Program

In the near future, humanity has set its sights on the stars, and the first child born in space, Mira, has become a symbol of hope and technological progress. Raised on the orbital station Icarus, she is the center of global attention – an influencer, an experiment, and an icon of the future.

While society idolizes her, Mira begins to question her role. Deprived of real choices, she longs for Earth – a world she has never touched but that irresistibly draws her in with its mysterious allure. Meanwhile, two quirky aliens – Flip and Flop – discover the planet and see it as a potential paradise for growing tea.

The play balances philosophical reflection, social satire, and science fiction to explore questions of human identity, isolation, and the cost of progress – all seasoned with a solid dose of humor and fascinating facts. Will Mira follow the fate imposed on her, or will she carve out her own path?

Wonderspace Future is a bold and intelligent theatrical adventure, blending humor, deep social critique, and a futuristic vision of humanity.

VIDEO TRAILER

Creative Team
Artistic Director: Dimitar Uzunov
Creative Consultant: Andrea Brunello
Text: Dimitar Uzunov & Andrea Brunello
Performance: Hristiyana Stoimenova & Dimitar Uzunov
Scientific Consultants & Video Performers: Prof. Milena Georgieva & Dr. Vladimir Bozhilov
Original Music & Sound Design: Nikola Gruev – Kotarashki
Video Design & Costumes: Nikola Nalbantov
Choreography: Stefania Georgieva
Visual Identity: Elena Gamalova
Cinematography: Radostin Naydenov
Lighting Design: Zlatimir Divchev
Coordinator: Maria Veleva

Theatre performance in Bulgarian with English subtitles.

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Scientists and researchers often have rich worlds to share. Yet, they tend to feel uneasy when it’s time to share these stories. It’s a real pity because, when properly trained, they can provide a uniquely deep understanding of human issues together with ways to make science more accessible. And they can be great storytellers, too.

That is why Arditodesio and the University of Trento started the Open Mike project in 2023. Open Mike is an ongoing permanent laboratory where professors and researchers from the University meet once a week to train in the art of story-writing and story-telling. Guided by Andrea Brunello, they rehearse their stories and then pitch them to colleagues and friends. Once these stories are well refined and ready to be made public, they are performed by the scientists themselves in a live setting in front of a paying audience.

The project has been quite successful: starting in early 2023 the permanent laboratory has involved approximately 60 researchers and professors resulting in 7 public performances in a real theatre setting. The most popular stories have been collected in a series of podcast episodes that can be accessed from all major platforms.
Furthermore, the Open Mike project has been noted by other research Institutions and exported, as a format but still guided by Arditodesio, to the Universities of Bologna and Milano-Bicocca.

In this oral presentation I will describe the training process, share ideas on the peculiarities of scientists as storytellers and provide details on how the scientists are able to insert their science into the stories and provide details on how this project has reverberated on their work and on the academic community of the University of Trento at large.

Playwright, director, actor and podcaster, Andrea Brunello works at the boundary between theatre and science. He is a graduate of the three year program “SAT – SCHOOL AFTER THEATRE advanced training program” led by the Russian director Jurij Alschitz and affiliated with the EATC/Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) of Moscow (Russia). Andrea holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from Cornell University, a Ph.D. in Physics from Stony Brook University (New York) and a Master in Communication of Science and Innovation from the University of Trento (Italy).

Andrea teaches science storytelling theory and practice at the Master in Communication of Science and Innovation and at the Physics Department of the University of Trento and at the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of Bologna (Italy).
He is the founder and director of the Portland Theatre of Trento and of the Arditodesìo Company and he is the artistic director of Teatro della Meraviglia, a science theatre festival held annually in Trento.

Andrea is member of the scientific committee of “Theatre about Science – International Conference” (Coimbra, Portugal) and of the board of directors of EUSEA – the European Science Engagement Association.

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As a playwright, I love to write science-fiction for stage. It is a way to re-invent the world and explore ultimate consequences of and for humanity and human behavior. I’ve written about fifteen plays with sci-fi themes or in sci-fi worlds – about changing technology; visions about and after the end-time; how to rebuild a world without a patriarchy; about a house-keeping-robot longing for freedom; about colonizing Planet B; about the last male Astronaut who is about to be shot into darkness; a play about (and with) AI; about a woman physically getting lost in a digital world; about a couple being monitored into living a good life to be allowed to have a child (and the question: what is a good life) and more. I’m also part of a group that makes different performances called ‘The Futurists’ where we, in collaboration with scientists, philosophers and thinkers, try to re-imagine the future and the opportunities it holds. A couple of times a year we’re doing shows at Studium Generale in Utrecht and work together with the university. We also have performances at the Oerol-festival, where we make eight different theatre-shows in ten days, with a collective of writers, actors, performers, musicians. (This year the theme is focused on the future of money and how we can better our system – the series is called The Capitalists). Sci-fi, in my writing, is as much a way of exploring human ideas and relationships as a way of enjoying strange new worlds, imagination and wonder. It is about technology, space, postapocalyptic of utopian societies, of course – but more than that, it is always about people and the theme’s we struggle with today. In my lecture I’d like to talk about the human perspective in sci-fi for the stage.

