ODER KANN DAS WEG [OR CAN WE GET RID OF THAT]

Born in Yekaterinburg (Russia) in 1991, Serge Okunev completed a bachelor’s degree in acting before studying directing. Since 2023, he has been studying for a master’s in stage directing at the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich. His artistic work is concerned with the themes of war, power, and propaganda. The production ODER KANN DAS WEG [OR CAN WE GET RID OF THAT] marks his first foray into combining documentary theatre with devised theatre.

Beginning his career as a stand-up comedian in Uganda, Hamir Ssemwogerere later worked as an actor in film and television, and was among the cast of the film 27 GUNS, a propaganda film for the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Up until summer 2024, he studied acting as a visiting student at the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich.

Fabian Blum grew up near Berlin, and since 2019 has been studying composition under Professor Moritz Eggert at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich (HMTM). He has won awards and participated in the Opus One composition workshop by the Berliner Philharmoniker, and in 2024 was invited to attend the Orkest De Ereprijs’s Young Composer Meeting. Even at this stage in his career, he has already worked with theatres such as Staatstheater Nürnberg and Residenztheater München.

Nina Moortgat is an interdisciplinary theatre-maker whose work spans acting, writing, dramaturgy, and directing. As a writer, she seeks to find the poetic in the performative, and her works often emerge out of social and participatory contexts. She has studied at institutions including the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich and LUCA - School of Arts in Brussels, and in 2025 she presented her project HOLA, BONJOUR, SALAM at the Hetpaleis theatre in Antwerp.

After a year’s placement in the press and PR department of the Münchner Kammerspiele as part of the FSJ Kultur programme, Elena Saalfrank earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre, film, and media studies from the Universität Wien. She then completed a production internship at the Münchner Kammerspiele followed by two internships and the position of guest assistence to the director at the Residenztheater in Munich. While studying for her master’s in dramaturgy at the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding, she was dramaturge for three productions, and was also among the organisers of the UWE:Festival.

Born in 1999 in Bačka Topola, Serbia, Mila Jarilova has been studying stage setting and costume design at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden since 2022. Her work is multidisciplinary, taking in fine art, performance, sculpture, and also figure theatre and object theatre. She was also assistant stage and costume designer on the production TICK TACK at the Residenztheater in Munich, had an onstage role in REINOLDES GARTEN by Vici Dewinski at the Ringtheater in Berlin, and staged and performed THIS IS NOT A PICNIC in collaboration with Tommaso Tezzele.

zhenya efros was born in 2004 in St. Petersburg, Russia, to a half-Jewish family that left the country following the outbreak of war and due to the rise in queerphobia and antisemitism. Today, zhenya efros lives in Germany, where he is active as a theatre-maker. Under the tutelage of Barbara Ehnes, he has been studying stage setting and costume design at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, and he was also part of the scenography class of Nina von Mechow at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien. His work focuses on queerness, Jewishness, and the body as a political interest.

Paula Kraus was born in Munich in 2000. She studied German philology in Vienna, and is now back in Munich where she has been continuing her degree in comparative literature and theatre studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. Since 2024, she has been an intern with LIX, a reading series in the HochX Theater und Live Art in Munich. In addition, she has also completed directorial internships with Jan-Christoph Gockel and Karin Henkel at the Münchner Kammerspiele.