Hannah Rumstedt is a writer, director, and performer whose work weaves together film, theatre, and visual art. She is particularly interested in the imaginative force as a tool of resistance, and in the productive contradictions between collectivity and individuality. Her works engage with contemporary discourses through a playfully humorous lens, revealing the poetic possibilities of the present moment.
She co-founded the NIE Kollektiv in 2018, developing hybrid theatre formats such as live cinema and site-specific performances in unconventional spaces — from abandoned cinemas to glass pavilions. She writes, directs, and creates visual concepts, working with live video and experimental stage design. Her alter ego, “Frau Regel,” appears in various art contexts, addressing questions of ownership and their relation to notions of freedom through performance and augmented reality.
Her films and performances have been shown at festivals, and she collaborates with collectives like Zona Dynamics and Fortuna Wetten. In 2025, she launched a curatorial project with the research task of how third spaces are designed to encourage their visitors to interact independently.
Since fall 2025, she is doing her master's degree in Applied Theater Studies in Gießen.
Extended Bio
Her exploration of intimacy and the evolving concept of community through the lens of space began in 2011, when she first squatted the “AZ Köln.” At that time, she participated in the street performance Utopia Kalk with the youth theatre group rheinische Rebellen 2.0 at SCHAUSPIEL KÖLN, which investigated the grammar of the city’s neighborhoods.
Her first experience in theatre came with the play Von Engeln und Insekten, followed by performances in Deine Fassade beginnt zu bröckeln and Im Haus der langen Schatten—where she wrote her first monologue—as well as Fluch der Hoffnung, which was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen der Jugend at the Berliner Festspiele in 2012.
Raised by parents from East Berlin in Cologne, she explored, back in her hometown the identity-shaping moments of her generation—the post-reunification generation in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg. This research culminated in 2013 in a documentary capturing the persistence of East German culture and local identity as a form of resistance against gentrification. As a directing intern, she accompanied the production of Der Sandmann at the Volksbühne, followed by the development of Durst by Florian Fiedler at the GRIPS Theater, before beginning her studies in Visual Communication at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).
Her documentaries and short films have been shown at various festivals. As a performer, she develops interdisciplinary work within collectives such as Zona Dynamics and in temporary collaborations with several artists working in generative art.
In 2017, she returned to theatre. Her first feature-length documentary accompanied the occupation of the Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and the urban-political events that followed. From this, the NIE Kollektiv emerged, founded in a basement in Neukölln in 2018. Drawing from her film background, she developed a new form of live cinema within NIE, where audiences experience the stage action via a screen. Across thirteen productions, she created the live camera and/or managed video technology.
Her stage designs span diverse locations: performances in public space, a glass pavilion in an old bakery with video projections on a billboard, the former Schinkel Bauakademie, the abandoned L’Aglion cinema, the Volksbühne Pavilion, and an old caravan on the street. The stage becomes a starting point for content development, blending visual storytelling from film with her post dramatic theatrical language.
Between 2017 and 2024, she contributed to more than 18 productions at the NIE Theater in various capacities. During this period, she directed several works, including Gesetz Nr. 10—based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s Dirty Hands—Mark Macht Theater, Wir sind nicht nett (Parts 1 and 2), Der falsche Film, and Schneller als die Sonne, each of which she created as both writer and director.
With the relocation of the NIE collective to Haus der Statistik in 2019, she co-founded the Bühnen im Haus der Statistik e.V. alongside other independent theatre makers. During the interim use of the site by the Pioneers, she served on the jury for the urban design competition Temporary Open Space Design at Haus der Statistik / Haus des Reisens, contributed to the development of the new cultural venue Allesandersplatz, and acted as a representative of the Pioneers within Koop5.
Her visual art operates at the intersection of performance and new media. As early as 2019, she developed an augmented reality work dealing with knowledge transfer through extended realities. Around this time, she also created the alter ego “Frau Regel,” a real estate agent who appears in various art contexts, including panke.gallery, studio db, Zuostant, Sternschuppen, and Galerie Ebensberger.
After completing her Bachelor’s degree at the Berlin University of the Arts, she collaborated with John Bock on the development of the cinematography for the Schaubühne production of Peer Gynt, starring Lars Eidinger, worked as a guest assistant director for Clara Weyde and, from 2023–2025, as a video technician at Berlin’s Schaubühne. Since 2024, she has been transforming a former public toilet, granted to the NIE by the Straßen- und Grünflächenamt Berlin-Kreuzberg, into a cultural venue. In 2025, she initiated a curatorial project investigating how third spaces can be designed to foster independent engagement among visitors.
Since fall 2025, she is doing her master's degree in Applied Theater Studies in Gießen.