Melita Forstnerič Hajnšek
Author and editor. She has written a series of portraits of the Slovenian diaspora as part of her extensive research on Slovenian emigration. She is the author of the bilingual book Zagrebški Slovenci 2005-2007 (The Slovenes Living in Zagreb 2005-2007) and of the monograph Jože Košar – a Humanist and a Publisher (2002). She is the co-author of the monograph V vrtincu nasprotij (In the Whirpool of Contrasts), commemorating the 80th anniversary of SNG Maribor, of the Leksikon kulture in družbe v Mariboru (The Lexicon of Maribor Culture and Society) and of the project Slovenska pisateljska pot (The Slovenian Writers Path). Her articles have been cited in various encyclopaedias of emigrant literature She has recently hosted round table discussions on culture. She has been a member of various juries, including the Večernica Award jury, the Veronika Award jury and the Debut Book Award jury at the Slovenian Book Fair. She is the Chairperson of the Book Committee with the Office for Culture of the City of Maribor.
Thomas Irmer
Dramaturge, theatre critic and editor. From 1992 to 1996 he taught at the University of Leipzig, and since 2003 he has been teaching at the John F. Kennedy Institute of the Free University in Berlin. From 1998 to 2003 he was the editor in chief of the monthly Theater der Zeit, and from 2004 to 2008 a dramaturgical advisor for the international theatre season at the Berliner Festspiele. His books include Frank Castorfs Volksbühne (2003) Die Bühnenrepublik - Theater in der DDR (2003) and Luk Perceval - Theater und Ritual (2005). He is the author and co-director of four documentaries on theatre: Die Bühnenrepublik - Theater in der GDR (2003), Europe in Pieces (2004), Born 1968 (2008) and Heiner Müller (2009). He is a regular contributor to Theater heute (Germany), Didaskalia (Poland), Shakespeare (Norway) and Maska (Slovenia).
Amelia Kraigher
Theatre scholar and essayist. She has been writing for daily newspapers, radio and professional periodicals (Maska, ČKZ, Sodobnost, Revija 2000, Razgledi, Zofa). She was the editor on the culture and humanities desk at Radio Študent (2000-02), a co-founder of Maska, the journal of performing arts, and a member of its editorial board (1997-2006). She has participated in several professional theatre gatherings. She is a co-editor or author of several entries related to theatre and dance in the Veliki slovenski biografski leksikon (MK, 2008). From 2000 to 2004 she edited the publications for and organized professional meetings at the Week of the Slovene Drama and was the leader of the international symposium, Umetnost, kultura, mesto, at the Maribor Theatre Festival (2009). She was a member of the Grum Award jury (2006, 2007) and the Šeligo Award jury (2010), the program director for the Gibanica Festival (2009), of the Slovene Biennial of Puppet Artists (2009, 2011) and the Puppets international festival (2010). She is a member of several expert committees for theatre arts. From 2008, she has served as a member of the Executive Board of the Association of Slovenian Theatre Critics and Researchers, and from 2011 as a member of the Expert Board of the Puppetry Institute. In 2011 she received a scholarship from the Taras Kermauner Foundation.
Katarina Pejović
Dramaturge and an intermedia artist. She is also the author of several videos, documentaries and audio works, a writer, an educator and a translator. Her works and works of which she is the co-author have been produced by Kunstkanaal, the Netherlands Theatre Institute, Felix Meritis, De Balie, Galerija Kapelica, Plesni teater Ljubljana, Inštitut Egon March, DUM – Društvo umetnikov, Muzeum Ljubljana, Teater Cinema Lux and Fabbrica Europa and Bacači Sjenki/The Shadow Casters; these works have been shown at various festivals. In collaboration with Boris Bakal, she cofounded and co-created a series of projects entitled Bacači Sjenki/Shadow Casters, for which she received several awards at international theatre festivals, among these two Special Awards at the Bitef festival, the Avazov zmaj Award at Mess and two major awards at the Puf festival in Pula.