Jibbe Willem – After graduating from Theatre Academy Maastricht, Jibbe has worked as an actor, director, creative writing and drama teacher, playwright, and banking consultant. He writes, translates and adapts plays for various companies, investigating language’s form and function for diverse audiences – from International Theatre Amsterdam’s main stage to summer festival circuits.

For Willems, each play represents a thematic exploration and linguistic experiment. His work has been translated and staged across Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Spain, the United States, China, and other countries, receiving multiple awards and nominations.

He teaches writing for performance and creative writing at HKU Utrecht, ArtEZ University of the Arts, and Theatre Academy Maastricht. Willems coaches playwrights at companies including Orkater, Schrijversvakschool, and Blond&Cynisch.

His advisory roles include positions at Fonds Podiumkunsten, TheaterTekstTalent Stipendium jury member, TB Punch reading committee member, and former board member of Auteursbond sectie Theaterauteurs and Lira Fonds advisory committee.

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The presentation outlines key findings related to the use of digital technology in a recent ‘storytelling revival’, including for example Arinze Kene’s Misty, Kieran Hurley’s Heads Up, Quote Unquote’s Mouthpiece, Oliver Zahn’s In Praise of Forgetting, Beatbox Academy’s Frankenstein, Lola Arias’s What They Want to Hear. This research was conducted as part of of Duska Radosavljevic’s AHRC-funded Leadership Fellowship (2020-2022) and the presented findings are based on her book Aural/Oral Dramaturgies: Theatre in the Digital Age (Routledge 2023) and her collaboratively created website www.auralia.space. This presentation focuses specifically on the ways in which the digital age contributes towards dispersing the notion of singular authority in contemporary storytelling and moves towards a variety of dialogic or auto-reflexive modes.

Duška Radosavljević is a writer, dramaturg and academic. She is Professorial Research Fellow at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and teaches dramaturgy at the University of Lund in Sweden. Exploring innovation in theatre-making practices conditioned by the post-industrial and digital age, her books include Aural/Oral Dramaturgies: Theatre in the Digital Age (2023), Theatre Criticism: Changing Landscapes (2016), Mums and Babies Ensemble: A Manual (2015), The Contemporary Ensemble (2013) and Theatre-Making (2013). Her website www.auralia.space has received the 2022 Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Contribution in Dramaturgy and the 2022 ATHE-ASTR Prize for Excellence in Digital Scholarship.

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YUM! is a participatory XR music theater that blends immersive dining with grotesque beauty, dark humor, and pioneering tech-woven narratives. Step into a vivid, absurd universe where surreal storytelling and uncanny scenarios unfold. YUM! delves into climate change, food shortages, class, identity, and self-obsession, offering a multi-sensory spectacle that reflects on the human condition in exaggerated yet eerily familiar ways—all within a world of absurdism and authentic artificiality.

Wen Liu is a multi-award-winning composer and media artist celebrated for her visionary fusion of music, performance, and technology into surreal, socially critical art forms. Driven by a deep passion for the intersection of science, technology, and storytelling, she brings a bold, innovative voice to contemporary music theater. Wen graduated summa cum laude with both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Music Composition from the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, and pursued a Ph.D. in Music Composition at the University of California, San Diego.

As the founder and artistic director of Studio M.A.R.S. and Festival M.A.R.S., Wen has established a singular artistic universe defined by dark humor, absurdism, and the integration of digital technologies as dramaturgical tools—woven through with a distinct visual and musical language. Her internationally acclaimed productions, such as Yum!, which won the prestigious European Opera Award, the FEDORA Digital Prize 2025, exemplify a groundbreaking blend of participatory storytelling and real-time XR interactivity, pushing the boundaries of music theater in the digital age.

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What if the history of Earth—4.5 billion years of tectonics, climate, origination, and extinction—unfolded over the course of a single day? 4.5Ga~24h is a longform audiovisual composition that translates deep geological time into a 24-hour musical timeline. By compressing time to 52,000 years per second, it renders planetary-scale processes audible and emotionally resonant.

The piece reflects the unevenness of scientific knowledge: sparse, abstract signals from Earth’s early history give way to denser and more interpretable data as life emerges and diversifies. I will present the different methods we use to translate data into sound and music, and the criteria we developed to ensure the resulting composition is both sonically intriguing, emotionally resonant, and faithful to the underlying data. The piece oscillates between pure sonification—direct auditory representation of structured datasets—and musification, where selected data streams shape musical parameters such as tempo, harmony, density, timbre, or musical texture.

