All universities in Hesse offering theatre-related programmes as well as the Hessian State Theatre, all municipal theatres and several theatres from Baden-Wuerttemburg and Rhineland-Palatinate have come together under the umbrella of the Hessian Theatre Academy (HTA), which was founded in 2002. Diverse cross connections between the different types of performing arts are opening up new opportunities for students to prepare themselves for the complexity of an artistic career.
Students of Applied Theatre Studies at Justus Liebig University in Giessen are thus working together with Contemporary and Classical Dance students at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK), for example; and scenography students at Offenbach University of Art and Design (HfG Offenbach) and Dramaturgy students at Goethe University Frankfurt are co-operating with Theatre Directing and Acting students at HfMDK. New Master’s degree programmes for Dramaturgy, Choreography and Performance, Contemporary Dance Education and Theatre and Orchestra Management have been established. Graduation productions at the theatres are giving students their first opportunity to stage theatre and music projects, and other performances in professional conditions. In symposia and summer courses, the HTA constitutes a centre for the further education of theatre professionals in the artistic, technical and organisational field. HTA is a co-founder of Frankfurt LAB, which provides students with the necessary space to develop new artistic formats and aesthetics in close partnership with Ensemble Modern, Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm.
Since 2026, Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst has served as the new President of the Hessian Theatre Academy. The Vice President is Dorothea Hartmann, Artistic Director (Intendant) of the State Theatre Wiesbaden. The founding president was the Austrian director and actor Hans Hollmann.
From 2006 to 2017, Heiner Goebbels, one of the leading figures in the contemporary music and theatre scene, chaired the Hessian Theatre Academy's education and production network. From 2017 to 2026, Ingo Diehl held the position, becoming the first representative from the HTA's dance programs to lead the academy's training and production consortium.
The HTA has signed the Frankfurt Declaration of the Many and supports a democratic society based on an open exchange with each other and the world.
Hessian Theatre Academy (HTA) is based on target agreements between the State of Hesse and the affiliated partner theatres and universities. Its office is located at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.
The organs of HTA are the board and the president. The board co-ordinates the content and organisation of the joint theoretical and practical teaching events at the affiliated universities and theatres. It meets when necessary but at least once every academic year. It is convened by the president and agrees an annual business plan.
If a university chair is to be appointed in a field that is covered by the HTA, a board member from one of the other universities is involved in the appointment committee in an advisory capacity.
The members of the board are the directors of the programmes from the four universities that are part of the Theatre Academy network as well as the directors of HTA’s partner theatres. The Board selects a president from the group of professors for a six-year term, and a vice-president from the group of theatre directors. The president assumes day-to-day management of the Academy, administers its resources and assumes financial responsibility for it. He or she represents HTA externally.
Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst, President of the Hessian Theatre Academy since February 2026, is a professor of Performance Studies and head of the Master’s program in Choreography and Performance at Justus Liebig University Giessen. She earned her doctorate in philosophy in Ljubljana and completed her habilitation in Slovenia. Her research focuses on contemporary performance, artistic labor, and its social conditions. In her academic and publishing work, she is particularly concerned with questions of labor in the arts as well as feminist and political perspectives on performance.
Dorothea Hartmann, Vice President of the Hessian Theatre Academy since February 2026, is the artistic director (Intendantin) of the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden. She studied music, German studies, and cultural management, and previously worked at the Hanover State Opera and in a leadership position at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Alongside her work as an artistic director, she is active in various cultural committees and regularly teaches in the fields of cultural management and music theatre.
Dr. Philipp Schulte has been Managing Director of the Hessian Theatre Academy since 2017. He studied Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen and Bergen (Norway). In 2011, he completed his doctorate on the topic “Identity as Experiment: Self-Performances on the Contemporary Stage.” After his PhD, he worked for eight years as a research associate in Giessen. Between 2012 and 2014, and again from 2018 onward, he has led international festival campus projects that he conceived (Ruhrtriennale, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, Theaterformen Hannover). As a freelance dramaturge and author, he works on various theatre and performance projects, with a focus on solo and choral works. He has published numerous articles and books. Schulte has taught and continues to teach theatre theory at various universities and art academies in Germany and Norway.
Ekaterina Walisko has been the assistant to the managing director in the office of the Hessian Theatre Academy since May 2022.