Luzie Ackers

Artistic Director TheatreFragile, Mask Making & Mask Play

Luzie Ackers, born in Darmstadt in 1978, grew up surrounded by puppeteers and urban planners. As a child and teenager, she learned forms of classical pantomime at school and at home, specialised in the visual arts and developed a particular fascination for public spaces. In 1998 she moved to Berlin. After two years of studying cultural studies and Spanish and Italian philology at the Humboldt University in Berlin, she followed her passion and switched to studying mime at the Etage School of Performing Arts Berlin.
After graduating from there, she founded the company TheatreFragile with Marianne Cornil in 2007, where she is still co-artistic director of the ensemble. Ackers and Cornil share an interest in public space as a place where social developments are negotiated. In their artistic practice, TheatreFragile combine documentary elements with the art of masquerade. The productions have a strong socio-spatial reference and the company performs exclusively outdoors.
Ackers developed the need to deal with the "speaking body" in an expanded form during his intensive study of non-verbal communication in the theatre context. This led to the creation of the studio "HANDS ON - Studio for Body.Conscious.Being" in 2015, where she practises according to the Grinberg Method and the Pantarei Approach.
Luzie Ackers creates contemporary masks that sensitively convey the artistic message of the productions. Since 2007, she has created over 100 masks that have been used in projects by TheatreFragile and other companies.
From the very beginning, Ackers has focussed on sharing her knowledge in the field of mask making and mask play and regularly offers workshops in an international context for different target groups.

Most recently, in 2021, she led a workshop entitled "poetic mask in public space" for professional performers in the field of theatre in public space as part of the "Street Performing Arts Summer Programme (S.P.A.S.A)" in Tarrega (Catalonia, ES). Other trainers were Cia Kamchatka (ES), Cie Willi Dorner (AU) and Giro Osojnik (SI).
Ackers is also involved in the field of cultural education with TheatreFragile and develops child- and youth-friendly workshop formats that introduce participants to mask making and mask play.
She also works as a mentor for students on the Gestural Theatre course (Estudis interpretacio gestual) at the Institut de Teatre Ramon Llull in Barcelona
Luzie Ackers is part of the jury for project funding from the Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste NRW and the Fonds Darstellende Künste in 2021/ 2022/ 2023 due to her many years of artistic expertise
She lives in Berlin with her two sons.

Email: luzie.ackers@theatre-fragile.com