Manuela Linshalm

Manuela Linshalm, a native of Vienna, is an actress and puppeteer. She trained at the Franz Schubert Conservatory and studied puppetry under Nikolaus Habjan at the Schubert Theatre in Vienna, whilst also attending further training courses with Neville Tranter at the Figurentheaterkolleg Bochum. Prior to this, she studied journalism, English and psychology at the University of Vienna.

Engagements as a puppeteer and actress have taken her to venues including the Akademietheater Wien, the Theater an der Wien, the Semperoper Dresden, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Residenztheater München, the Landestheater NÖ, the Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen, the Bavarian State Opera, the Volkstheater Wien, the Rabenhof Theater, the Schubert Theater Wien, Next Liberty Graz and the Theater in der Josefstadt. She also performs in numerous guest appearances in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

She has been performing regularly as a puppeteer at the Schubert Theatre in Vienna since 2009. To date, she has created four solo puppet theatre pieces there; currently on show are »What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?« and »All the world's a hot-dog stand«. During the 2025/26 season, she co-directed Daniel Kehlmann’s »Ghosts in Princeton« there for the first time with Simon Meusburger, a production in which she also appears on stage herself.

She has worked in numerous productions directed by Nikolaus Habjan – including as Mephistopheles in Goethe’s »Faust« at the Next Liberty Theatre in Graz, in »Oberon« at the 2017 Munich Opera Festival and at the Theater an der Wien in 2019, as well as in the Austrian premiere of Elfriede Jelinek’s »Am Königsweg« in St. Pölten, as well as in »Der Leichenverbrenner« at the Akademietheater in Vienna, »Die Zauberflöte« at the Dortmund Opera House, and »L’Orfeo« at the Semperoper in Dresden. She is currently appearing in »Schicklgruber« at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna, alongside Nikolaus Habjan.

From 2009 to 2022, she worked as a lecturer at the Filmacademy in Vienna. She runs workshops and provides coaching in puppetry, as well as puppetry training for actors and singers in theatre and opera.