About (NEW)

ABOUT STUDIO JULIAN HETZEL

We are a collaboration of creative professionals focused on developing, realizing, and presenting the work of artistic director Julian Hetzel, an interdisciplinary artist with a background in theatre (DAS Theatre), design (Bauhaus University), and music (founder of the band Pentatones), Hetzel creates “undisciplinary” work at the intersection of theatre, performance, music, video, design, and installation art.

We challenge audiences to engage with urgent social, political, and ethical questions, including racism and privilege (SPAfrica), the power of money (There Will be Light), empathy and moralism (All Inclusive), and the lasting impact of traumatic histories (Mount Average). Rather than telling ‘stories about’ these issues, our performances and installations place audiences in the middle of situations, taking them on playful but also unsettling journey on the border of reality and fiction. The performances use the real world as building material: from events, histories, and ideologies to tangible matter such as human fat from liposuction in Schuldfabriek, real money from cultural subsidies as a basic income in There Will Be Light, real rubble from Syria in All Inclusive, and real water from a spring in a township in Cape Town, South Africa, in SPAfrica.

Our work has received widespread international recognition through critical acclaim, festival invitations, and major awards. The company’s latest production, Three Times Left is Right, was selected for the 2026 Berliner Theatertreffen, one of the most prestigious theatre festivals in the German-speaking world, showcasing the ten most outstanding productions of the year. SPAfrica (created in collaboration with Ntando Cele) received the 2024 Dutch Directors’ Award (Regieprijs) and was nominated for the Theo d’Or, the Netherlands’ leading theatre award for acting. Diarrhea Is My Favourite Colour received the Golden Cricket (Gouden Krekel) for the most outstanding performance in youth theatre (Willemijn Zevenhuijzen). The production was also selected for the jury programme of the Belgian Theatre Festival and nominated for the 2024 VSCD Mime/Performance Award.

In recent years, Hetzel’s work has been presented at leading theatres and festivals in more than 25 countries, including the Venice Biennale (IT), Berliner Theatertreffen (DE), Zona K Milan (IT), FIT Festival Lugano (CH), Spielart Munich (DE), SPRING Performing Arts Festival Utrecht (NL), Dublin Theatre Festival (IE), IMPULSE Festival (DE), Santarcangelo Festival (IT), Sirenos Festival Vilnius (LT), Actoral Marseille (FR), Tampere Theatre Festival (FI), AUAWIRLEBEN Bern (CH), and Boulevard Festival ‘s-Hertogenbosch (NL).

As of 2021, we receive structural funding from the municipality of Utrecht and the Performing Arts Fund NL.

TEAM

Julian Hetzel
Artistiek leider
mail@julian-hetzel.com

Julian Hetzel is a performance maker and visual artist whose work explores the intersection of art, politics, and documentary practice. Creating performative experiences for theatres, galleries, and public spaces, his work is produced and presented internationally. In 2016, he founded Studio Julian Hetzel in Utrecht to develop and produce his artistic practice.
Born in Germany’s Black Forest and now based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Hetzel studied Visual Communication at the Bauhaus University Weimar before graduating from DAS Theatre (formerly DasArts) in Amsterdam in 2013, an international laboratory for new forms of theatre and performance. He is also a co-founder of the electropop band Pentatones, with whom he performed until 2016.

Saskia Reynolds
Zakelijk leider
saskia@julian-hetzel.com

Saskia began her career in the arts in 2007 as a (creative) producer. Since then, she has worked on festivals and film installations, and oversaw the establishment of a photography museum. In 2017, she transitioned into theatre, where she has been working as a production manager. In early 2022, Saskia embarked on a new chapter as Managing Director of Studio Julian Hetzel. The role brings together her experience in both the visual arts and theatre, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of Julian Hetzel’s work.

Jakob Proyer
Productie coördinator
jakob@julian-hetzel.com

Aengus Havinga
Technisch coördinator
aengus@julian-hetzel.com

Aengus’s background mostly delves from audio recordings and video. He’s drawn to blue, deep, brooding shade of ocean water, the kind that mirrors the quiet ache of a long 9 to 5. Yet somewhere just beyond the frame, he feels the warmth of a peach-orange cat, unbothered, wandering on its own path. He enjoys looking at people and always finding things to do.

Michelle Franke
PR & marketing coördinator
michelle@julian-hetzel.com

Trained as an art historian, Michelle graduated cum laude from the Research Master’s programme in Art and Visual Culture at Radboud University, Nijmegen. She started her journey at Studio Julian Hetzel in 2021, where she enjoys translating the artistic ideas into words, strategies, and visuals for diverse audiences. Beyond communications, she always seeks to work across disciplines, contributing to funding applications and the coordination of context programmes. Michelle is currently based in Berlin.

Miguel Angel Melgares
Dramaturg
miguel@julian-hetzel.com

Miguel Melgares is the dramaturge of the studio and has been Julian’s partner in crime for over a decade. Julian is the engine; Miguel, the gasoline that sets it on fire. Beyond this collaboration, he has worked with numerous international artists whose performances form a diverse body of work redefining what theatre can be. His projects challenge audiences by portraying a culture in flux and questioning Western society’s status quo.
In parallel, Melgares develops an active academic practice. He holds a PhD in Arts and Humanities from the University of Granada with the dissertation The End of Performance Rhetorics: Hybrid Space between Visual and Performing Arts. He publishes regularly, coordinates research projects, and co-edited the volume What Can Theatre Do. Since 2018, he has been a tutor at DAS Theatre, Amsterdam University of the Arts.

Lea Kukovicic
International relations
lea@julian-hetzel.com