»Es kotzt mich an. Ihr Kroppzeug!« – Forster citizens rehearse Coriolan (World Premiere)

From 2008 to 2013, he was a permanent member of the ensemble at the Centraltheater Leipzig. There he appeared in »The Good Person of Szechwan,« »The Magic Mountain«, »Fanny and Alexander«, »Paris, Texas«, »Pension Schöller« and »Insulting the Audience«. From 2013 to 2018, he was a permanent member of the ensemble at Schauspiel Stuttgart.

Lüdicke has worked with directors such as Frank Castorf, Andreas Kriegenburg, Sebastian Hartmann, Leander Haußmann, Martin Laberenz, Sebastian Baumgarten, Robert Borgmann, Amina Gusner, Armin Petras, Luk Perceval and Claus Peymann. He appeared on stage with Katja Riemann in »Hedda Gabler« at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam and in »Szenen einer Ehe« at the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm, among other productions.

Lüdicke has been a permanent member of the ensemble at the Deutsches Theater Berlin since the 2019/20 season. In addition to his theatre engagements, Lüdicke has appeared regularly in film and television productions, including »Polizeiruf 110«, »Großstadtrevier« and »Tatort«. In 2018, he played Klinger in the feature film »Whatever Happens Next«.

Lüdicke previously worked with director Jürgen Kuttner on »Hasta la Westler, Baby!« and »Halt’s Maul, Kassandra!« at the Deutsches Theater. »Es kotzt mich an. Ihr Kroppzeug« at the Lausitz Festival brings the two together again. 

Until reunification, he worked for the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR. In 1990, he was instrumental in founding the eastern edition of the »tageszeitung« newspaper, for which he worked until 1992. Kuttner began his radio career at the GDR youth radio station DT64, from which the rock radio station B of Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB) emerged in January 1992. In 1993, the radio station Fritz emerged from the co-operation with SFB. Until the end of 2007, the talk radio programme hosted by Jürgen Kuttner was a fixed part of the broadcasting schedule. Other radio and TV programmes followed until 2022.

In addition to his talk radio evenings on Fritz, Kuttner has held monthly video snippet lectures entitled »Von Mainz bis an die Memel« at the Volksbühne in Berlin since November 1996. Kuttner is now known nationwide in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for his commented video snippets.

Kuttner has been involved in various theatre projects as a director, author and performer for several years. From 2020 to 2022, he co-directed the Augsburg Brecht Festival with Tom Kühnel. Many of his directing projects take place in close collaboration with director Tom Kühnel and artist and puppeteer Suse Wächter.

He also works as a production dramaturge on selected productions and has staged a number of festival events. His passion is the facilitation and realisation of performing arts that leave the beaten track, create extraordinary social situations and in which people can enjoy life to the full.

Until the end of the 2023/24 season, Michael Höppner was head dramaturge of the music theatre, deputy opera director and director at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar under the opera direction of Andrea Moses. He was co-founder and co-director of the festival »Passion :SPIEL -Weimar Weekends for Contemporary Music Theatre« at the DNT Weimar. In 2024, the music theatre section of the DNT Weimar was awarded the German Theatre Publishers' Prize. He has close artistic partnerships with opera and theatre director Andrea Moses, composer Brigitta Muntendorf and choreographer and dancer Margaux Marielle-Tréhoüart.

Michael Höppner was born in Berlin, where he graduated from high school, completed his musical training and studied theatre, literature and musicology at the Free University of Berlin. Between 2003 and 2005, he worked as an assistant dramaturge on productions by Frank Castorf, Christoph Marthaler and Martin Wuttke at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. From 2007 to 2010, he worked as an assistant director for Christoph Schlingensief, Andrea Breth, Sebastian Hartmann, Jan Bosse, Stephan Kimmig, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Alvis Hermanis and Luc Bondy, among others, at the Burgtheater Wien.

Between 2011 and 2014, Höppner was a master's student of music theatre directing at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin and has been working as a freelance director for contemporary music theatre, opera and drama as well as a dramaturge since 2014. He was co-founder, chief director and one of the artistic directors of the independent music theatre ensemble Opera Lab Berlin. Höppner also taught music theatre dramaturgy at the TU Berlin and the HfM FRANZ LISZT Weimar, has taught directing and dramaturgy several times elsewhere and currently teaches directing at the HfM »Hanns Eisler« in Berlin.

In addition to his work with Opera Lab Berlin, Michael Höppner has directed at the Volksbühne Berlin, Burgtheater Wien, Nordharzer Städtebundtheater, Theater Trier, Schauspiel Leipzig, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Berlin, Neuköllner Oper, Bayreuther Festspiele, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig, Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and others, as well as at festivals of contemporary music theatre (Munich Biennale for Contemporary Music Theatre, Eclat Festival Stuttgart, Dresdner Kunstfest, Musiktheatertage Wien, Ult. as well as at festivals of contemporary music theatre (Munich Biennale for Contemporary Music Theatre, Eclat Festival Stuttgart, Dresden Art Festival, Music Theatre Days Vienna, Ultima Oslo, SPOR Arhus, Time of Music, November Music and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival).

Suse Wächter's first encounter with puppet theatre was as a child and teenager in the auditorium of the Waidspeicher Theatre in Erfurt. According to her own statements, she was fascinated by the interplay between visual and performing arts.

In 1988, she began working in the painting studio and theatre sculpture department of the Städtische Bühnen Erfurt, where she gained practical experience. She deepened this experience when she travelled through Germany with a travelling circus from 1990 to 1992, before beginning her studies at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin in 1992. Here she earned her diploma as a contemporary puppeteer in 1996. Even during her studies, she worked interdisciplinarily with fellow students from the fields of directing, acting and puppetry. Immediately after graduating, some members of this group were hired by Schauspiel Frankfurt, including Wächter and the later resident directors Tom Kühnel and Robert Schuster.

Wächter has also worked at the TAT Frankfurt, the Thalia Theater Hamburg, the Schaubühne Berlin, the Volksbühne Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the Staatsschauspiel Hannover, the Schauspiel Köln and the Salzburg Festival, among others. She has enjoyed a decades-long artistic partnership with Jürgen Kuttner.

Pötzsch advocated a creative, innovative and collaborative approach to structural change and cohesion in a society undergoing transformation. He was a member of the district council and numerous committees and networks, some of which he initiated himself.

Pötzsch became known nationwide and was considered one of the most politically and civically engaged local politicians in the republic. He was a public figure and received awards for his commitment. Due to deliberately circulated false information about him, ongoing hostility, including death threats, and personal reasons, he did not run for a third term.

In the role of Senator Menenius, Pötzsch, who runs a mobile disco with friends and DJs as »DJ OB« in his spare time, makes his theatre debut at the Lausitz Festival.