Students of the Directing study course
 

Simon Friedl

3. Year

Simon Friedl [he/him] was born in Bad Reichenhall in 1999. He has been working as an assistant director at Münchner Volkstheater since 2019, with Christian Stückl, Sapir Heller and Christina Tscharyiski, among others.


Since 2022, he is studying directing at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and Bochum. During this time, his work was shown at Schauspiel Wuppertal and Theater Münster.


In the 2024/2025 season, he will return to Münchner Volkstheater with his production of ‘rotting moon’ by Anaïs Clerc.

 

Nele Schillo

3. Year

Nele Schillo [she/her] was born in Troisdorf in 1998.

She started writing and directing her own plays at the age of 14 and received a special prize for ‘creative writing and directing’ during her school years.
After graduating from high school, she studied acting in Cologne. She completed the directing scholarship at her university, worked as an assistant director in the independent theatre scene and also realised her own projects. Her works have been shown at the Orangerie Theatre Cologne and the Odonien, among others.

She has been studying directing at the Folkwang University of the Arts since summer 2022. In the beginning of 2024 she
staged a dramatic reading at Schauspiel Münster and has been supported by the Deutschlandstipendium since 2023.

 

Asena Yeşim Lappas

2. Year

Asena Yeşim Lappas [she/her] was born in Koblenz in 1999.

After graduating from high school, she completed a voluntary cultural year at the Landestheater Eisenach under the direction of Christine Hofer. She gained further experience in the independent theatre scene in Cologne and at the Young Theatre Leverkusen.

In 2019, she began studying psychology at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.

In the 2021/22 season, she was hired as an assistant director at Münchner Volkstheater, where she worked with Christian Stückl, Christina Tscharyiski and Bonn Park, among others.

Asena Yeşim Lappas has been studying directing at the Folkwang University of the Arts since April 2023.

In the 2023/24 season, she is directing the play development ‘dragfruit’ at the Junges Staatstheater Karlsruhe. In November 2024, she stages the performative installation ‘WOMB’ in Munich with her collective. Asena Yeşim has been a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation since August 2024.

 

 

Charlotte Weidinger

2. Year

Charlotte Weidinger [she/her], born in 1996, grew up in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia.

She studied piano at the Munich Academy of Music and the Cologne Academy of Music and gave a concert at the Gasteig in Munich at the age of nine.

She studied communication and cultural management at Zeppelin University and at the University of Chester, United Kingdom. After an excursion into the visual arts and internships with the curator Eva Birkenstock and the artist Raimer Jochims, she assisted at the Rottstr 5 Theater in Bochum for a year during her studies.

In the 2019/2020 season, she was hired as an assistant director at Schauspiel Essen and worked with directors Karsten Dahlem, Hermann Schmidt-Rahmer and Thomas Krupa, among others. With "Fünf gelöschte Nachrichten" by Falk Richter, directed by Damian Popp, Charlotte Weidinger is responsible for a dramaturgy accompanying a production for the first time and presents her first own work at Schauspiel Essen in the "Freischuss" series.


Charlotte Weidinger has been studying directing at the Folkwang University of the Arts since April 2023.

Jette Micheel

1. Year

Jette Micheel [she/her | they/them] was born in Mainz in 1995.

After early training in music and dance at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz and at the Royal Academy of Dance, she soon found herself working as an actress on various stages in Mainz and, from 2017, mainly in Berlin. She performed there in the independent scene and as a guest at various theatres. In 2019, they began working on their first own projects as part of a collective in the independent theatre scene in Berlin.

2021-2023 she also works as a freelance assistant director for various workshops and theatre and opera productions.

Since April 2024 she has been studying directing at the Folkwang University of the Arts.

 

Sasha Kait

1. Year

Sasha Kait [she/her] was born in Tel Aviv in 2002. In 2020, she graduated with a major in theater from the "Ohel Shem" high school in Ramat Gan. As part of her social engagement at school, she worked as a lighting and sound technician for performances at the "Beit Zvi" drama school in Ramat Gan.

She is a graduate of the annual preparatory course for young people to study theater, film and improvisation at the "Nissan Nativ acting studio" in Jaffa.

Since 2021 she has been working as an assistant director at the "Multicultural Theater project - The White Theater" in Tel-Aviv.

Sasha Kait has been studying directing at the Folkwang University of the Arts since 2024.