Niky Wolcz is one of the world’s major Commedia performers. He was born in Romania, attended Theateruniversitat in Bucharest, and is an actor and director who has worked in Germany, Switzerland, and at La MaMa, New York. As an actor his Commedia roles included Pierrot, Arlecchino, Pulcinella, Pantalone, Dottore, as well as Buster Keaton, in addition to dozens of roles in plays in Europe. His most recent theatrical achievements include directing the operas Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Il Campiello, La Boheme, and Roberto Devereux with Andrei Serban; Prince Igor, Contes d’Hoffmann, The Merry Widow, L’Italiana, Pagliacci in several European opera houses, and two productions in Bavaria-Ingolstadt of works by Victor Hugo and Samuel Beckett. He made his Met debut in December 2003 with his choreography for the company premiere of Benvenuto Cellini, and he most recently choreographed Faust at the Met in the spring of 2005. In addition to his 11 years as a professor at Columbia University, he has taught extensively as a teacher of acting in Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Bern, Limoges, and Bucharest. He directs workshops covering a wide variety of topics including commedia dell’arte, Artaud, biomechanics, allegorical theater, and Dada theater.

Ulla Wolcz attended the Theatre Academy in Bucharest. She has performed in Frankfurt, Essen, Berlin, Stuttgart, Bochum and Berna and at theatre festivals in Holland, Venice, Paris and Verbier. Her important roles include Rosalind, Lady Macbeth, Luisa, Anja and Nina from works as varied as those of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Brecht, Gozzi, Goldoni, Lorca, Buchner, Calderon and Gorki. She previously taught acting at the Musik-Hochschule Frankfurt. Since 1996, she has taught acting at Columbia University.