Olaf A. Krätke

Born in Dortmund in 1959, as son of an actor couple, he grew up directly with the theatre and also took part as a child in productions as e.g. "Pinocchio" (1965, Städtische Bühnen Dortmund). He received his training as an actor from his father Hansjoachim Krätke, the actor Dirk Hardebeck and through workshops with Hans-Dieter Lehmann and others. After further professional training as photographer and advertising salesman he worked beside his work as actor, also in private broadcasting studios as cultural editor, then in film distribution companies as publicity manager (Highlight Filmverleih GmbH), marketing coordinator (Buena Vista International, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney company) and marketing director (Concorde - Castle Rock/Turner), until he finally founded his own agency. This agency worked for many well-known companies in the entertainment industry (e.g. BR, Hasbro, Baumhaus/Medien, Twentieth Century Fox Home Ent., Warner Bros. etc.)

From 2003 Olaf Krätke devoted himself exclusively to his work as an actor, director and author. He has appeared on stage in plays and musicals. From november 1998 until today he has also performed in over 2,000 performances of the play "The Hedgehog File", a play for which he is also responsible as author. He has appeared in over a hundred films, including international major movie boxoffice hits as "Vicky, the viking". As an author he wrote children book of "The Hedgehog File" aand a radioplay of the same name. He wrote short stories and children books such as "Fredegar, a reindeer fairytale" and novels such as "Miro - The black mountain", which where published in German version as ebooks by Wind Child Publishing (http://matostorytellingcompany.com).

Thomas Garmatsch

was born in 1969 in Kaufbeuren in Allgäu and has been working in the field of theatre education with children for almost twenty years. In the form of theatre productions he introduces children and young peoples aged 5 - 17 to the medium theatre and the creative realisation of ideas. He received his training at the Fachakademie für Sozialpädagogik in Krumbach. He founded and manages the cultural workshop of the city of Kaufbeuren, which was awarded the cultural prize of the city of Kaufbeuren in 1996. In recent years, countless theatre productions have been produced with the children and young people.

Together with Olaf Krätke he worked on the musical productions "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Somewhere in Europe" (with over 100 children and adults), the children play "Anna und der König der aus dem Märchen fiel" and "Herr Sturm und sein Wurm". In 1999 Thomas Garmatsch directed the theater production "Bullets over Broadway" of the theatre company, the big circus project "Jahrmarkt der Träume", in which all children of the Kulturwerkstatt participated, "Misery" and "Eins auf die Fresse".

He co-directed "The Hedgehog File" and is the illustrator of the children book of the same name, which Olaf Krätke wrote and was published by Middelhauve Verlag in 2001.