Academic CV

Since 2023

Technical Director of the University Players and Research Associate, Universität Hamburg

2012-21

PhD, title of the thesis Whiteface: How racialized intuition, abjective play, and solipsist humor manifest in US improv comedy („summa cum laude“), Universität Bremen

2009-12

Master of Arts, Transnational literary science (major subjects: Theatre and Literature), Universität Bremen

2005-09

Bachelor of Arts, English-speaking Cultures / German Studies, Universität Bremen

Außerakademisch

2019-22

LURUM – Community School Lurup (Funded by: Lichtwark-Forum Lurup e.V.)
Organization and Management
Nomination for the Hamburger Stadtteilkulturpreis

2017-19

BIK CITY Impro, Bühne und Schule für improvisiertes Theater
Art Director, with Tobias Sailer, Bremen

Seit 2016

Press work and dramaturgy freies Theater, among others for Mbene Mwambene (Bern), Label Noir (Berlin), Jahrmarkttheater (LK Uelzen, Theaterpreis des Bundes), Charlotte Pfeifer, Anja Kerschkewicz and Patricia C. Mai (Hamburg)

2014-17

LICHTHOF Theater (Hamburg, winner of the Theaterpreis des Bundes)
Press work and publicity

Since 2014

Freelance Performer and Coach for Improv Theater

2012

Theaterwerkstatt Schlachthof (Bremen)
Interim Director

2005-08

Bremer Tageszeitungen AG
Freelancer

Summer term 2026

Shakespearean Comedy and Humor Theory: Jesters, Laughter, and Adaptation from Shakespeare to Today
By Charlie Bierend
Guest speakers: Nora Khuon (Leitende Dramaturgin Thalia Theater) and Prof. Roland Weidle (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Board of Directors of the Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft)
Übung, Universität Hamburg

In-yer-Face Theatre
Guest speakers: Prof. Stefka Mihaylova (University of Washington; Author of Viewers in Distress: Race, Gender, Religion and Avant-Garde Performance at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, University of Michigan Press, 2023), Dr. Mariya Nikolova (Universität Bielefeld; Author of How Whiteness Claimed the Future: The Always New vs The Always Now in US-American Literature, De Gruyter, 2023) and Jasper Koch (Regisseur THAT FACE, University Players, 2026)
Seminar, Universität Hamburg

Research and Rehearse: The Shakespeare Showcase
Guest: Prof. Susanne Rupp (Universität Hamburg)
Seminar, Universität Hamburg

Summer term 2024

Classical Mythology in Contemporary US Theater: Materials, Aesthetics, Limitations
Prof. Jaye A. Williams (Scholar-Artist, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA), Prof. Amy Muse (University of St. Thomas, MN, USA) and Mbene Mwambene (Performance Artist, Bern, Schweiz).
Übung, Universität Hamburg

Summer term 2023

Drama, Performance, Criticism: English-language plays currently staged in Hamburg
Guest speakers: Jan Bosse (Stage Director, Berlin), Falk Schreiber (Literary Journalist, Hamburg)
Übung, Universität Hamburg

Summer term 2014

Black Feminist Theories: On the Question of Gender
With Samira Spatzek, Follow up-Workshop of the MA-Seminar by Christina Sharpe
Übung, Universität Bremen

Summer term 2012

Auf dem Spielplatz vergessen – das improvisierte Theater der Gegenwart
Seminar, Universität Bremen

term 2010/11

Einführung in die Transnationale Literaturwissenschaft
Tutorial, Universität Bremen

Planned productions:

Summer term 2027

MEN ON BOATS by Jaclyn Backhaus
Director: Vera Kittner

Winter term 2026/27

DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller
Director: Oleksandra Glazunova

Past Productions:

Summer term 2026

THAT FACE by Polly Stenham
Director: Jasper Koch

Winter term 2025/26

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

Adapted from the novel by R.L. Stevenson, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher
Director: Miriam Barbi

Summer term 2025

COPENHAGEN by Michael Frayn
Director: Marlon Hoffmann

Accompanying Event:

Frayn’s COPENHAGEN: A Drama More Timely Than You Might Want

Panelists: Prof. Dr. Luisa Lucie-Smith (Hamburg Observatory), Prof. Dr. Michael Rübhausen (Institute for Solid-State and Nanostructure Physics and Centre for Hybrid Nanostructures), Prof. Dr. Robin Santra (Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY and I. Institute for Theoretical Physics) and Prof. Dr. Matthias Schemmel (Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences)

Winter term 2024/25

SPECTERS: TRIFLES AND THE AMERICAN DREAM by Susan Glaspell and Edward Albee

Director: Charlie Bierend and Lydia Preusch (TRIFLES) and Felix Krebs (THE AMERICAN DREAM)

