, among others.
JES! and me
I joined JES in 2018 as head of set design, much to the delight of my sons, with whom I live here in Stuttgart.
CONTACT
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Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht
Education
I was born in Darmstadt in 1967 and grew up in Wolfenbüttel near Braunschweig. After a traineeship, several years as a sports editor at the Goslarsche Zeitung and a trip around the world, I studied dramaturgy at adk Ulm.
Elsewhere
I then worked as a dramaturge and partly as a theatre teacher at the children's and youth theatres in Heidelberg (zwinger3) and Mannheim (Schnawwl) as well as at Nationaltheater Mannheim and in the festival management of the International Schiller Days. In addition to my work at JES, I am also a lecturer (including at Stuttgart Drama School), curator and author. Recent world premieres include ‘Artus!’ at the open-air theatre in Altusried, ‘Auf Ötzis Spuren’ at Theater des Kindes in Linz and ‘Das Ministerium der Einsamkeit’ at Theater an der Rott in Eggenfelden.
JES! and me
I have been a dramaturge at Junges Ensemble Stuttgart since 2006 and was artistic director of the international festival BRIGHT VIEW together with Brigitte Dethier until 2022. I was also managing director of the Baden-Württemberg Youth Theatre Prize for JES for ten years and one of three spokespersons for the working group of children's and youth theatres in Baden-Württemberg for five years.
CONTACT
Christian.schoenfelder@jes-stuttgart.de
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Grandma Monika – what happened?
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Education
I was born in Bamberg in 1994. I began studying Theatre Studies, Philosophy and General and Comparative Literature at Freie Universität Berlin in 2015, followed by dramaturgy at the August Everding Theatre Academy.
Elsewhere
At the theatre in Bamberg, I worked as an assistant in theatre education during my school years and was on stage as an extra and in the youth club. Afterwards, I interned at Deutsches Theater Berlin, Deutsche Oper and Landestheater Coburg, among others. In addition to my work at the theatre, I have worked at several festivals – especially as in guest relations – for example at the 33rd Bavarian Theatre Days, the 32nd International Short Film Festival interfilm Berlin, several editions of the Bamberg Short Film Festival and at UWE – das Festival.
From 2020 onwards, I provided dramaturgical advice to several productions in the independent scene and, from the 20/21 season onwards, worked in the dramaturgy department of Theater Niedersachsen.
JES and me
I started working at JES as a dramaturge in the season 22/23
CONTACT
alina.tammaro@jes-stuttgart.de
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Suramira Vos, born in The Hague (NL), grew up in Appenzell (CH), freelance actress, speaker and author based in Bern (CH). She studied acting at the Bern University of the Arts and International Screen Acting at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (DE). In addition to student prizes from the Migros Cultural Foundation and Friedl-Wald Foundation, she received the ‘Adriana Award for Best Actress’ and ‘Best Theatre Production’ at the Skena Up Festival Pristina for ‘7 Days of Ugliness’.
She has appeared on stage as Gloria in ‘They Shoot Horses Don't They’ (Südpol Luzern, directed by Ursula Hildebrand), as Ismael in Moby Dick (Theaterwerkstatt Frauenfeld, directed by Markus Kelle), as Fairy Queen in ‘The Fairy Queen’ and Anne-Liz in ‘Tür auf, Tür zu’. She plays the leading role in the short film ‘das Velo’ and was seen in ‘Terminal’ and ‘Heart Fruit’ by Kim Allamand.
Her solo ‘Ausbauchen’ about the world of language surrounding the digestive process won the Jungseglerpreis in 2020 and toured 20 small theatres in Switzerland. In 2023, she spent six months on an ‘Artist in (Weather and Language) Wandering’ programme with a studio grant from Ausserrhodische Kulturstiftung, walking and writing her way along the South West Coast Path in England. She enjoys cold forest bathing.
https://www.filmmakers.eu/de/actors/suramira-vos
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Lin Verleger is a professional dancer and choreographer whose dance style is characterised by a mixture of breakdance and contemporary dance.
He was a former German breakdance champion and has danced for Susanne Linke, Regina Advento (Pina Bausch), La Macana, Nuran David Calis and the Tanztheater Erfurt, among others.
In recent years, he has focused on working in children's and youth theatre. He has choreographed and staged pieces at Comedia Cologne, JES Stuttgart and Tanz Graz, among others, and also works as a mentor and dance teacher.
In cooperation with ‘Mira’ and ‘Youngdogs’, he won the 2nd prize at the 2018 NRW Youth Culture Prize for the dance film ‘Mutprobe’ and was invited to the 2019 Tanztreffen der Jugend with ‘Uncanny Valley’.
His solo was awarded the prize for the best solo at the NRW Solo Duo Competition 2019 and his play ‘Mutig Mutig’ was nominated for the Cologne Theatre Prize in 2020 and was Children's Theatre of the Month in November 2022.
Homepage
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Christin Vahl studied fine arts at HfBK Hamburg, specialising in stage design.
She works as a set designer at national and international theatres and opera houses, in the performance and dance scene and in museums for contemporary art, including at Münchner Kammerspiele, Haus der Kunst München, Thalia Theater, Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Kampnagel, Theater Freiburg, Theater Aachen, Deutsches Theater, Konzerthaus Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, KunstWerke Berlin, Kunsthalle Baden Baden, Kunsthalle Bremen, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Salzburger Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Romaeuropa Festival and Performa Biennial New York.
She has been a guest lecturer at the Akademie für Darstellende Kunst Baden-Württemberg since 2017.
