Sophie Bartels
studied puppetry from 2007 to 2011 at the “Ernst Busch” Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin and at the University of Turku in Finland. She then worked as a permanent ensemble member at the Chemnitz Puppet Theater, among other places.
In her work, she focuses primarily on strategies of object theater, which she explores and seeks to further develop.
Since 2016, she has been working as a freelancer in various contexts, both as a guest artist and on the development of her own projects; she designs and leads object theater workshops and works as a puppetry coach.
The production “Stell dir vor” by the boat people projekt, for which she served as an expert consultant on object theater, was longlisted for the “Augenblick mal!” Festival 2025.
Her production “sans papiers,” developed in collaboration with Franziska Burnay Pereira—an exploration of the flight story of Walter Benjamin and Lisa Fittko—was invited to the 2021 WILDWECHSEL Festival.
Since 2021, she has also been working as a director, including at the Staatstheater Meiningen, the Figurentheater Chemnitz, and the Theater Regensburg.
In 2023, following the German-French studio production “Bambi/Kaleidoskop,” she also began teaching at the Department of Contemporary Puppetry at the “Ernst Busch” Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. The play was performed in September 2023 at the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes in Charleville-Mézières.
In 2024, she served as a jury member for puppetry, figure theater, physical theater, and performance for the German National Academic Foundation. In the summer of 2025, as one of seven multidisciplinary artists from Berlin’s independent art scene, she traveled with a delegation from the “Berlin Performing Arts Program” to the “Festival d’Avignon” in southern France.