Mari Hakopyan
Mari Hakopyan is a director, focusing on the development of laconic large-scale concepts for spaces, cities, companies and whoever needs a form. Coming from a strong theater background, she is interested in combining seemingly incompatible technologies and theatrical creativity into daily life.
Recent work experiences include the Schaubühne (directing internship); the game and development studio “Three More Years’ (narrative design); and the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe (lighting).
Her previous work experience includes staging plays, lighting design, and directing at the Kyiv National Theatre. Now Mari is completing her masters program in digital arts ‘Spiel und Objekt’ at the HfS Ernst Busch in Berlin.
Friederike Hänsel
Friedel Hänsel (she/ her) (*Dresden) is a theater maker and stage video designer. In her artistic practice she focuses on theater at the intersection of encounters and interaction through game mechanics, digital media, physical computing, light- and videodesign. She also uses theater as a political space, working in collectives and (queer)feminist groups, examining hegemonic and political structures in artistic work.
In 2021 she co-founded the chilean-german collective “what about: fuego” with recent performances at Politik im Freien Theater (Frankfurt 2022), Körber Studio Junge Regie (Hamburg 2022 ), the Best OFF Festival (Hannover 2022), and the Performance Art Festival (Berlin 2022). In addition, their play “Kriegsrahmen” was part of the digital program of the Santiago OFF festival. Their second play “IM ANFANG WAR DER ZAUN” had its premiere at Schauspiel Köln in September 2023.
She also has experience creating theater for and with a younger audience, including “Mir ist Langweilig” an interactive parkour in which the adult spectators are examined by the young performers in various rooms and “Three Perspectives” a participatory theater performance in which the young audience is collecting fragments of a story through forming chains and touching two materials that are far apart from each other in space.
Friedel studied scenic art and philosophy at the University Hildesheim and is completing her Master degree in Spiel && Objekt at the HfS Ernst Busch in Berlin.
Foto: Mirjana Vrbaški
Leonie Hanna Kopineck
Leonie Hanna Kopineck (she/they) is a Berlin-based theatre maker and game designer interested in interfaces and the overlap of different genres and art forms, as well as exploring collective work processes.
Leonie completed her undergraduate degree in Applied Theater Studies at Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen and is completing her MA in the Spiel und Objekt program at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch, where she is continuing her research in accessible interactive theatre forms, game design, and the possibility space that new media offers to theatre. In 2022 they spent a guest semester in Theater Directing at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Switzerland, were head of press and public relations for the “IMPLANTIEREN Festival 2022/23” in Frankfurt, and were part of the collectively organised team of “hungry eyes festival” in Giessen for the festivals editions in 2021 and 2022, as a program curator.
Leonie’s past collaborations include ID Frankfurt e.V. (DE), Hannes Seidel (DE, 2021), blickfelder Festival (CH, 2022), FFT Düsseldorf (DE, 2023), Theater Strahl Berlin (DE, 2023), the artists’ collective KOBAKANT (2023) as well as the artists’ collective Anna Kpok on the project Digitale Brücken (2023).
Foto: Mirjana Vrbaški
Jonas Olbrich
Jonas Olbrich (*1998, Recklinghausen) is a theatre maker, researching the performativity of play and game. In his work he combines game mechanics, electronics and game engines to investigate the performative moment of digital and actual game worlds. Jonas studied theatre studies and art history at the Ruhr University Bochum. He is currently completing his Master’s degree in Spiel && Objekt at the HfS Ernst Busch in Berlin. Recent activities include designing a game in theatre space for the “Das digitale Foyer” project at the FFT in Düsseldorf.
Foto: Mirjana Vrbaški
Veronika Rišňovská
Vero Róza Risnovska (she/they) is a theater maker, narrative designer, and researcher.
She works with dyi new media to create immersive installations and theater shows that propose news worlds and social contracts regarding feminism, capitalism and care. She believes that through understanding technology we can subvert its use to social and natural benefits, rather than submitting to the “customer-ship” of big companies.
She founded the interdisciplinary art platform and festival – Pankumenta in Berlin, and showed work at festivals and institutions such as Kiosk Festival of New Dance and Theater (SK), Hebbel am Ufer (DE), HaDivaldo (CZ), Theater Pôtoň (SK), Theater Strahl (DE), Project Batyskaf (SK), Pakt Cultural Center (SK), FamuFest (CZ) and FlashFilm Festival (DE).
She has collaborated with artistic and theater collectives such as Show and Tell Theater (DE), Taske Pop (SK, AT), Interrobang (DE) and Serious Film Manual (CZ, SK), among others.
She received her undergraduate degree in Arts and Aesthetics at Bard College Berlin, where she received the Civic Engagement Fellowship of the Open Society University Network every year. She is currently pursuing a masters in alternative theater at the Performing Arts Academy in Prague and a masters at the Spiel und Objekt program at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin.
She is inspired by the works of Donna Harraway, Ursula Le Guin, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven and Delia Derbyshire.
Her favorite soup is dill soup.
Foto: Mirjana Vrbaški
Jeffrey van der Geest
Jeffrey van der Geest (b. Vienna, 1997) is a new media artist whose work explores the concept of play as a subject, process, and tool for expression and community development. His practice looks for sincere moments in the narratives that arise from the process and lore of play, inviting audience members and visitors to be the centre of his works. Recent exhibitions include Kampnagel in Hamburg (2023), re:publica 2022 and Vorspiel 2022 Berlin (CTM x Transmediale). Jeffrey received his undergraduate degree from Brunel University London and a “Master’s in Computing and the Arts” from the Hochschule der Populären Künste in Berlin. He is pursuing his MA in Spiel && Objekt at the HfS Ernst Busch and working as a VR/AR creator at the “Studio für unendliche Möglichkeiten”.
Foto: Mirjana Vrbaški