Last update: 10 June 2020
Mark Ball
Creative Director, Manchester International Festival
Mark Ball is Creative Director of Manchester International Festival (MIF), which takes place every two years, and is responsible for leading the artistic programme for The Factory, the landmark cultural space now being built in the city, which will be MIF\'s year-round home. From April 2009 to June 2017 he was Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT), one of Europe’s leading arts festivals.
Kitchen Revolution, Guest Provocateur, 10 June 2020 19:00 CET
Marko Bratuš
Artistic Director at SNG Nova Gorica/Slovenia
"Theatre is one of the artistic branches that Covid-19 pandemic hurt the most: from freelancers through venues to big institutions, that is why it is very important that we restart the theatre eco-system as soon as possible: decisively but with care and understanding."
Marko Bratuš studied dramaturgy and radio directing at the Academy for Theatre Radio Film and Television at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He worked both as theatre and film director, as well as dramaturge, musician, theatre pedagogue, new format developer and screenwriter for television, film, radio and theatre. He was artistic director at Gledališče Glej - NGO experimental theatre in Ljubljana between 2013 and 2016. Marko Bratuš works since 2016 as artistic director at the Slovenian national theatre Nova Gorica.
Panel Discussion: Reopening European Theatres, Moderator, 11 June 2020 10:15 CET
Nils Corte
CEO Peppers Holosuite, Fellow Academy for Digitality & Theatre, Dortmund/Germany
Nils Corte is a Berlin-based programmer, musician, author and producer of theater plays. His artistic focus lies on the visualisation and utilisation of virtual reality in performance contexts. He develops the multilayer visualisation software peppers Holosuite and is mentor/future fellow at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund.
Digital Theatre Webinar, 11 June 2020 14:00 CET
Mariya Gabriel
European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth
Mariya Gabriel has been serving as European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth in the von der Leyen Commission since 2019. She is a member of the Bulgarian party GERB and was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2017. In the European Parliament she served as Vice-President of the European People’s Party (EPP) group, Vice-President of EPP Women and head of the Bulgarian EPP delegation. She was first appointed to the European Commission in 2017 as European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. Read more...
Opening Message, 11 June 2020, 10:00 CET
Natalia Kaliada
Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director/CEO, Belarus Free Theatre/UK
Natalia Kaliada is the co-founding Artistic Director of Belarus Free Theatre (BFT), an award-winning theatre-maker, writer and director. As an internationally renowned diplomat and human rights campaigner Natalia has pioneered a unique method of transversal lobbying and campaigning, uniting artistic, geopolitical, environmental and human rights concerns, to bring systematic change to different societies. Forced to leave her home in Minsk for her work as an artist-activist campaigner, Natalia sought asylum in the UK in 2011 where she is now a political refugee.
Kitchen Revolution, Host, 10 June 2020 19:00 CET
Sophie Kayes
Co-Executive, Development and Education Director, Belarus Free Theatre/UK
Sophie Kayes joined BFT in January 2020, but she has known the company for 14 years, since covering the Jeans Revolution in Minsk in 2006 for a US-based newspaper The Baltimore Sun. Since then she worked for prominent organisations including the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, a Time Warner publishing company and the legendary Frontline Club in London. Sophie has also produced films and theatre in London\'s West End. Her passion lies on the intersection between politics and the arts, as she believes that the best way to reach the public is through art-activism, a method widely used by BFT.
Kitchen Revolution, Host, 10 June 2020 19:00 CET
Nicolai Khalezin
Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director, Belarus Free Theatre/UK
Nicolai Khalezin is the co-founding Artistic Director of Belarus Free Theatre (BFT), an award-winning director, playwright, designer, educator, political campaigner and journalist. Nicolai served time in prison in Belarus for his involvement in political campaigns, and was recognised as a Prisoner of Consciousness by Amnesty International. This experience inspired one of BFT’s most celebrated shows, Generation Jeans, an autobiographical duologue about rock music and resistance. Nicolai is now based in London, after seeking political asylum in the UK, and directs BFT's productions over Skype.
Kitchen Revolution, Host, 10 June 2020 19:00 CET
Veronica Kaup-Hasler
Executive City Councillor for Cultural Affairs and Science of Vienna/Austria
Veronica Kaup-Hasler is Executive City Councillor and State Minister for Cultural Affairs and Science of the City of Vienna since June 2018. Since then she managed to raise the city’s cultural budget by over 10%. Her emphasis in politics is in a social view on artistic production, insisting on fair-pay and strengthening institutions as well as production units of all kind in a politics of “repair and care”. In addition to that she started initiatives to reinforced cultural production also in the outer parts of Vienna. Building cultural bridges to new audiences, including participatory work as well as a strong focus on diversity & inclusion in a growing international metropole.