This talk outlines the conceptual and methodological framework behind 4.5Ga~24h, including its evolving treatment of time, scale, and representation. I will also share findings from our field experiments—shorter compositions exploring how different playback speeds reveal different dynamics. For instance, continental drift only becomes perceptible when the 4.5-billion-year timeline is compressed into 15 minutes, while rhythmic processes like glaciation cycles emerge clearly at the full project tempo of 52,000 years per second, allowing the entire history to unfold as a single, day-long composition.

Rather than offering a single narrative of Earth, the work becomes a temporal instrument—one that tunes us into unfamiliar rhythms and invites both scientific reflection and poetic listening.

Cyril Kaplan is a Prague-based musician, producer, and researcher whose work bridges art, science, and performance. His project 4.5Ga~24h transforms Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history into a 24-hour audiovisual experience, continuing a sonification practice that began with brainwave-driven sonic games and now extends to seismic, orbital, and biodiversity data. Alongside this, he has been an active figure on the Czech music scene since 2008, most recently debuting his solo record This Is What Dancefl00r I5 4 and Xadrex, a Czech-Palestinian duo blending Arabic music, electronics, and post-rock.

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Seven kids, their father, and a quest for a safe home—until the Decoherence She-Wolf shatters their reality. Inspired by quantum computing and decoherence, this 45-minute puppet adventure takes the audience (8+) on a mind-bending journey where worlds split, time twists, and nothing stays the same. Will they escape the chaos and find their way home?

A thrilling mix of science, fantasy, and humor – don’t miss this quantum leap into the unknown!

VIDEO TRAILER

Creative Team

Directed by: Réka Deák
Set Design: Veronika Traburová
Dramaturgy: Jana Nunčič
Music: Matěj Vejdělek
Cast: Mariana Čížková, Jakub Vaverka
Quantum Physicist – Scientific Coordinator: Aurél Gábris, Ph.D.
Production: Radka Lím Labendz, Husam Abed
Assistant: Margera Vyzareli
Photography: Adriána Vančová

Special thanks to Robert Smolík

Theatre performance in English.

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Please ASK! – Art Science Kick is a Creative Europe co-funded project bridging the realms of art and science. Designed to facilitate knowledge-sharing and artistic exchange, the initiative aims to build capacity and strengthen the competencies of the participating organizations to create impactful art-science theatre performances. The project’s initial phase focused on exploring diverse approaches to art-science collaboration culminating in a 7-day laboratory held in the Bulgarian mountains. Each project partner will then develop a theater performance on a scientific topic – astrobiology, quantum physics, and evolutionary biology – tailored to a specific audience and with the support of a science partner.

Central to Please ASK! is to expand audience engagement with science by making innovative cultural productions accessible to diverse groups: women in science, underrepresented communities, children, teenagers, adults, and families, while empowering artists to approach science responsibly.

Please ASK!’s objectives are to establish performing arts as a dynamic tool to foster societal engagement with science, empower citizens and organizations to address pressing challenges, deepen artists’ understanding of science, scientists, and the scientific process, and create successful innovative models for sustainable art-science partnerships. The project seeks to inspire, inform, and engage a plethora of audiences across Europe, leaving a lasting legacy in the intersection of art and science in the form of high-quality, thought-provoking, and engaged theatre performances.

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Ivelina Ivanova-Kadiri is Senior Compliance Manager at a leading SaaS company for e-mobility and is completing her doctoral thesis in marketing at the University of Economics – Varna, Bulgaria. Her research, Customer Relationship Management with Genetic Data,
explores how behavioral genetics and emerging technologies can inform hyper-personalized product ecosystems, raising new perspectives on ethics, regulation, and innovation.

She is the author of ten publications in the emerging field of genetic marketing, including the paper Innovative Models of Art Products with Genetic Marketing and conceptual work on a “genetic persona for astronauts,” which imagines how omics data might inform new models of personalization and resilience in the extreme conditions of space exploration.

Ivelina is a member of the management board of international projects and networks on space futures and a member of the European Marketing Academy. Her work creates bridges between science, art, and policy, inviting dialogue across disciplines. She is honored to
collaborate with leading scientists in life sciences globally who tackle the frontiers of human adaptation, resilience, and ethics in extreme environments.

At Theatre of Wonder, she envisions art centers as future laboratories of imagination – spaces where cultural practices ignite innovation in space exploration and help humanity reimagine how we carry our values, identities, and creativity into the cosmos.

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Ilina Konakchieva is a pioneering live action role-playing (LARP) designer from Bulgaria, known for introducing the medium to her country and creating The Fog, the largest international LARP in Southeastern Europe. She leads a company that produces large-scale immersive games and has spent the past years exploring how LARP can transcend entertainment to become a tool for education, empathy, and social change.

