International Guests

Artistic director, DSCHUNGEL WIEN

Anna Horn studied theatre at LMU Munich and began working as a freelance theatre director for pathos transport theater, the Bavarian Theatre Academy and the city of Munich in 2000. From 2004-2006 she served as assistant director at Volksbühne Berlin for Dimiter Gotscheff, Andriy Zholdak and Frank Castorf, among others. She then worked as a dramaturge and director at Ballhaus Ost Berlin staging, programming and accompanying productions by Anne Tismer, Das Helmi, Lubricat, SIGNA and the festivals “No limits” and “Nordwind Festival”, among others. In 2008, she founded the Rheinische Rebellen at Schauspiel Köln and realised productions for and by young people on the stages of Schauspiel Köln’s playhouse as well as in public spaces. From 2016, she helped develop the programme for children and teens at Munich’s Residenztheater. She then continued this work at Burgtheater as deputy director of Burgtheaterstudio from 2019. She has staged productions for young audiences at Ballhaus Ost, the Cologne Opera, Schauspiel Köln, Junges Schauspiel Hannover, Residenztheater in Munich and Burgtheater in Vienna, among others. She has been the artistic director of DSCHUNGEL WIEN since the 2023/2024 season.

Curator, arts coordinator, writer, project coordinator, South Africa’s Cradle of Creativity festival for children and young audiences—ASSITEJ South Africa

Faye Kabali-Kagwa is a cultural curator, arts coordinator, and writer with a keen focus on youth voices. She is one of the co-curators of Theater der Welt 2026. In 2023, Faye curated the Cradle of Creativity Festival, an international theatre festival for children and young audiences. In her work with ASSITEJ South Africa, she runs the project Unlocking Learners’ Creativity in the Western Cape in addition to heading the 10Children project, amongst others.

Artistic director, Olsztyńskiego Teatru Lalek; theatre director, playwright, cultural manager, curator, producer

Dr. Tomasz Kaczorowski—director, playwright, theatre educator and scholar. Since 1 September 2024, he has served as director of Olsztyn Puppet Theatre after previously working as manager of BOTO Theater in Sopot (2024) and theatre curator at the Gdańsk Archipelago of Culture (2022-2024), where he was responsible for the repertoire of Theatre in the Block, the Polish programme of FETA International Festival of Outdoor and Street Theatres, and a series of performances for children called Archipelago of the Imagination. As a director and curator, he has worked with puppet and dramatic theatres and interdisciplinary institutions throughout Poland. He has directed 28 productions, 13 of them for young audiences.

Board member, ASSITEJ Korea; vice president, ASSITEJ International; member, KAMS—Korea Arts Management Service

Seok-hong Kim is a producer and arts manager who has been deeply passionate about the performing arts throughout his adult life. Theatre for young audiences has also played a significant role in his career, as he has maintained a long-standing connection with both ASSITEJ Korea and ASSITEJ International, serving as a board member and an executive committee member, respectively. He currently works for the Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS), a government agency dedicated to supporting the sustainability of arts organisations in a challenging market environment. KAMS has coordinated the Performing Arts Market in Seoul (PAMS) for nearly 20 years. Before joining KAMS, Seok-hong spent several years overseeing programming at a local arts centre in Seoul, South Korea.

Artistic director, KORCZAK DZISIAJ festival; curator, theatre educator, dramaturge and author

Born in Słupsk, Dorota Kowalkowska is now based in Warsaw after living and working in Wałbrzych from 2013-2020. She is a curator, dramaturge, theatre educator and co-creator of performances for young audiences. Since 2021, she has served as artistic director of the international children’s and youth theatre festival “KORCZAK DZISIAJ” (or KORCZAK FESTIVAL for short). In 2022, she became a member of the board of ASSITEJ Poland (as secretary general). For the past 3 months, she has taught dramaturgy for young audiences as a lecturer at the Warsaw Theatre Academy. She had previously worked as a theatre educator and head of the literary department of the Dramatic Theatre in Wałbrzych, the National Theatre in Warsaw and—for the past two years until December 2025—at the Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw. From 2014-2018, she co-curated the biennial “Z OGNIEM W GŁOWIE—Youth Encounters with German Drama” together with Iwona Nowacka, introducing many German plays and new inspiration to the Polish TYA scene. She is dedicated to popularising and developing theatre education in Poland, building heterogeneous theatre communities and taking the creative presence of spectators into account. She loves to work as a dramaturge and theatre educator—often combining those two roles during the production process. Her main focus is on theatre for 11-13 and 13-16 year-olds, as there is big gap in Polish repertoire for those age groups.

Project manager, producer, Open Circle; programmer, Vilnius Keistuoliu

Theatre manager, international project manager and theatre producer, born in 1978 in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2004, she completed her master’s degree in cultural management and cultural politics at Vilnius Art Academy. She served at the Theatre and Cinema Information and Education Centre as a project manager as well as at Audronis Liuga Production Company, which develops productions by famous Lithuanian directors. From 2003-2011, she coordinated the international theatre festival NEW DRAMA ACTION, which featured innovative works of British, German, French, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Finnish, Flemish, Latvian and Lithuanian theatre and introduced them to Lithuanian audiences through performances by internationally acclaimed directors.

Since 2009, she has worked as a project manager and producer at Open Circle Theatre (www.atvirasratas.lt) and has additionally served as a programmer at Vilnius Keistuolių Theatre (www.keistuoliai.lt) since August 2024.

President, ASSITEJ Cyprus; writer, cultural manager, producer

Born in 1988, Stavros Stavrou is a writer, cultural manager, producer and president of ASSITEJ Cyprus. He holds a BA degree in Greek literature as well as an MA degree in arts management and cultural policy, both from King’s College London. As a lyrics writer, he has extensively worked in the Greek music industry. Since 2012, he has worked in the theatre industry as a writer and producer, collaborating with the national theatres of Greece and Cyprus as well as many other independent companies. He has also worked in the field of theatre for young audiences as a producer, with his shows touring internationally. He additionally serves on the board of the Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute.  In 2024, he was elected to the ASSITEJ International Executive Committee.

Artistic director, TPAC—Taipei Performing Arts Center

Victoria Wang is currently the chairperson and artistic director of the Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC), following her secondment from the position of professor in the department of music at National Tsing Hua University. From 2014 to 2018, she was the founding artistic director of the National Taichung Theater (NTT), where she initiated a four-year Wagner’s Ring Cycle project from NTT’s opening in 2016. Prior to NTT, Victoria’s challenge was to reposition the Taipei Arts Festival, transforming it from a community gathering activity into an internationally significant art-driven annual event. For TPAC, her commitment is to create a modern theatre where people see their own potential and make connections to others through arts and dialogues.