"Do the Arts Have a Lobby in Europe?", 11 June 10:25 CET
Iris Laufenberg
General Director, Schauspielhaus, Graz/Austria
"After the shock of the lockdown I found myself as a frightened rabbit, who was considering the situation; comparing theatres worldwide it was necessary to analyse the possibilities to move again and to get vital creativity back: Let us look together to the future!"
After working in Bonn and Bremen, Iris Laufenberg worked as a dramaturge and artistic director of the international Bonn Biennale Festival. She was the director of the internationally reputable festival Theatertreffen in Berlin from 2002 to 2011, followed by director of drama at the Konzert Theater Bern (Switzerland) from 2012 to 2015. Since the 2015/16 season, Iris Laufenberg has worked as the managing director of the Schauspielhaus Graz (Austria). Among sharpening the profile of contemporary authors by founding the "Dramatiker|innenfestival" of Graz, she goes on pursuing the development of the city theatre concept beyond content genres and geographical boundaries. Read more...
Panel Discussion: Reopening European Theatres, Speaker, 11 June 2020 10:15 CET
Birgit Lengers
Head of Junges DT and DT International, Deutsches Theater Berlin
Birgit Lengers studied theatre, film and cultural studies in Cologne and Hildesheim (Germany). After six years of collaborating with director Thorsten Lensing (THEATER T1), she became a dramaturg at German Theater Abroad (GTA) where she conceived and realised transatlantic festivals and theatre projects such as Stadttheater New York (New York) and Road Theater USA. Lengers is a guest lecturer at the University of Hildesheim and the Berlin University of the Arts. She was moderator of the Theatertreffen in Berlin as well as a juror for the first and second Bürgerbühnenfestival, the “Brüder-Grimm-Preis” (awarded by the state of Berlin) and the Heidelberger Stückemarkt. Her publications include Text + Kritik, transcript Verlag, Theater der Zeit, Die Deutsche Bühne and Korrespondenzen. Since the 2009/10 season, Birgit Lengers has been director of Junges DT. She has also been the head of DT International and curator of the RADAR OST festival since 2018.
Kitchen Revolution, Guest Provocateur, 10 June 2020 19:00 CET
Karla Mäder
Head of Dramaturgy, Schauspielhaus Graz/Austria
Karla Mäder was born in 1972 and grew up in East Berlin. She graduated from High School in 1990, right after the fall of the wall, and started to study theatre science at the Humboldt University in East-Berlin and comparative literature science in West-Berlin. After university, she began working in the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin, followed by the theatres in Kiel, Lübeck (both in northern Germany), Bern (Switzerland), and now Graz (Austria). In Graz, she is working for the last five years in a team of four dramaturgs under the artistic director and intendant Iris Laufenberg.
Artistic Intervention: Nobody is Waiting, 11 June 2020 10:15 CET
Marina Maleni
Theatre Development Officer, Cyprus Theatre Organisation/Cyprus
Marina Maleni as worked successfully as an actress, TV host and radio music producer for several years. Working since 2001 as Theatre Development Officer for Cyprus Theatre Organisation, in charge of State theatre subsidies and policy forming, European collaborations, playwriting development, non-professional theatre, theatre education programmes, festivals, PQ National Participation (Curator since 2007), etc. Marina Maleni has worked extensively in the Committee for Theatre in Schools (THOC - Ministry of Education and Culture), the Study Committee for the creation of A Cultural Authority in Cyprus, the National Committee for Delphic Games, secretary of CYCSTAT, member of the advisory body of the Cyprus Youth Board, Board member of the Cyprus Theatre Museum etc. Coordinated several very successful European culture program collaborations for Cyprus. Hosts CYBC TV talk show on culture.
"Do the Arts Have a Lobby in Europe?", 11 June 10:25 CET
Norbert Rakowski
General Manager and Artistic Director, JK Opole Theatre/Poland
"In Poland, the coronavirus pandemic revealed the imperfections of its theatre system. Artists seek new ways of approaching and engaging their audience."
Norbert Rakowski graduated from the Faculty of Drama Directing at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. Since 1997 he has worked as an assistant director of Krystian Lupa and as a theatre director, he debuted with his original production Suddenly (Studio Theatre in Warsaw). He is artistic director at JK Opole Theatre since 2015. In 2016 he created the new space Modelatornia, a place with an unusual character, that would serve the implementation of postulates of Jerzy Grotowski, providing the basis for experimental explorations in the field of theatre.
