Guests

Bärbel Haage was born in Erfurt in 1975. This visual artist, illustrator, theatre and film maker studied puppet theatre scenery at the historic Prague College, School of Art & Design from 1994 to 1997.

Since then she has been involved as a stage/puppet designer in numerous theatre and puppet theatre productions. From 2002 to 2005 she was the director of design at the Dresden Puppet Theatre. Over the last few years she has realized four German-Czech animated film projects. Additionally she worked many times with the Czech Forman-Theater and these co-productions have repeatedly received renowned Czech prizes for drama.

Bärbel Haage designed the stage, puppets and costumes for “The Oracle or The Bear, the Peacock and the Secret of the Old Hare” and for the Grimm fairy tale "Rumpelstiltskin".

Coco Ruch was born in 1970 in Freiburg, Breisgau. She has lived and worked in Erfurt since 2000. From 1988 to 1994 she studied painting/graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. She graduated as a master student under Reiner Küchenmeister. Exhibitions followed in Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Berlin and Erfurt.
From 1991-1996 she studied expressive dance under Freia Leonhardt and worked on projects with her. Then she moved to Berlin in 1996 and entered the world of theatre imagery with her initial work in puppetry and puppet making at the ACUD Theatre. Since 1998, she has been designing and building sets for performances, theatre, theatre sculptures, etc. From 2002 to 2011, she worked with and studied under the costume and set designer Ella Späte.
Coco Ruch has worked with: ACUD Theater Berlin, Theater unterm Dach Berlin, FEB Eisenach, Theaterscheune Teutleben, Shakespeare Company Berlin, Serkowitzer Volksoper Dresden, Theatersommer Erfurt, Erfreuliches Theater Erfurt, Die Schotte Erfurt, Sommerkomödie Barfüßerruine Erfurt.

The costume design for Krabat in the 2021/22 season was is her first collaboration with Theater Waidspeicher.

Photo by: Marcel Krummrich

Kerstin Schmidt was born in Halle/Saale in 1960. From 1978 to 1980 she did a training as a men's tailor, followed, by a training and qualification as fashion designer from 1980 to 1983. From 1983 to 1989 she did evening classes at the School of Art Berlin/Weißensee. Since 1990 she has been working as a freelance set designer for theatre, opera and puppet theatre productions. Since 2010 she has run “Engel-Schmidt Produktion” with Frank A. Engel.

For Theater Waidspeicher, Kerstin Schmidt designed the set and puppets for "Grand Hotel", "The Seven Ravens", "Amadeus", "Heart of Stone", "King Lear“, "The Wooden Horse“, “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall”, “The Master and Margarita”, “Pinocchio” and “Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow”.

In the season 2022/2023 she designs puppets, sets and costumes for “Gold Power Love Death – The Song of the Nibelungs”.

After finishing school, this native of Berlin worked as an artistic assistant as well as in various dance theatre projects. She graduated from the Faculty of Puppetry at the "Ernst Busch" Academy of Dramatic Arts (Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch" Berlin). Various engagements took her to the Theatre of the Arts in Zurich, the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Theater des Lachens in Frankfurt/Oder. From 2003 to 2005 she was a member of the Theater Waidspeicher ensemble. Following this she worked freelance. From 2009 to 2012 she was an actress and puppeteer with Theater Naumburg/Saale. From 2013 until 2022 Kathrin Blüchert was once more a member of the Theater Waidspeicher ensemble, where she has appeared in more than 20 productions since then.

In the season 2022/2023 she appears in:

Als mein Vater ein Busch wurde und ich meinen Namen verlor (The Day my Father became a Bush)
Das kalte Herz (Heart of Stone)
Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee (Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow)
Der Meister und Margarita (The Master and Margarita)

Nadine Wottke was born in Arnstadt in 1978. From 1998 to 1999 she studied media design at the Bauhaus University Weimar and then transferred to studying fine art at the Faculty of Design at the Bauhaus University Weimar, which she finished with a diploma in 2007.

She has lived in Erfurt as a freelance artist since 2007. From 2007 to 2019, she was a lecturer at the Erfurt School of Painting, and also took on teaching assignments at the University of Erfurt and the Bauhaus University Weimar. For her work, which has been exhibited in Erfurt, Berlin, Münster, Basel, Zurich, Barcelona, New York and Miami, among other places, she has received various prizes and scholarships, including the scholarship of the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Thuringia in both 2008 and 2017 as well as the Pulse Award Miami in 2012.

Since 2018, Nadine Wottke has been employed as a staff member in the studio of Theater Waidspeicher. The overall set design for the production "Four Tales of Heaven and Earth" in the 2020/2021 season at Theater Waidspeicher is her first independent theatre work. In the 2021/2022 season, she took on the overall design for the production of "Tom Thumb".

In the 2022/2023 season, she is responsible for the overall design of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier".

Photo by: Marcel Krummrich

Frank Alexander Engel was born in Pasewalk (Germany) in 1965. In 1990 he entered "Ernst Busch" Academy of Dramatic Arts (Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch" in Berlin), faculty of Puppetry and graduated as a puppeteer in 1994. After this he worked at the State Opera Berlin and the Thuringian State Theatre Meiningen and as director, set designer and performer at the Young Generation Theatre Dresden.

Since 1998 he has worked as a free-lance director and set designer for puppet theatre and opera. From 2003 to 2011 he was employed by the Puppet Theatre of the City of Magdeburg as director, set designer and performer. Since 2010 he has run “Engel-Schmidt Produtkion” with Kerstin Schmidt. For Theater Waidspeicher he directed und built sets and puppets for "Grand Hotel", "The Seven Ravens", "Amadeus", "Heart of Stone", "King Lear“, "The Wooden Horse", "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall", "The Master and Margarita", "Pinocchio" and "Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow".