Her practice bridges theatre, storytelling, and research, with a focus on how embodied play can foster inclusion, critical thinking, and transformative experiences. She has led international Erasmus+ projects on using LARP in youth education and advocates for integrating role-play into formal curricula. In 2025 she begins a Master’s in Transformative Game Design at Uppsala University, pursuing her vision of LARP as a medium that not only tells stories but also enables people to live through them, experiment with perspectives, and reimagine systems of power and belonging.

At Theater of Wonder Sofia 2025 she presents Worlds at Play: LARP as a Bridge Between Storytelling, Human Experience, and Science – a lecture on the potential of LARP as a cross-disciplinary practice of both imagination and inquiry.

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Sem Anne van Dijk is a partly deaf playwright and writer from the Netherlands. He graduated in 2020 with a degree in Writing for Performance from the Utrecht University of the Arts. Since then, he has written for leading Dutch theatre companies, including Het Nationale Theater, Toneelschuur Producties, Raymi Sambo Maakt, and Markttheater. In 2022, Van Dijk created the first Dutch theatre production performed entirely in the grammar and lexicon of Dutch Sign Language (NGT).

In addition to his writing, Van Dijk is actively engaged in improving accessibility within the performing arts and cultural sector. He has a keen interest in the science of deafness and hearing loss, and in how new technologies can make cultural spaces more inclusive. In recent years, he has also begun lecturing on how theatres, festivals, and other cultural institutions can take meaningful steps toward greater accessibility.

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Creative Producer/co-founder of Walk the Plank, Liz Pugh, will present Green Space Dark Skies (GSDS) – an immersive project that built nature connectedness through art and science.

Twenty events took thousands from disadvantaged UK communities into Britain’s wild spaces, climbing the four highest mountains carrying lights while being filmed for national TV. As Professor Miles Richardson notes, people need connected nature experiences to engage in environmental protection.

GSDS placed artist-led immersive experiences at each location’s heart, partnering with science and local communities. Choreographers, poets, composers, and circus artists animated 20 national parks as participants journeyed with “geolights” using Siemens-developed technology, learning about geology, biodiversity, and human stories shaping these landscapes.

Sixteen short films captured events, with BBC Countryfile reaching 6 million viewers – extraordinary reach for artist-led science-art collaboration.

As an experienced theatre maker engaging international audiences, Pugh will share how they maximized participant impact while minimizing carbon footprint. Her presentation includes a BBC Wales film highlighting an event taking 400 people into an abandoned copper mine.

Liz Pugh is a Creative Producer for Walk the Plank. Liz makes work in public space – from large scale civic celebrations to memorable outdoor performances; and, as co-founder of Walk the Plank, set up UK’s only touring theatre ship in the 1990’s.

A theatre maker with interests in art, science, and community building, Liz brings together creative teams that draw on a worldwide network of collaborators, mixing new and emerging talent with experienced artists.

Recently, Artistic Director of Midsummer Mischief for Bodø2024 (Norway) EU Capital of Culture; Creative Producer (Wales) for Green Space Dark Skies, Walk the Plank’s ambitious collaboration with UK’s National Parks, which invited thousands of people to animate wild
places with light, captured through films and broadcast via BBC.

Creative Producer of the Manchester Day Parade (2010-26); Artistic Director of Grimsby’s Festival of the Sea (2021/22) and Hull Freedom Festival (2013-15) – all platforms which offer opportunity for meaningful exchange between artists, communities and new audiences.

Liz has worked extensively with British Council in West Africa, Hong Kong, the Caribbean, and Ukraine, in Kyiv for eight months on secondment to British Council’s Arts team. She designed and led 2 European training programmes (School of Spectacle/School of Participation). Liz is Adviser to IETM, European contemporary performing arts network; board member for Xtrax; Fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts.

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What stories does nature tell us?

Our community theatre walk blends storytelling with science, integrating evolutionary biology, narrative traditions, dance and drama pedagogy, ecosomatics toolkit, circus arts, and theatrical techniques. At its core is knowledge—knowledge of ourselves and our environment, which we must explore and allow to reach us.

On this journey, we experience, learn, and connect with our past together, becoming part of a story that unfolds before us as a theatrical performance. Experienced guides will listen to individual needs, ensuring that everyone finds their own way to engage in the experience.

Evolution is an ongoing process of change, still happening today. It is a transformation that connects past and present, while all living and non-living things remain in constant interaction. Within this process, spanning millions of years, our stories are born—stories that help us recognize and experience our interconnectedness.

Our performance offers a glimpse into this vast evolutionary past, bringing it to life so that we can write it together. Artists from various disciplines have shaped this unique encounter through a year and a half of preparation.

Join us and become part of this one-of-a-kind community experience!

VIDEO TRAILER

Creative Team

Creators and performers: Dorottya Biró, Pál Nyáry, Dorottya Podmaniczky, Napsugár Trömböczky, Lajos Rózsa
Scientific expert: Lajos Rózsa (Centre for Ecological Research)
Dramaturg: Panka Paskuj
Director: Viktor Szivák-Tóth

Theatre performance in English.

