"Stop - Collective KOLLINSKI"

By Benjamin Blaikner
Directed by Benjamin Blaikner
Set design by Nina Vasilchenko
Costumes by Nina Vasilchenko
Featuring Elisabeth Breckner, Susanne Lipinski, Caroline Richards (Acting and Play Development)
Produced by the collective KOLLINSKI and Theater der Mitte
Duration approximately 85 minutes
"Everything is important, everything is not so important." (Christian Morgenstern)

Three former actresses have one goal: to achieve their big breakthrough at 50. One of them has written what is probably the best comedy in the world. The three flatmates want to stop working their day jobs to finally be back on stage. But this opens old wounds. Their friendship is at risk of breaking, and each of the three women often finds her own ego and the other two in her way.

STOPPING, an autofictional comedy about deep friendships, futile hopes, and last chances, dares to make a fresh start with much honesty and self-irony.

Benjamin Blaikner: Project Management | Direction | Text
Doctor of Philosophy. Various diverse training, studies, and engagements in the fields of music, dance, and theater: E-bass studies, composition lessons, acting exams, as well as courses, seminars, and workshops in directing and writing.
Founder of the association "Theater der Mitte" www.theaterdermitte.at, board member of IG Kultur Österreich (2022-2024) and "Theater ecce" (since 2017). Since 2022, he has been leading the youth club at kleines theater Salzburg. Since September 2023, he has been at kleines theater Salzburg (artistic operations office, dramaturgy, and public relations). Board member of the umbrella organization Salzburger Kulturstätten (since June 2024). Father of a daughter.
Nearly 25 works as a director in Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, and Romania. Author of more than twenty plays or screenplays, composer/author of numerous musical pieces. Premieres in Canada, Ukraine, Hungary, Germany, and Austria. Winner of the Audience Award at the Heidelberger Theatertage 2024 with the play "Tinder - A fucked up Night" (text and direction).

Susanne Lipinski: Project Management | Acting | Play Development
(*September 1, 1977) – Grew up in Pinzgau, studied acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and with international teachers in Graz (stage maturity exam 2003) and completed her studies in German studies there in 2004. Since her early twenties, she has been working as an actress, director, dramaturg, and theater educator: Theater am Alsergrund (Vienna); Theater am Ortweinplatz, Theater t’eig, Next Liberty (Graz); Toihaus Theater, Verein ikult (Salzburg); Ceren Oran (Munich). She lives and works in Salzburg and is increasingly establishing herself as a connecting, freelance artist and performer in Salzburg through the collective KOLLINSKI, searching for new theater spaces, innovative forms of play, and cross-genre projects.

Works by the collective KOLLINSKI:
2024: BLUATSUPPN – Directed by Natascha Grasser, featuring: Susanne Lipinski and Victoria Fux (Music): Sonja Prlic. Co-event open mind frequently ARGEkultur. Bluatsuppn - a musical family celebration
2023: We Care – Directed by Karl Zehenter, Dramaturgy: Sonja Prlic. Cooperation goldextra & Sommerszene Salzburg. Solo performance. Scene Salzburg | Sommerszene 2023 | WE CARE | FS1 (youtube.com)
2022/23: BIG BANG – an evening of sorting into infinity; Directed by Natascha Grasser. Co-event with ARGEkultur.
Further works with Adam Ledger (UK), Ed Hauswirth (A), Edith Draxl (A), Grazyna Dylag (PL), Hans-Peter Horner (CH), Marcello Diaz (ARG), Thomas Sobotka (A), and many others.

Elisabeth Breckner: Acting | Play Development
Elisabeth Breckner received her training as an actress at the Folkwang University in Essen. Her engagements took her from Recklinghausen, Essen, Münster, and Koblenz to Vienna and Salzburg, where she also completed training as an elementary music and movement educator at the Mozarteum. After her seven-year engagement at Toihaus, Theater am Mirabellplatz in Salzburg, she works as a freelance actress. She also teaches acting and speech technique at Musikum Hallein. Works at ARGEKultur include: KasparHäuserMeer by Felicia Zeller, Wir schlafen nicht by Kathrin Röggla, Hilda by Marie Ndiaye, Nachwehen by Mike Bartlett. With the collective KOLLINSKI, she has already co-developed AUSTROPOPO.

Caroline Richards: Acting | Play Development
Caroline Richards is an actress and director of British origin. She grew up in Bedfordshire near London, where she completed her schooling. She then studied English literature and theater studies at the University of Edinburgh. From 1988 to 1990, she went to Paris to study at the Ecole internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Her training there forms the foundation of her theater work. Since 1991, Richards has been working in Austria. Her stations include Stadttheater St. Pölten; she has directed over 60 plays to date. Since 2000, she has been the artistic director of "Theater TATU" (formerly "Taka-Tuka") and since 2007, she has been part of the management team of "Kleines Theater - Haus der Freien Szene" in Salzburg. Between 2012 and 2018, Caroline directed the "Salzburger Adventsingen" in the large festival hall. Her productions have been awarded several times by the Bmukk, and in 2010 she received the cultural promotion award from the city of Salzburg for her theater work for and with children and young people.

Nina Vasilchenko: Set Design | Stage
Mag.a Art Nina Vasilchenko is a multidisciplinary artist who completed her studies in stage and costume design, film, and exhibition architecture at the University Mozarteum Salzburg. Recently, Vasilchenko finished her master's degree in Multimedia Arts with a focus on film at FH Salzburg and is currently working on her master's thesis.
For six years, she has been leading the project The FACTORY Free Art Space, known for its innovative impulses to promote contemporary art and has already received the Peyrebère de Guilloutet Intercultural Scholarship as well as the award from the PRO SALZBURG Landeskulturstiftung.