Chiaki Soma is the founder and director of Arts Commons Tokyo, an independent art and theatre collective founded in 2014. As a curator and producer, Chiaki Soma specializes in transdisciplinary contemporary art that combines theatre and media art with AR/VR technologies. Over the past twenty years, she has produced or curated various projects in Japan and Asia as Programme Director of Festival/Tokyo (2009-2013), Founding President and Artistic Director of Theater Commons Tokyo (2017 – present), Curator of Performing Arts of Aichi Triennale (2019 and 2022) and Executive Producer of Toyooka Theater Festival (2021). She currently works as an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts.

Anne Kleiner has been working as a production manager for as long as she can remember, with a great fondness for complex, international projects such as Meg Stuart / Damaged Goods, Raumlaborberlin, and the MELEZ.2010 Festival (RUHR.2010). Since 2016, she has been working at the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm. Currently, she occupies the position of administrative director for Theater der Welt 2023.

Kyoko Iwaki is a lecturer of theatre and performance studies at the University of Antwerp. Her research focuses on Japanese and European theatre of non-human philosophy. Kyoko Iwaki completed her Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths University of London in 2017. After completing her Ph.D., she received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council and became a visiting scholar at the Segal Center, City University of New York. Before entering academia, she worked as an international theatre critic for over a decade.

As a freelance dramaturge, Maria Rößler supports the festival’s program management in international program research and design. She has worked with freelance theater and performance makers and for international performing arts festivals in Berlin and Zurich. She studied theater in Dublin and Berlin as well as international dramaturgy in Amsterdam and Ghent.

Hanna Steinmair works for Theater der Welt as a dramaturge with a focus on art education and local networking. As a dramaturge and project initiator, she interacts with many different groups of the independent scene in Frankfurt am Main and the surrounding area. In 2021, she worked as a dramaturge at the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm.

Björn Fischer works as a freelance artist in the field of performance, new music, multi-media and as a dramaturge and author. If he is not in exchange with programmed machines, artificial intelligences or more-than-human actors, he might test new forms of being together with his collective neco_nart or with other artists.

Sara Gröning studied performing arts (B.A.) in Hildesheim and dramaturgy (M.A.) in Frankfurt. Among other things, she worked in the festival Implantieren2020, produced the audio project “(Gehör)-Gang” 2021, as well as the podcast “Kurz zuvor” at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm. She is active as a mediator in schools and daycare centers in the Rhein Main area and leads the workshop program of the festival “Starke Stücke”. In the GbR “Kunst&Kuchen”, which she co-founded, she works with senior citizens and conducts research on questions of collective artistic creation.

Ann-Sophie Reiser works as a coordinator of the artistic and administrative directors at Theater der Welt 2023. Previously, she held the position of assistant director at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. During this time, she acted as the assistant production manager at the 21^st Internationalen Schillertagen.

As part of her Voluntary Cultural Year, Lioba Nowak works in the field of administation for Theater der Welt 2023. She is interested in sustainability as well as the visual and the performing arts.

Josias Fröhlich is responsible for third-party funding management and controlling. He studied theater and orchestra management as well as business and administration. He manages a children’s and youth circus on a voluntary basis and has worked in the areas of artistic operations office, administration, ticketing and customer management at several theaters and cultural institutions.

Fumiko Toda was born in Tokyo and lives there still. She graduated from Waseda University, Department of Architecture. Since 2007, she has been working as a production manager and production coordinator. Fumiko Toda has also been responsible for numerous performances, overseas and domestically; she has organized tours for artists, theaters, and festivals. Additionally, she works for the production and supervision of theater subtitling and video translation.

Irene Gomer is the artistic production manager for Theater der Welt 2023 and has been at the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm since summer 2021. In the Mousonturm, she coordinated the open-air theater SOMMERBAU designed by raumlaborberlin. Previously, she has worked as a managing director of an event agency.

The task of making the impossible possible is Simone Molitor’s passion. And when this takes place in an intercultural environment, she feels right at home. For 23 years, Simone Molitor has been working as a production and project manager for various international productions in the creative industries at home and abroad, and thus now also for Theater der Welt 2023.

Charlotte Hesse works as a production manager for Theater der Welt 2023. She studied musicology as well as theater and orchestra management. Her focus is on festival management in the field of theater and performance. She has worked for the Ruhrtriennale, Impulse Theaterfestival, Politik im Freien Theater, the International Schillertage and the Mannheimer Sommer, and was part of the team of the Münchner Kammerspiele around Matthias Lilienthal.

Adnan Abbas is production manager for the music program and works in the artistic and technical production office. He has been employed at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm since May 2021. He has already participated in the festival This is Not Lebanon, Bodies un-protected and Politik im Freien Theater 2022. In his past, he has organized parties with electronic dance music, among other things. In short, it can be said that his motto is to create beautiful moments.

Daniel Groß works as a technical production manager for Theater der Welt 2023 and has been active as a freelancer in the technical departments of the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm for many years. As a freelance technical producer, Daniel Groß supervised various projects, such as the open-air theater SOMMERBAU 2021, the festivals Politik im freien Theater 2022 and Barock am Main, as well as projects of the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.

Olivia Hotz advises Theater der Welt 2023 on the subject of accessibility. One of her work’s focuses is the holistic implementation of accessibility measures for festivals, especially in processes of production as well as digital communication. Olivia is interested in care-centered and discrimination-sensitive collaboration. During Theater der Welt 2023, she works closely with Lea Gockel (Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm) and the initiative Barrierefrei Feiern.

Lea Gockel has been developing the position of Accessibility Coordinator and inclusive cultural practice at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm since November 2022, with expertise from cultural studies, her own cultural practice, and personal experience as a chronically ill and neurodivergent person. During Theater der Welt 2023, she works closely with the consultant Oliva Hotz and the initiative Barrierefrei Feiern.

Kai Schmidt works as a project manager, copywriter and dramaturge intersecting between art, culture and business. He has also worked for theaters in Erlangen, Ingolstadt, Munich, and Rüsselsheim as well as for advertising agencies in Graz, Frankfurt am Main and Salzburg. Here and there, he brings people, objects, money and projects together.

Karen Knoll is responsible for communications and marketing of Theater der Welt 2023. She has already worked at the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt and other cultural institutions in the Rhine-Main region as well as in free contexts on the level of communication and mediation and also taught cultural theory as a lecturer at the Mainz University of Applied Sciences.

Lena Schaper is fascinated by the performing arts. After graduating from high school, she now supports press and public relations as part of her voluntary cultural year.