Starting point: the main entrance of Toplocentrala

TICKETS

LIVE MUSIC SETS

21:00 Doors open

21:30 Cyril Kaplan (Prague)

Experimental Electronic

22:15 Kottarashky & Sando (Sofia)

Party Beats

24:00 Sednoid (Berlin)

Deep Techno Sound

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Cyril Kaplan is a Prague based musician, producer, and researcher blending analog synths, live drums, and vocals into rhythm-heavy songs that live between concert and club. Known for award-winning work with Vložte kočku, Kaplan debuted solo in 2025 with This Is What Dancefl00r I5 4 (Daftpop Sounds) — a retro-futurist, dancefloor-ready EP inspired by the aura of Studio 54.

Kottarashky & Sando is Kottarashky’s latest project. In it, the famous musician interprets some of his most popular songs in a dance and club mix, together with multi-instrumentalist Sando Sandov (accordion and trumpet), known both from the band Kottarashky & The Rain Dogs and from the legendary Wickeda.
The duo was formed for an exclusive performance at the Beglika Festival three years ago, where they caused a sensation, prompting the two to continue performing in this format. Over the past year, Kottarashky & Sando have had over a dozen performances throughout the Balkans, as well as in Berlin, and at the beginning of this year they opened for the cult Romanian band Subcarpati in Sofia.
The two are now working on their own exclusive material, increasingly shaping their characteristic style – club beats and modern sound, garnished with lively improvisations in the best traditions of ethnic music.

Sednoid Project (Konstantin Hauer) spans from deep techno to dark garage. Mystic, gloomy, dusty soundscapes surround wide spanning harmonic progressions and architectural form designs that draw from the musical background of a classically trained composer. Sednoid wants to serve the listener with sonic mind and body experiences that unify hypersensitive delicacies and visceral drive.

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Seven kids, their father, and a quest for a safe home—until the Decoherence She-Wolf shatters their reality. Inspired by quantum computing and decoherence, this 45-minute puppet adventure takes the audience (8+) on a mind-bending journey where worlds split, time twists, and nothing stays the same. Will they escape the chaos and find their way home?

A thrilling mix of science, fantasy, and humor—don’t miss this quantum leap into the unknown!

VIDEO TRAILER

Creative Team

Directed by: Réka Deák
Set Design: Veronika Traburová
Dramaturgy: Jana Nunčič
Music: Matěj Vejdělek
Cast: Mariana Čížková, Jakub Vaverka
Quantum Physicist – Scientific Coordinator: Aurél Gábris, Ph.D.
Production: Radka Lím Labendz, Husam Abed
Assistant: Margera Vyzareli
Photography: Adriána Vančová

Special thanks to Robert Smolík

Theatre performance in English.

TICKETS

Nooit meer werken – Theatre, Technology, and the End of Work

In Nooit meer werken (“Never Work Again”), we explore humanity’s ambivalent relationship with technology—our deep-seated fear and secret desire for a future where machines render human labor obsolete. This theatrical production, created with ten robots and four actors, presents a meta-narrative: a play within a play about two theatre makers, Greg and Floor, attempting to create a performance about robots.

In an ironic twist, the real Greg and Floor sat in the audience, while ten robots and two interns portrayed various versions of them on stage. The structure blurred the boundaries between fiction and reality, raising questions about identity, authorship, and agency in an age of automation.

A key feature of the performance was its interactive design. At certain moments, the audience was invited to vote via tablets, supposedly determining how the narrative would unfold. This participatory mechanism was not just a dramaturgical device, but a reflection of a larger societal question: Is technology leading us toward a utopian or dystopian future?

One of the central challenges in creating the piece was how to design for unpredictability. Robots, typically programmed for precision and control, were now part of a medium known for spontaneity and emotion. How do you script surprise? Can artificial performers truly embody the accidental, the awkward, or the absurd?

Nooit meer werken is both a theatrical experiment and a philosophical inquiry. It asks what it means to work, to create, and ultimately, to be human in an age where those definitions are rapidly evolving.

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Milena Minja Bogavac (Belgrade, 1982) is a playwright, dramaturge, theatre director, producer, drama educator, poet, activist, and cultural worker. She is the Creative Director of Center E8, a leading organization in youth work, and Director of Reflektor Theatre, its socially engaged company creating devised, documentary, and educational performances with and for young people. Her plays have been translated into several languages, published in contemporary drama anthologies, and staged in theatres and festivals across Europe and
beyond. She has received major awards, including the Sterija Award for Drama, the Mihiz Award for Playwriting, and the Faculty of Dramatic Arts Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre, as well as honors for feminist art, women’s rights advocacy, promotion of human rights, and supporting youth activism.