Panel Discussion: Reopening European Theatres, Speaker, 11 June 2020 10:15 CET
Serge Rangoni
ETC President, General Manager of Théâtre de Liège/Belgium
Serge Rangoni studied at the Conservatoire of Brussels. After working in various theatre institutions and at the Ministry of Culture, he was designated in 2004 as General Manager of Théâtre de Liège. Under his leadership, the theatre received the titles of “European centre of theatrical creation and choreography” and “Centres for Drama” in the French-speaking area of Belgium, affirming its role in theatrical and dance productions and their dissemination to local and international audiences. Since his arrival at its head, the institution has developed considerably, with now an audience of 65,000 and more than 180 performances a season. Théâtre de Liège is today the leading stage in Wallonia.
Welcome & Introduction, 11 June 2020 10:00 CET
Roman Senkl
Dramaturg, Director and Writer, Theater Dortmund, Academy for Digitality & Theatre, Dortmund/Germany
Productions at Maxim-Gorki-Theater, DT Berlin, Berliner Ensemble, Ringlokschuppen et al. University Teacher/Lecturer - University of the Arts Graz, Princeton, Cornell University. Co-Founder of Theatre Groups "K.G.I.", "minuseins" "onlinetheater.live" as well as "Initiative Interface" & "Initiative Digitale Dramaturgie", for which he coordinated "UnBoxing Stages" festival/Berliner Theatertreffen 2020. Winner of "Gold Lion", Cannes.
Digital Theatre Webinar, 11 June 2020 14:00 CET
Jochen Strauch
Director, Schauspielhaus Graz/Austria
Jochen Strauch, born 1971 and raised in the EURegio around Aachen, is a trained theatre director and Executive Master in Arts Administration at the University of Zurich. His engagements have taken him in various positions from Schauspiel Koeln to Muenchner Kammerspiele to Deutsches Schauspielhaus and Thalia Theater in Hamburg. He works freelance and stages contemporary drama, classics and interdisciplinary productions internationally in Hamburg, Viterbo, Rome, Winterthur, Kiel, Graz, Berlin and elsewhere.
Artistic Intervention: Nobody is Waiting, 11 June 2020 10:15 CET
Dubravka Vrgoč
Artistic & General Director, Croatian National Theatre Zagreb/Croatia
Dubravka Vrgoč started her career as a theatre critic and journalist. Throughout the last 20 years, she acted as jury or board member of diverse Croatian cultural activities with an international profile, worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Croatian government and as international relations advisor for the cultural department of the City of Zagreb. She conducted research projects on “Theatre for the 21st century” in London and in New York, has been invited to numerous meetings and conferences as Croatian cultural expert organised by the Council of Europe or UNESCO and has ever since strongly supported and engaged in youth work, both on a political and artistic level. Read more...
Panel Discussion: Reopening European Theatres, Speaker, 11 June 2020 10:15 CET
Susanne Konstanze Weber
Ensemble Member, Schauspielhaus Graz/Austria
Artistic Intervention: Nobody is Waiting, 11 June 2020 10:15 CET
Heidi Wiley
ETC Executive Director
Appointed Executive Director of the European Theatre Convention in 2009, Heidi Wiley has established ETC as a European network for theatres with a focus on artistic collaboration, professional development and advocacy for Europe's major public theatres. Under her leadership, ETC became a selected partner of the European Commission and was awarded European prizes for youth and digital theatre in the fields of audience development and cultural heritage as organisation for its outstanding achievement. Prior, she internationally produced and managed theatre companies and artists in France and the UK, co-produced performances at major European and Asian festivals and venues (Hongkong International Arts Festival, International Singapore Arts Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Abbey Theatre in Dublin to name a few) and was touring manager. Read more...
Kitchen Revolution, Moderator, 10 June 2020 19:00 CET
Welcome & Introduction, 11 June 2020 10:00 CET
Photo credits: Mark Ball ©Rebecca Lupton, Marko Bratus ©Peter Uhan, Iris Laufenberg - Karla Mäder ©Lupi Spuma, Birgit Lengers ©Arno Declair, Mariya Gabriel ©Gaspare Dario Pignatelli , Veronica Kaup-Hasler ©Jobst, Marina Maleni ©CYBC publicity photo, Norbert Rakowski ©Jacek Poremba, Jochen Strauch ©Peter Hönnemann