Dr. Yvonne Schmidt, Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, ZHdK (Projektleiterin)
Dr. Yvonne Schmidt, head of the research project, Senior Researcher at the Zurich University of the Arts, Institute for the Performing Arts and Film (IPF) and a lecturer at the Institute of Theater Studies, University of Bern. Since 2011, she has been the co-convener of the Working Group ‘Performance & Disability’, part of the International Federation for Theater Studies (IFTR). Dr. Schmidt was a PhD Research Fellow at the University of Illinois, Chicago in the Program on Disability Arts, Culture, and Humanities from January to October 2012 and holds a PhD in Theater Studies from the University of Bern. Her dissertation on differently-abled actors in different theater fields (Ausweitung der Spielzone. Amateure, Experten, behinderte Darsteller im Gegenwartstheater) explores the intersections of everyday life performances and acting theories as well as Theater Studies and Disability Studies. Her research focusses on methodologies to investigate and document (collective) creative or rehearsal processes, Disability and Performance, amateur theater practices, and acting theory. Since 2008, she has been a researcher and principal investigator of several research projects, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), and has curated numerous events to foster a dialogue between arts and academia.
Dr. Silke Andris, Seminar für Kulturwissenschaft und Europäische Ethnologie, Universität Basel
Dr. Silke Andris is a cultural Anthropologist, filmmaker and independent entrepreneur. In the SNF-funded project „Disability On Stage“, Silke Andris and Pascale Grange followed the rehearsal-processes of Theater HORA for the production-projects of Freie Republik Phase 3 with the camera. The film „The Rehearsed Republic“ (working title) will premiere in summer 2017.
Pascale Grange, MA, Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, ZHdK
Pascale Grange works as an independent ethnographic film-maker since 2010. Her film and research areas are social (in-)equality, housing, living together, health, theatre rehearsals, education and visual anthropology. She makes videos for ethnographic exhibitions in museums and teaches at the Film Summer School of University Zurich and University Basel. She was a Research Assistant at the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, Zurich University of the Arts from 2010-2014 as part of the SNF-Project Polycultural Switzerland. In this role, she investigated actor training in the Italian-, French-, and German-speaking parts of Switzerland through video ethnography. As a collaborator in the video-ethnographic study she brings in her experience in filming rehearsals and creative processes in the theatre as a new field of investigation.
Nele Jahnke, MA, Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, ZHdK
Nele Jahnke grew up in Röbel (Ostholstein) and Berlin. She was a member of P14 – the youth theater of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxembourg-Platz Berlin. From 2006 to 2011, she graduated in drama directing at the Zurich University of the Arts. Since her master’s degree, she worked as a director and performer. As a performer she worked, among others, in „dominat powers. was also tun“ (R: Claudia Bosse, in Vienna, Tunis and Zagreb) and in „Deconstruction of Death” (R: Michel Schröder / kraut_produktion) at Theaterhaus Gessnerallee. Since October 2012, she is hired as artistic collaborator and assistant of the artistic director of Theater HORA, Michael Elber. She directed, among others, „La Petite Mort“ (during the international theatre festival OKKUPATION! 2013) and „Normalität – ein Musical“ (at Schlachthaustheater Bern and at Wildwuchfestival Basel). Together with the artistic director Michael Elber and dramaturge Marcel Bugiel she accompanies the HORA long-term experiment “Freie Republik HORA”. 2015 she was director at the Berner Bühne at Konzerttheater Bern.
Sara Bocchini, Accademia Teatro Dimitri
Sara Bocchini was six years old when she started to take classical dance lessons. Ten years later she discovered her interest in modern dance and dance theater. She received a diploma in theater history at the DAMS in Bologna. In 2007 she graduated at the theater school in Bologna with the subject „Nouveau Cirque“. From 2007 to 2010 she deepened her theater work at the Accademia Teatro Dimitri andtook part of the Master course in Commedia dell’Arte, headed by Davide Giovanzana. The result was the piece Anfitrione Divorato with which she made her debut at Teatro Dimitri. The piece was also shown at the Festival di encouter Brno (CZ) in April 2011 and at the Festival Masque in Helsinki (FI). In 2011 she created a piece with half masks called „Everything is beautiful“ in collaboration with the German actress Brita Kleindienst and under the direction of Kenneth George. It was a co-production with the Accademia Teatro Dimitri and the PerpetuoMobileTeatro. In addition to her acting work she is also working in the Department of Research at the Accademia Teatro Dimitri.
Sarah Marinucci, MA, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Universität Bern/Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, ZHdK
Sarah Marinucci, is in the third year of her PhD in Theatre Studies at the University of Bern, and a research assistant at the Zurich University of the Arts, Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, in Switzerland. She studied Theatre Studies, World Arts, and Popular Culture in Bern and Zurich. Her doctorate project as part of the SNSF-research project „DisAbility on Stage“ at the Zurich University of the arts in collaboration with other Swiss universities and theatre/dance companies explores the reception of performers with disabilities in Switzerland, taking the large amount of publicity generated by Disabled Theater by Theater HORA and Jérôme Bel as a starting point. She has also worked as an arts administrator for the Swiss dancer Simone Truong and the inclusive theatre/dance festival OKKUPATION! in Zurich.
Cornelia Renggli, Kulturwissenschaftlerin (Beratung Disability Studies)