Reflector Theatre (Spotlight theater, in English) is an independent theatre troupe whose artistic practice is based on the method we call Theatre as Youth Work. This approach treats art and activism as equally important, connects the personal with the political, and balances ethics with aesthetics. We believe that the process of creating a play is just as meaningful as the final performance.

All our productions are documentary and include a strong educational component. Our creative processes usually last from six months to a year. During that time, authors and artistic collaborators work closely with young people to explore important social and scientific issues together.

Each production involves expert consultants—researchers, professors, scientists, activists, and other professionals—who contribute knowledge relevant to the subject of the play. These experts are included in the official credits, alongside the cast and creative team, emphasizing the collaborative and research-based nature of our work.

We see theatre as a platform for generating and sharing valuable knowledge, particularly content that is often missing from formal education. That’s why some parts of our process are open to the public. These include lectures, workshops, presentations, and guided sessions designed by our expert collaborators to support the development of the play.

Reflektor Theatre’s work combines education, science, art, and youth engagement. Our interdisciplinary approach fosters critical thinking, creativity, and active participation. By involving young people directly in the creation process, we aim to empower them as storytellers, researchers, and citizens.

In this presentation, we will share our experience of “directing the process”— educational model rooted in collaboration with experts and young participants, with the goal of producing theatre that educates, empowers, and inspires social dialogue.

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Trial & Theatre is a new, process-oriented performance collective concentrating on experiments and a conceptual approach to puppetry. Nano Steps is their first foray into the world of physics and material sciences, as well as their first series of staged pieces. The objective of our group is a free and unruly process of research in which the performances of science and puppetry collide, and blur each other’s boundaries.

The question that we started with was: What would be the world’s smallest puppet?

Nano steps is an artistic research and a series of performances that indulges into recent applied physics technologies and approaches them with the viewpoint of contemporary puppetry, and brings for the first time a manipulation technique learned directly from physicists to stage: the technique of manipulating/handling micro-sized particles.

Working among scientists in universities from different parts of the globe, Nano Steps has brought together professionals of puppetry and material sciences. Main collaborators have been Czech Academy of Sciences Prague, Itai Cohen group in Cornell University Ithaca New York and Aalto University.

Our work aims to staged pieces but also reaches constantly out of theatres and rehearsal rooms: We have given a puppetry basics workshop for scientists in a rooftop-meeting room of a Ithaca university in the USA, a lecture for Aalto university (Finland) students about how did the project began, trials and errors in learning practices of physicists. During the creation process we wrote an art-philosophical essays about meeting points in physics and puppetry: questioning the separation of subject and object between puppeteer and the puppet or either with a physicist and their target.

In the Theatre of Wonder presentation we’ll focus on what we have found out about puppetry when the scale is unperceivable for the bare eye: about control, losing control and listening to the material.

Aati Hanikka (Helsinki, FIN) is a puppeteer (BA), director, performer and producer. He is a founder of experimental puppetry collective Trial & Theatre, with Valtteri Alanen and Iiris Syrjä. He is also a member of Grus Grus Theatre and Aura of Puppets. 

Hanikka explores the boundaries of puppetry and performing arts. With Trial & Theatre collective he explored the question about what would be the smallest puppetry in the world and directed microscopic puppetry performances Nano Steps – a Particle Performance and Nano Steps – Into the Lab. The shows have been realised in collaboration with Cornell University, Czech Academy of Sciences, Aalto University, Helsinki City Theatre and Alfred ve Dvoře.

For Hanikka, puppetry is above all about movement: matter in motion. Matter offers a language of movement that transcends biological reality, a surface for exploring imaginative otherness. Hanikka approaches kinetic expression from two different angles: on one hand, using the principles of character animation, and on the other hand, from a material perspective, searching for the material’s own tenacity and individuality.  

There is one element that inspires Hanikka unconditionally: water. Hanikka loves its elasticity, its flow and the mesmerising world beyond its surface. For him, water envelopes play, adventure, meditation, life, connection and otherness. 

In his free time, Hanikka consumes animations and comics, the visual forms of storytelling free from limitations of the human bodies.

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This presentation will introduce the life of Dr. Jane Goodall, the work of the Jane Goodall Institute Hungary, and the methods we use to reach people—especially young people—whom we hope to inspire to take action in saving the world.

The Jane Goodall Institute is engaged in nature and environmental protection, as well as environmental education. Our vision is to create a healthy planet where people make their daily decisions with sufficient compassion to live sustainably and in harmony with one another, the environment, and all the animals.

Our theatrical performance, which explores the life and work of Dr. Jane Goodall, the English anthropologist, also emphasizes the importance of environmental protection, conscious living, and the preservation of our natural values.
How can we pay attention to the nature around us?
How can we listen to the sounds of the forest?
How can we find silence?
How can we protect that which has taken millions of years to become what we know today?