Accompanying Event:

Politics of the Absurd: Panel on the Occasion of the U.S. Presidential Election

Panelists: Prof. Susan Winnett (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf), Prof. Sabine Broeck (Universität Bremen) and Prof. Astrid Böger (Universität Hamburg)

Winter term 2024/25 

SPECTERS: TRIFLES AND THE AMERICAN DREAM
by Susan Glaspell and Edward Albee
Director: Charlie Bierend and Lydia Preusch (TRIFLES) and Felix Krebs (THE AMERICAN DREAM)

Summer term 2024

THE INHERITANCE GAME by Jenny Day,
Director: Jenny Day

Since winter term 2023/24

UPLAY IMPROV
Introduction of a regular workshop for impro theatre
Support with the organization and development of Training Groups (such as SHINY THINGS)
Regular presentations of the Show AS YOU WANT IT (Directed by: Clara Kasten) at the Motte (Ottensen)

Winter term 2023/24

MACBETH by William Shakespeare, directed by: Jasper Koch
EURYDICE by Sarah Ruhl, directed by: Henny Fleischmann & Charlie Bierend

Summer term 2023

EQUUS by Peter Shaffer, directed by: Henny Fleischmann

www.universityplayers.de

2024

Fest im Nest (Dahlenburg, LK Lüneburg) | initiative-nester.de
Interdisciplinary cultural festival on the countryside
Project management

2023-24

Initiative Nester (Dahlenburg, LK Lüneburg) | initiative-nester.de
Lecture series on ecological and sociological sustainability
Member of the Project team, Public Relations

2021

The Whispers / Das Flüstern (Fair Theater, LK Uelzen)
Performance by Mbene Mwambene and Bharati Mayandi
Translation, dramaturgy

2020

Emmett, Tief in meinem Herzen
For Label Noir (Berlin)
Fundraising

2019 and 2018

Fliegende Funken – internationales Festival für improvisiertes Theater
With Tobias Sailer / BIK CITY Impro (Bremen)
Art Director, Fundraising, communications

Monograph

• WHITEFACE: Improv Comedy and Anti-Blackness. De Gruyter, 2022.

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

• “’I want a bath!’: On the Depth and Limits of Universalist Liquefaction in Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice.” Comparative Drama, vol. 58, no. 4, Winter 2024, pp. 406-434.
•  “Democratic Rhetorics and Anti-Black Realities in US Improv Comedy.” Coup de Théâtre, no. 37, 2023.
• “‘A Good Story’: On Black Abjection in Improv Comedy.” COPAS, vol. 15, no. 1, 2014.
   

Translations

• Wynter, Sylvia. “Die Kolonialität von Sein/Macht/Wahrheit/Freiheit erschüttern: Eine Streitschrift über das Menschliche.” Translated by Michel Büch and Samira Spatzek. Lateinamerikanische Kulturtheorien, edited by Isabel Exner, Gudrun Rath, Konstanz UP, 2015, pp. 387-410.

Further publications

• "Fascist Doppelgänging and Jekyll's Racial Fantasies: Producer’s Notes on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." UP News, no. 1, 2026, issue 75.
• “Principally Uncertain: Producer’s Note on Copenhagen.” UP News, no. 2, 2025, issue 74.
• “Specters no More: Producer’s Note on the Specters: Trifles and The American Dream.” UP News, no. 1, 2025, issue 73.
• “‘Reassuring Sounds’: The Impossibility of White, Public Apology.” De Gruyter Conversations, De Gruyter, May 2022, blog.degruyter.com.
• “White Promise: Performance Artist Mbene Mwambene in Conversation.” With Mbene Mwambene. De Gruyter Conversations, De Gruyter, May 2022, blog.degruyter.com.

• „Myth as Riverbed: Tracing the Performativity of Adaptation, Absence, and Universalist Enclosures in Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice“, Comparative Drama Conference, London, July 7-11, 2025. Mit Lydia Preusch.
• Transatlantic Perspectives: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Universität Bremen, 12. Oktober 2024. Moderation.
• „A Good Story: On Black Abjection in Improv Comedy”, Postgraduate Forum, Erlangen-Nürnberg, 25.-27. October 2013.

• Comparative Drama Journal (Western Michigan University)
• Storyworlds (University of Nebraska Press)

2021

Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen
Grant to cover the printing costs for the publication of the PhD thesis

2013

Scholarship of the University of Bremen for young researchers

2009

DAAD-short term funding for an internship abroad (Fortune Theatre, Dunedin, NZ)