In the season 2022/2023 he is the director and the set and puppet designer for "Gold Power Love Death – The Song of the Nibelungs".

Christian Georg Fuchs was born in Düsseldorf in 1972. He studied music theatre direction at the “Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg” and was granted a scholarship of the foundation "Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes". He realized various productions in music-theatre, drama and puppet theatre in Hamburg, Weimar, Leipzig, Naumburg, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Neuss, Bautzen, Dessau and Chemnitz. Christian Georg Fuchs directed "Good Morning, Little Piglet", "King Arthur", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Romeo and Juliet".
From 2011 to August 2014 Christian Georg Fuchs worked as dramaturg and press dramaturg at Theater Waidspeicher Erfurt. Here he directed amongst others "Death in Venice", "Divine Comedy", "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", "Atlas of Remote Islands" and, as co-productions with "Theater Erfurt", "The Ring of the Nibelung (in one evening)", Purcells "King Arthur" and the Monteverdi opera "The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland".

During the season 2022/2023 he puts on stage "The Servant of Two Masters".

Udo Hemmann was born in Weimar in 1968. He studied bass guitar at the Franz Liszt School for Music in Weimar. Worked with various bands. Since 1990 he performed in numerous theatre productions in Weimar, Erfurt, Jena, Meiningen, Suhl, Baden-Baden and other places as a composer, singer, musician, arranger and musical director.
He arranged the composition and sound for "Leon, the Pirate" and "Rumpelstiltskin".

Born in Halle (Saale) in 1963, Sebastian Herzfeld learned several instruments at an early age and soon played in various jazz bands.
Later he studied bass at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and graduated in 1998.
Playing with musicians from the international jazz and world music scene (including Markus Stockhausen, Ramesh Shotham, Trilok Gurtu and Chris Jarrett), he developed his passion for foreign sounds and unusual rhythms.
Over the years, he turned more and more to composing music for theatre and film.
He has composed over eighty pieces of theatre music to date: as musical director of the neues theater and the Puppet Theater Halle (2005-2011) and as a guest at many theatres in Germany, including Schauspielhaus Bochum, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Bregenz, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Schauburg München, Berliner Ensemble and the Burgtheater Wien. His music is characterised by his preference for idiosyncratic sounds such as the tone of his custom piano and his specially developed metal instruments.
For the album "Lieder von Liebe und Tod" (Songs of Love and Death) he received the world music prize Ruth in 2008 together with Anne Kaftan and the singer Bobo.
He released several albums with his own settings of German poets through the project by Bobo and Herzfeld.

The composition for "Pinocchio" in the 2020/2021 season was his first collaboration with Theater Waidspeicher. In the 2021/2022 season, he arranged the composition and sound for "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow".

In the season 2022/23 he composes music and sounds for "Gold Power Love Death - The Song of the Nibelungs".

Photo by: Sami Bill

Peter Lutz was born in Baden-Baden in 1971 and studied puppetry at the "Ernst Busch" Academy of Dramatic Arts (Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch" in Berlin). While still a student, he won prizes such as the Friedrich Luft Prize for the production of "Weihnachten bei Iwanows" (Christmas at the Ivanovs) at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin and the Max Reinhardt Prize for "Die Maßnahme" (The Measure/Method) in Stuttgart. He performed as a puppeteer in Jim Henson’s "The Neverending Story III". After completing his puppetry course, he became a freelance puppeteer and puppet maker for example at the Schauspiel Frankfurt/Main. From 1998 to 2000, he worked for the Theater des Lachens in Frankfurt/Oder. He is currently a freelance puppeteer and designer for various theatres including the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam, the Theater Basel, the Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Residenztheater and Metropoltheater in Munich, theatres in Constance, Würzburg and Marburg as well as for the puppet theatres in Magdeburg, Erfurt, Leipzig, Dresden, Nürnberg, Naumburg, Karlsruhe and Bautzen.

At Theater Waidspeicher, he created puppets for the productions of "Divine Comedy", "Mademoiselle de Scuderi", "Atlas of Remote Islands" as well as "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King".

In the season 2022/2023 he creates the puppets for "The Servant of Two Masters".

Matthias Thieme was born in Erfurt in 1976. He studied Theatre at the University of Leipzig and theatre-direction at the "Ernst Busch" Academy of Dramatic Arts (Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch") in Berlin. He gained his first theatre experiences at youth theatre "Die Schotte" in Erfurt with which he still collaborates as guest director. Recent productions for theatre "Die Schotte" were "Hamlet" (2015), "Lysistrate" (2016) and "Tschick" (2017). His production of "Romeo and Juliet" won the German Amateur Theatre "Amarena" Prize in 2011. He has worked as director for Theater Plauen/Zwickau, neues theater halle, Figurentheater Chemnitz, Theater Stralsund/Greifswald as well as theatres in Stendal, Zittau, Esslingen, Magdeburg, Rostock, Cottbus and Leipzig. The majority of his productions are for young people. From 2010 to 2013 he was the senior drama director and puppet theatre director at the Theater Plauen/Zwickau.
His first production as a director with Theater Waidspeicher was "Moby Dick" in the season 2008/09. He directed and designed the stage for "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn" and "The Journey to the Centre of the Woods".

In the season 2021/2022 he was the director for "The Day Grandma broke the Internet" and "Krabat".