Joelina Spiess (she/her, 1998) graduated from the BA Theatre Directing at the Academy of Theatre and Dance Amsterdam in 2024. Born and raised in Berlin, she has developed her own theatrical language in the Netherlands. Her work moves between theatre, dance, performance, and installation, and is known for its high energy, dark sense of humor, and interdisciplinary nature.

Often described as “No Bullshit,” her artistic approach aims to grasp the core of a person, a character, or a world—and to make that core visible and tangible. She searches for a form of theatre stripped of subtext, where we find ourselves directly at the bone, in the organs. Her theatre is meant to feel like open-heart surgery.

She works with a universal visual language, marked by intense physicality and strong musicality. In her creative process, she explores the darker sides of the human condition, avoiding simplistic dichotomies of good and evil. Her search for understanding is rooted in self-reflection, using unresolved thoughts and emotions as starting points. This "violent honesty" lies at the heart of her artistic practice—both deeply personal and universally relatable. Her pieces create space to confront and release the concept of evil, with both humor and depth.She is fascinated by human complexity and strives to translate this into her work.

Joelina has collaborated with Steven van Watermeulen (Internationaal Theater Amsterdam) and worked with SIGNA on their productions Das letzte Jahr at the Wiener Festwochen and Das 13. Jahr at Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg. Most recently, she has also collaborated with Johan Simons and Elsie de Brauw.