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EDUCATION
In summer 2024, I completed my master's degree in cultural education at the Ludwigsburg University of Education with a focus on digital media and theatre. For my thesis, I did research in the field of audio description in theatre.
JES! AND ME
I first became aware of JES during my studies. Since the 24/25 season, I have been working permanently at JES in press and public relations.
CONTACT
I come from a small town near Frankfurt am Main. My parents are both Deaf, German sign language is my first language and I grew up in the Deaf community, which is why topics such as participation and inclusion are very close to my heart. I got into acting in my youth, mainly through the musical club at my school, but also through my time on the children's series ‘Schloss Einstein’. Somehow I quickly realized that I wanted to do this as a career. Nevertheless, I first studied German and English language and literature after school and completed my Bachelor's degree. During that time, however, I was also always acting, for example at Junges Schauspiel Frankfurt or in inclusive theater projects. That's why I decided to finally study acting and have been studying at HMDK Stuttgart since the summer semester of 2023.
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Karolien was born in Belgium in 1998 and graduated in Urban Contemporary at Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts in 2020. Since then and during an internship, she has worked with several choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Ester Ambrosino, Blenard Azizaj, Kristina Alleyne, Tony Adigun, Sarah Wiktorowicz, ...
Karolien Wauters has been working as a freelance dancer and artist based in Tilburg, Netherlands, since 2020. Although she works on various projects in several countries, she has found a base in Tilburg from which she can easily travel.
In October 2020, Karolien Wauters received two awards for her graduation solo entitled ‘Sweet and Source’ at the international festival Contact.energy 2020 in Germany: the audience award and 2nd place. Her choreography will continue to be shown in various ways in the upcoming years.
Karolien is currently a dancer in the Motus Mori Museum project by choreographer Katja Heitmann. She started working with Heitmann when she was still at school and has been working with her ever since.
Since the beginning of 2022, Karolien has been working with the Jordi Vidal Company. In this context, she creates and explores various elements in the project ‘Temporality’.
In June 2021, Karolien founded the ANUTKA collective together with her friend Anneleen Nickmans, a collobration for all kinds of projects that they carry out together, starting with the performance ‘Purple Phase’, which premiered in November 2021 and is continuously being developed. This creation was made possible by the support of Passerelle VZW, a platform for young artists based in Belgium.
In April 2022, Wauters began working with Kato Mergan. A young Belgian choreographer with whom she has continued working to expand and explore the performance ‘No brain, no glory, no body, same story’.
Karolien has been working with Junges Ensemble Stuttgart as a dancer for the new production ‘Leichte Turbulenzen’ since November 2022. In general, Wauters focuses on different projects with different themes, styles, research and choreographers and is constantly looking for new impulses.
Laura-Sophie Warachewicz was born in Duisburg and had her first experience on stage at Junges Theater Leverkusen. She then studied acting at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart in 2016. As part of her studies, she played Mrs Mirador in ‘Das Leben auf der Praca Roosevelt’ at Wilhelma Theatre and several roles in ‘Rage’ at Staatstheater Stuttgart, where she also appeared in ‘Ein Sommernachtstraum im Cyber-Valley’, a project by Schorsch Kamerun.
After graduating in 2020, she has been performing at JES since the 2019/20 season as part of the ‘Schauspielstudio Stuttgart’ in the production ‘Wir so: Welt retten’ as well as a freelance actress since 2021 in ‘Corpus Delicti’.
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Education
I was born in Dresden in 1998 and completed a federal voluntary service (FSJ) in theatre education at Landesbühnen Sachsen after graduating from high school. I then studied for a Bachelor's degree in Cultural Studies and Aesthetic Practice at the University of Hildesheim, majoring in theatre, and spent a year studying at the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático drama school in Málaga (Spain).
Elsewhere
During my time at school and university, I loved being on and behind the stage, ran several theatre clubs and workshops and assisted in various theatre and dance projects, including at Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Staatstheater Braunschweig and Compagnie Fredeweß in Hanover. I also developed my own dance performances and gave lessons in ballet basics, contemporary and dance improvisation.
JES! And ME
I have been working at JES as a theatre and dance teacher since the 2022/23 season. Among other things, I am part of the daycare language development project and lead the multi-generational dance workshop ‘Tell Me Your Story - Without Actually Telling Me Your Story’ during the autumn holidays, as well as the weekly theatre club ‘Das gehört sich so (nicht)!’.
CONTACT
nathaly.wuttke@jes-stuttgart.de
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Education
I was born in Waldkirch near Freiburg in 1987. In 2012, I completed my studies at the Institute for Theatre Pedagogy in Lingen (Ems) and then worked on a research project on ‘Speech therapy and theatre pedagogy’ at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. From 2013 to 2015, I completed on a M.A. programme in Theatre Education at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen/Nuremberg.
Elsewhere
Between my B.A. and M.A. degree, I gave theatre pedagogy seminars in the speech therapy course at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. During this time, I gained freelance work experience in theatre projects with vocational school students from Münster, as an assistant director at Theater Pfütze in Nuremberg and in experiential and circus education programmes and language development projects for children (Theatre Language Camp/Oberhausen, DeutschSommer/Frankfurt)
JES! And me
I have been working as a theatre educator at JES since the 2015/2016 season. I am particularly interested in early childhood cultural education, the participation of children and young people in and around JES and encountering people from a wide variety of lived experiences. For several years now, I have been the contact person for the Kita-Abo project to promote the language skills of pre-school children. In the 2022/23 season, I was responsible for ‘Die JESPhilosoph*innen’ and ran the inclusive theatre club ‘Die Träumer*innen’.
CONTACT
Silke.wilhelm@jes-stuttgart.de
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