Sophiensæle

The SOPHIENSÆLE are pleased to present their new management team starting with the season 2023/24.

JENS HILLJE and ANDREA NIEDERBUCHNER have been recruited as artistic directors. KERSTIN MÜLLER will remain with the company as commercial director. Together, Jens Hillje, Andrea Niederbuchner and Kerstin Müller will manage the SOPHIENSÆLE as an executive team from July 1, 2023.

Within the framework of an open call for applications and an extended search for suitable candidates, we have succeeded in finding two colleagues, Andrea Niederbuchner and Jens Hillje, who, with their different experiences in the fields of dance, performance and theater, form a perfect complement and bring with them many years of professional experience and leadership competence. Both bring a maximum curiosity for young and diverse developments in the performing arts and are looking forward to continue the outstanding work of the house and to lead the SOPHIENSÆLE into the future as one of the most important independent production houses.

After 12 very successful years at the SOPHIENSÆLE, the artistic direction of FRANZISKA WERNER ends with this season. Together with her team, she has worked extremely successfully during this time to constantly introduce new enriching artistic aspects into the work of the SOPHIENSÆLE and to permanently anchor the house as an indispensable, nationally important venue for the independent scene in Berlin. We would like to thank her for her impulses, her expertise and her outstanding commitment.

Amelie Deuflhard, Sasha Waltz & Jochen Sandig

Shareholders of SOPHIENSÆLE GmbH

"Jens Hillje and Andrea Niederbuchner are known to me from their various fields of work in the Berlin cultural scene and I hold them in high esteem. I wish the new management team a good start and look forward to working with them. This is good news for the SOPHIENSÆLE - we can look forward to exciting artistic times." Klaus Lederer, Senator for Culture and Europe, Berlin, 11.10.2022

ANDREA NIEDERBUCHNER is a freelance cultural manager, curator and producer in the field of contemporary dance, performance and visual arts. After graduating in  Cultural Area, Language and Economic Studies at the University of Passau, she worked for Joint Adventures/Tanzwerkstatt Europa, Michael Clark Company, Galerie Sprüth Magers, Wolfgang Tillmans and Tanzkongress 2019 under the artistic direction of Meg Stuart, among others. From 2013-2022 she worked as curator and project director for Tanz im August, a festival of HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin and since 2007 as manager and producer for choreographer Adam Linder. For Tanz im August she developed the retrospective series together with Virve Sutinen and co-curated the retrospectives of Rosemary Butcher (2015), La Ribot (2017), Deborah Hay (2019) and Cristina Caprioli (2022).

JENS HILLJE grew up in Italy and Lower Bavaria. After studying applied cultural sciences in Perugia, Hildesheim and Berlin, he has been working in the independent theater scene as an actor, writer and director since 1990. In 1996, he founded the Baracke at the Deutsches Theater with director Thomas Ostermeier, which was voted "Theater of the Year" in 1998. From 1999 to 2009 he was a member of the artistic management and chief dramaturge of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. Together with Thomas Ostermeier, Sasha Waltz and Jochen Sandig, he built up an international acting and dance ensemble there. At the Schaubühne he co-founded the format F.I.N.D. - Festival, which has taken place there annually since 1999/2000. He continued to curate the discourse format Streitraum, which he founded in 1996, during his time as a freelance dramaturge from 2009. In 2010, Jens Hillje collaborated with Nurkan Erpulat on the play Verrücktes Blut at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, which was voted "Play of the Year" by the magazine Theater heute in 2011. In the same year, he curated the performing arts festival Intransit at the HKW. From the 2013/14 season to 2019, Jens Hillje was co-director of the Maxim Gorki Theater. The Maxim Gorki Theater was named "Theater of the Year" by Theater heute magazine in 2014 and 2016. Since 2020, he has worked again as a curator and freelance dramaturg with Falk Richter, Yael Ronen, Mikael Serre/Compagnie Le Fluide Ensemble (Paris), and Zona K (Mailand), among others. In 2022 he curated the program of the festival Radikal Jung at the Munich Volkstheater as artistic director. Together with Shermin Langhoff, the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung awarded Jens Hillje the "Theaterpreis Berlin 2016". Jens Hillje received the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale in summer 2019 for his life's work.