Manuela Linshalm

Viennese artist Manuela Linshalm is an actress and puppeteer. She trained at the Franz Schubert Conservatory, studied puppetry with Nikolaus Habjan (Schubert Theater Vienna) and completed further training with Neville Tranter (Figurentheaterkolleg Bochum). Before that, she studied journalism, English and psychology at the University of Vienna.

Her engagements as an actress and puppeteer have taken her to the Deutsches Theater, the Akademietheater Vienna, Theater an der Wien, the Semperoper Dresden, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Theater in der Josefstadt, the Residenztheater Munich, Landestheater Lower Austria, Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen, the Bavarian State Opera, Volkstheater Vienna, the Rabenhof Theater, the Schubert Theater Vienna, Next Liberty Graz and many more. Numerous guest performances have led her throughout Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Her work for television includes a 2010 comedy series for ServusTV, various TV appearances and short films, as well as hosting engagements.

Since 2009 she has been a regular member of the Schubert Theater Vienna, where she has so far presented four solo puppet-theatre productions, most recently What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The World Is a Sausage Stand and The Sleeping Whale – A Piece Without Bruckner.

She has collaborated extensively with director Nikolaus Habjan – including as Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust, in the Austrian premiere of Elfriede Jelinek’s On the Royal Road at the Landestheater Niederösterreich, in The Cremator at the Akademietheater Vienna, in The Magic Flute at the Dortmund Opera and in L’Orfeo at the Semperoper Dresden.

Most recently she appeared in Schicklgruber at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and at the Theater in der Josefstadt.

From 2009 to 2022 she taught at the Film Academy Vienna. She also works as a workshop leader and coach in the field of puppetry, offering puppetry training for actors and singers in both theatre and opera.