Theater in public spaces Jury

Festival producer with over 5 years of experience in the cultural and audiovisual industry. Leading and producing artistic events is my passion. I collaborate with festivals like MAC Festival (La Mercè) a street arts festival, El Grec a performing arts festival or Sonar, advanced music festival, and produce my own festival. Rizomes is an arts, music and architecture festival held annually in the catalan countryside around the summer solstice dates. A sustainable festival that is investigating how to offer a cultural experience with a minimal environmental footprint. Based in Barcelona and working worldwide.

Nicole Ruppert has a degree in literature and has been working as a freelance cultural manager for over 30 years. She was infected with the street theatre virus at the beginning of the 1990s when she experienced productions from Spain, France and Italy for the first time. Her fascination with this form of theatre has stayed with her ever since. Nicole Ruppert runs an event agency that focuses on theatre in public spaces. As a curator, she has been responsible for various event formats in public spaces for decades, including the programme of the ‘International Street Theatre Festival Holzminden’ and the ‘Neuhardenbergnacht’. As a founding member of the Bundesverband Theater im Öffentlichen Raum e.V. (BUTIÖR), she has been a volunteer for the association for many years and took over the chairmanship together with Clair Howells in 2023.  For Nicole Ruppert, the performing arts in public spaces are the most democratic art form of all. They invite people of all ages who happen to be in the same place, whether by chance or by design, to experience culture, regardless of their social or national background. In this way, they make a decisive contribution to social cohesion and identification with the respective location. 

Norbert studied at the theatre academy in Arnhem and after his graduation in 1981 he gave theatre classes to young people and repeatedly developed independent theatre projects.
In 1989 he founded ‘The Rose Factory’, a children's theatre group that performed in small theatres and schools in Belgium and the Netherlands.
In 1993 he founded ‘Theater Gajes’; whimsical street theatre that plays classical stories with inventive objects in the middle of the audience. These stories are getting bigger and bigger. ‘Theatre Gajes’ develops into a group that stages square productions for up to 4,000 spectators. In 2006 in Detmold and 2009 in Holzminden, the group was honoured with jury and audience awards.
Since 2019, he has focused on directing young theatre and circus groups as a freelancer. The same year he is in demand as an organiser of 2 theatre festivals in public space; ‘Brucca’ in Kalbe an der Milde(D) and ‘Oeverloos’ in Zutphen(NL) In addition, he still remains active as a player of small theatre performances in extraordinary places.
Norbert always moves professionally between the Netherlands and Germany