About us

Theather 916 artists began their journeys in Turkey in 1995. In 2016, they embarked on a new quest by adding their knowledge and experience to their journeys and aimed to share the beauties they discovered with the audience of the world scenes.

In this context;

• To bring its 25 years of art and stage experience to international festivals, based in Germany.
• To tell human stories and experiences to the different world with the universality of art.
• Interpreting the social problems of our world of information age and creating awareness through performing arts.
• To synthesize genres with different stage disciplines such as puppetry and shadow theater and present them to the audience with an aesthetic language,
• To support the recognition and promotion of Karagöz, which has existed for centuries and is accepted as a cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2009,

Theater916 ‘s goals are formed.

At present, Theater 916 shows the Karagöz shadow theater, which is one of the important branches of Turkish theater, and shows with figures developed by Karagöz production technique. Each figure in the puppet and shadow plays is prepared in the Theater 916 workshop with all its stages.

Serkan Öztürk was born in 1976 in Ankara. After graduating from Gazi University, Department of Fine Arts, he completed his master’s degree in Theater Acting at Haliç University.

Öztürk, who started his art journey in 1992, has acted as an actor, writer and director in the field of theater and cinema and continues to work in this field.

In addition, Karagöz, accepted as one of the building blocks of shadow plays, comes to life in the workshop of Serkan Öztürk and is reflected on the screen.

Serkan Öztürk, who has been living in Germany since 2017, aims to continue with the Theater 916, which he founded with his wife Sibel Öztürk, by adding new projects to his art works.

Serkan Öztürk is married and has two children.

Sibel Öztürk was born in 1978 in Ankara. Sibel Öztürk, who started her art life with acting since 1993, has played a role in theatrical stage, TV series and cinema films until today.

Sibel Öztük, Theater 916 – Karagöz shadow theater plays actively.

Sibel Öztürk has been living in Germany with her husband Serkan Öztürk since 2017 and has two children.

Cemil Özen completed his master’s degree at Istanbul Technical University Music & Dance Department.

For more than 20 years he has demonstrated his talents as a director, choreographer, dancer and musician in a variety of  organisations and events. As an artistic and creative director, he has developed, organized, planned, coordinated and directed stage projects on five continents.

Cemil Özen is working as a Coordinator of Theater 916 and working on new projects in art works. He is married and has three children.

A short section of Özen’s artistic life:

• 1999 | Sultans of the Dance – Fire of Anatolia Assistant Choreographer and performer.
• 2003 | Night of the Sultans | Chief Choreographer
• 2007-2012 | “Enka Schools Istanbul” | Performing Arts Coordinator – Dance and Music Teacher.
• 2007 – 2016 | International Language and Culture Festival – IFLC | General Art Director
• 2017 | Fight the Clock | Theater Acting | Germany
• 2018 / Schauspiel Köln – Roughhause / Dramaturgy & Regie-observer.