THA Brings a Humanoid Robot to the Stage at the Munich Biennale

On Saturday, May 9, 2026, the music theater production “V01CES//B0D1EZ” premiered at the August Everding Bavarian Theater Academy as part of the Munich Biennale—Festival for New Music Theater. A humanoid robot from the Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg (THA) played a central role on stage.
Prof. Dr. Constantin Wanninger, a professor of computer science specializing in robotics, along with students Justus Kopiske and Celina Stelzner, programmed the robot for the performance featuring singers and integrated it into the staging.

“V01CES//B0D1EZ” was a world premiere presented as part of the Munich Biennale. The production was a co-production of the Munich Biennale and the Bavarian Theater Academy August Everding. Collaborating partners included the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, and the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival. “A particular challenge of this first music theater production featuring a humanoid robot lay in the fixed temporal structures of music theater. The robot, however, has its own rhythmic pace, from which creative movements emerge. The successful integration of the robot into the musical sequences was a major achievement and demonstrates the flexibility and pragmatism of the musical and robotics teams involved,” reports the play’s director, Amy Stebbins.

“V01CES//B0D1EZ” combines Hans Werner Henze’s “Voices” with Piyawat Louilarpprasert’s new composition “R3SIST4NC3 B0D1EZ.” It explores political and physical labor, ritualized activities, exhaustion, and resistance in a working world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. Music, the body, voice, video, and technology intertwine in the piece. The choreography is by Katja Wachter.

For robotics expert Wanninger and his team, the challenge was not only to provide the humanoid robot from a technical standpoint, but also to integrate it into an artistic form as an independent actor. While robots in research and industry are primarily expected to work with precision, reproducibility, and functionality, the stage also demands presence, clarity, and dramatic impact. The robot was not meant to appear as a technical showpiece, but rather to interact reliably with the choreography, music, lighting, video, and the human performers.

To achieve this, movements had to be programmed, made repeatable, and precisely coordinated with the flow of the performance. Interaction with the singers also required precise planning: distances, movement radii, reaction times, and safety mechanisms had to be coordinated so that artistic freedom and technical operation could reliably coexist.

“A humanoid robot brings its own physicality to the stage. That is precisely where the excitement of this project lies: we must bring together technical precision and artistic openness,” says Prof. Dr. Constantin Wanninger. “For the THA, the collaboration with the Munich Biennale is an extraordinary opportunity to make robotics tangible not only as a future industrial technology but also as a cultural and aesthetic practice.”

On Thursday, July 30, the play will be performed at the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival.

And in the 2026–2027 winter semester, the new bachelor’s degree program in Physical AI (B.Sc.) will begin.