FESTIVAL ACADEMY

The youngest generation of theatre-makers is invited to Hannover, to accompany Theaterformen with their questions and critique, to create new visions for future work, to enjoy and fill the open space of the Festival Academy and to build up networks that will last well beyond the festival.

Namatshego Khutsoane (South Africa) is a Performer, Director and Applied Theatre Practitioner. Her commitment to the Social, Educational and Developmental aspects of the arts was moulded during her time of study at Rhodes University; and work with UBOM! in the eastern cape. She performs and directs for stage, site and varieties of community/target-based theatre.

Pia Monique Murray (USA) studied African-American Studies and Dance at Oberlin College (Ohio). She is currently the assistant to Nora Chipaumire, a dancer in Vado Diaomande’s Kotchegna Dance Company and is head of the Pia Monique Murray Dance Collective. 

Selena Lu (China/UK) also carries out scholarly research along with her artistic and educational work. Most recently, she created the community project “The Way to Walden” (2015) with a group of college students in financial difficulty. 

Catherine Douglas (Zimbabwe) was the first female dancer in the Tumbuka Dance Company, with which she tours regularly. She is the founder of Zaidi Dance and teaches young dancers herself. 

Jaques De Silva (South Africa) teaches Physical Theatre at the Market Theatre Laboratory and can be seen regularly in various stage productions in South Africa. In 2011, he won the Arts and Culture Trust prize for Best Young Artist. 

Essia Jaïbi (Tunisia) studied Theatre Studies in Paris and is interested in the interaction between art and the city. In 2015, she founded the project “Tunis sur le Divan”: a performative city tour somewhere between theatre and psychoanalysis. 

Head of the seminar programme: Philipp Schulte (University of Gießen) 

As part of the partnership with Eastern Cape Province in South Africa, the state of Lower Saxony has provided two festival scholarships for participants from Eastern Cape.