Dr. Jane Goodall, the well-known researcher, became famous primarily for studying the lives of chimpanzees—and today she is a gentle yet highly influential figure in environmental conservation. Her life and work are portrayed in an immersive walking theatre performance organized by the Jane Goodall Institute, directed by Réka Pelsőczy and performed by Sára Bohoczki. It has been presented at the Jane Goodall Nature Trail in Budapest since 2023.

This is a true story. The story of a woman who follows her own path, guided by her instincts and in harmony with them, embarking on a journey that from the outside may seem entirely impossible. Through her personal story, the responsibility and potential of the individual become more tangible. It shows how every decision and choice we make affects the world around us. This is a serious responsibility.

The walk brings to life the milestones of Dr. Jane Goodall’s life, as we explore the scenic landscapes of the nature trail named after her—and who knows, we might even encounter a chimpanzee. We, at the Jane Goodall Institute, believe that a personal and inspiring story told by an actress can have a greater impact than a news article or report warning about the destruction of the world.
We believe the shortest path to people is through their hearts, not their minds.

Entry with a FESTIVAL PASS

Barbara Skala-Stojanović (born 1972 in Dornbirn, Austria) is an artist and cultural manager with a focus on theatre production, acting, and environmental education through the arts. She is a founding member and the legal representative of Art & Eko, a Belgrade-based association dedicated to combining cultural work with ecological awareness.

Originally trained as a lawyer, Barbara has been living in Belgrade for over 20 years. After working in the business sector, she shifted her focus more and more towards culture. For over a decade, she has been engaged in various theatre projects, especially with the Belgrade-based theatre group Prostor, of which she is an active member. She completed her actor’s training at the “Acting for Adults” school led by Draginja Mileusnic and has since performed extensively in Serbia and abroad.

Barbara’s artistic work is strongly influenced by her long-standing passion for ecology and environmental protection – both as a central theme of her productions and as a guiding principle in their implementation, using sustainable materials for stage design, costumes, and production processes.

Tatjana Popović (born 1963 in Belgrade, Serbia) is a theatre actress and instructor, with over a decade of experience in amateur theatre. For the past eleven years, she has been an active member of the Belgrade-based theatre group Prostor, performing in more than ten productions that have remained in continuous repertoire. She has appeared on stages across Serbia and abroad, participating in numerous theatre festivals.

In addition to her stage work, Tatjana has played supporting roles in various Serbian television series. Since 2021, she has been working as an assistant at the Acting for Adults school, and in 2024 she began teaching independently.

In the same year, she became a regular member of the association Art & Eko, where she has been involved in all stages of creating the children’s theatre play Hrabri oprašivači (Brave Pollinators). With this environmentally themed production, she has toured widely across Serbia and internationally.

At Theatre of Wonder, they will present the Art & Eko project Hrabri oprašivači – an interactive children’s play about biodiversity, pollinators, and collective responsibility for the environment.

Entry with a FESTIVAL PASS

Climate change presents a long-term and formidable challenge to modern society. As the need for mitigation and adaptation becomes increasingly urgent, the role of culture and art in driving comprehensive societal transformation cannot be overstated. The RE-IMAGINE project seeks to redefine the social role of performing arts organizations as agents of environmental change. The RE-IMAGINE project aims to build capacities within organizations and professionals in the performing arts, to achieve goals related to reducing CO2 emissions and achieving zero-waste production, among others. By fostering internal changes in working practices, the project also aspires to bring about a significant shift in the external actions of the performing arts sector, contributing to global efforts to combat climate change.

Project consortium gathers organizations that are among the pioneers in their countries regarding the promotion and implementation of green policies in culture and creative sectors and have now taken the leading role of advocates for environment-friendly and sustainable artistic production.

Vassilka Shishkova is an expert in impact assessment of cultural and artistic projects and in audience research. She has extensive experience in evaluating projects in Spain, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Lithuania, and Bulgaria, as well as in assessing international projects under Creative Europe. She has conducted audience research for festivals and institutions, for users of public library services, and for civic initiatives. Vassilka is the author of publications and studies in the field of cultural policies, handbooks for working with vulnerable groups and in remote regions, and for assessing the impact of artistic projects. Currently, she works at Toplocentrala RCCA as projects and development expert. Vassilka is involved in the RE-IMAGINE Going Green project as the coordinator on behalf of Arte Urbana Collectif.

Entry with a FESTIVAL PASS

This 60-minute workshop invites participants—especially students and young creatives—to explore how digital storytelling and media design can foster climate awareness and engagement. Through a hands-on, participatory session, attendees will learn how to transform scientific data and environmental concepts into compelling visual messages using digital poster design techniques.

We will begin with a brief introduction to key media literacy concepts related to the climate crisis: What is the carbon footprint? What are the dominant narratives in media about climate solutions? How can visuals evoke action and reflection? We will analyze a few effective environmental posters and campaigns to understand the narrative and aesthetic strategies used.

