Dietmar Sachser is a theater scholar, curator, and performing artist, who has gained public recognition for his penetrating research on “play-flow” in theater. This research investigates the exuberance and spontaneity that manifest during moments of immersive play, exploring these feelings through the lens of both art criticism and the natural sciences. Through his work, Sachser has called into question the classic dichotomy between empathy and distance that has long shaped our theoretical understanding of acting, and has developed novel approaches that have been widely adopted by theater scholars and practitioners alike. His current research is focused on appropriation in theater, and tries to map out a space where appropriation can be playful, vital, and productive.

Dietmar Sachser is a professor of Aesthetic Pedagogy at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences (EvH) in Bochum, as well as a professor of Applied Studies in Physical Theater at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen. In both roles, he uses playful, original, and inspiring methods to encourage students to fully embody unconventional ideas and push their creative capacities to the limit, to fully “risk themselves.” Meanwhile, his seminars on acting theory offer students the chance to incorporate their own experiences into the material, while also giving them a clear perspective into cutting-edge developments in the international theater world, which Sachser remains involved with through his curatorial work in theater festivals and other programs. Outside of the university, he also offers coaching for both artists and corporate clients, and delivers lectures and workshops connected to his research interests throughout the world.

Moments of creative ecstasy and moments of delightful immersion: the tension between the two, the paradoxical tension of being at the height of one’s self-expression at the moment when one is least aware of one’s self, is what gives rise to the feeling of “flow”. Didi Sachser understands this feeling to be the decisive point of entry, for art as for life. Curious, exploratory, ready to risk: for him, these are the marks of an existence that is open to the world. In his own life, he gives shape to this conviction through his engagement with culture and architecture, his moments of pleasure and longing, his free-flowing social engagements, and his tendency to end up in (geographically, spiritually, aesthetically) remote and unexpected places. By cultivating a playful sense for the possible alongside a clear-eyed sense for the real, Sachser believes it is possible to remain attuned and available for everything in life that is novel, unique, and surprising.