In the next phase, participants will work in small groups or individually to create their own digital posters using a free online tool (e.g., Canva, Adobe Express). Each poster will focus on one specific issue—such as renewable energy, green transportation, deforestation, or eco-consumption—while applying principles of visual storytelling, emotional appeal, and data-based messaging. Templates and guidance will be provided, and participants will be encouraged to remix existing media materials critically and creatively.

In the final part of the workshop, each group will briefly present their posters and reflect on the choices they made in terms of content, design, and narrative strategy. We will discuss how these small acts of creative communication can contribute to larger climate conversations and civic action.

The workshop promotes interdisciplinary learning by combining environmental science, communication, and art, and aims to empower participants to become more conscious media producers and engaged citizens in the face of the ecological crisis.

Serhat Yetimova was born in Istanbul, Türkiye. He has built a career at the crossroads of cinema, intercultural communication, and transnational media. His journey began in Central Asia at Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University, where he combined historical research with immersive fieldwork, gaining fluency in Kyrgyz and Russian and witnessing firsthand the shaping of post-Soviet cultural identities. Serhat’s explorations continued across Europe. At INALCO in Paris, through the Erasmus program, he deepened his understanding of French language and culture, cultivating a keen sensitivity to intercultural dynamics. His MA research in Istanbul examined 19th-century French-language Ottoman newspapers, while his PhD explored how Turkish and French cinema magazines construct transnational and critical discourses, blending film studies with cultural sociology. As a faculty member and Erasmus coordinator, Serhat integrates participatory learning, media literacy, and film pedagogy into his teaching, emphasizing how cinema can spark dialogue, foster integration, and expand horizons. He has also contributed to international initiatives such as CinEd and represented Turkey at the Taifas Balkan Film Festival. His postdoctoral research at Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 focused on French film education system, diasporic and migrant communities, examining how audiovisual media shapes identity and belonging.

Currently, Serhat serves as Associate Professor in the Cinema-TV Department at Sakarya University, leading internationalization initiatives and academic programs. Beyond academia, he animates public cultural life: co- editing the Turkish Journal of Film Studies, organizing film workshops, leading short-film projects, and hosting Cinematic Journeys, a YouTube series on global cinema. Through his
work, he transforms cinema into a platform for critical education, intercultural exchange, and social connection.

Entry with a FESTIVAL PASS

What stories does nature tell us?

Our community theatre walk blends storytelling with science, integrating evolutionary biology, narrative traditions, dance and drama pedagogy, ecosomatics toolkit, circus arts, and theatrical techniques. At its core is knowledge—knowledge of ourselves and our environment, which we must explore and allow to reach us.

On this journey, we experience, learn, and connect with our past together, becoming part of a story that unfolds before us as a theatrical performance. Experienced guides will listen to individual needs, ensuring that everyone finds their own way to engage in the experience.

Evolution is an ongoing process of change, still happening today. It is a transformation that connects past and present, while all living and non-living things remain in constant interaction. Within this process, spanning millions of years, our stories are born—stories that help us recognize and experience our interconnectedness.

Our performance offers a glimpse into this vast evolutionary past, bringing it to life so that we can write it together. Artists from various disciplines have shaped this unique encounter through a year and a half of preparation.

Join us and become part of this one-of-a-kind community experience!

VIDEO TRAILER

Creative Team

Creators and performers: Dorottya Biró, Pál Nyáry, Dorottya Podmaniczky, Napsugár Trömböczky, Lajos Rózsa
Scientific expert: Lajos Rózsa (Centre for Ecological Research)
Dramaturg: Panka Paskuj
Director: Viktor Szivák-Tóth

Theatre performance in English.

Starting point: the main entrance of Toplocentrala

TICKETS

Danceperimental is an interactive dance performance that involves the audience in co-authorship. The boundary between artists and spectators is dissolved by an old telephone that challenges the audience to participate in the creation of the performance with their personal stories. The dance and the music are improvised, born in the moment, in and from the presence of the audience, and inspired by their stories. This form of social physical theatre will make the participants reflect on the Theatre of Wonder experience.

VIDEO TRAILER

Ina Gerginova is a choreographer, dancer, actress, and teacher. She is interested in interdisciplinary and experimental art forms. Ina is the founder of Muzotanz Dance Company, which focuses on social engagement in the arts. The main tool of expression in her work as a choreographer is contemporary dance. In her last two performances (“Plast-tonia” and “Differsonalities”), she explores the use of dance dramaturgy, large-scale scenography, and cinematic approaches in theatre. Ina also practices playback theatre and works as a voice-over artist.  .

In 2022, she directed her first short dance film, “Inner Room,” which received a nomination for IMPULS (Annual awards of the professional dance community in Bulgaria).

Entry with a FESTIVAL PASS