November 6, 2025

Nominated for Gulljerven 2025

Gulljerven 2025 is awarded by Scenekunstbruket at this year's Showbox festival. Here are the nominees.

NEW ARRIVALS OF THE YEAR

Who has made a name for themselves in the performing arts for young audiences in recent years? Do you see a creative or performing artist who could be the new big thing in the field, and who we need to pay extra attention to?

Nominees:

Jon Bugge Mariussen. Mariussen is a choreographer, halling dancer, contemporary dancer and percussionist! He has been very active since graduating in 2022. He has been involved in Frikar's talent programs and recently played in the performances Oioioi! and Fuck it – a very Norwegian performance . He is artistically responsible for the performance Våg! which has been on tour in large parts of the country. With folk dance and music, Våg! oscillates between the playful and the serious, and asks questions about friendship, relationships and gender stereotypes. Mariussen has a great talent for communication and combines contemporary dance and folk dance in a way that will reach more new young people in the coming years.

Sunniva Moratiwa Greger Mathe. Mathe is a recently graduated actress, and has distinguished herself with great comedic and musical talent. She was in Mine Nilay Yalcin's neighborhood epic Sirkus Grønland , where her interpretation of a dancing lady with a rolling suitcase still has audiences talking about her. She also played with the graduating class in the Hedda-nominated performance Passer min beat? together with Nordic Black Xpress and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Mathe has a unique timing and musicality as an actress, which makes one very excited about her future career as an actress.

Roskva Yasmin Andersen. With several performances in recent years, Andersen has opened up contemporary dance and conceptual art in new ways for young people. Her first major production for young people, Underneath, aimed to present dance in a new way, and in her latest performance Looking Glass she works with local young people. The young people have only three hours before the performance, and together with professional dancers they create a living universe of dance, disco balls and music. Andersen is a dancer and choreographer who expands the potential that conceptual art can have and thereby opens up the performing arts for young people.

Sindre Slorafoss. Slorafoss became known to many with his monologue performance Litt redd, bare , in which he played a character with anxiety and how it affected his life. The performance is adapted from the novel of the same name, which is well-developed into a stage text. With his physical acting style with comedy and good contact with the audience, he convinced everyone that it was his story. Slorafoss is also part of Flora Teater, and has organized festivals for families in Lillestrøm and Romerike. Most recently, he captured the role of Romeo in Tigerstadsteatret's production of Romeo&Juliet .

Panisara Wanlopbanhan . Wanlopbanhan is a sought-after dancer with a distinctive expression. She was introduced to Thai traditional dance at an early age, something she has carried with her into contemporary dance. She has recently been part of Ingri Fiksdal's Stillheten and Sandflukt , and has been part of Talent Norge and Nagelhus Schia Productions. Wanlopbanhan is a fearless and hardworking stage artist, and a team player in the productions she is a part of. Especially in Stillheten she captivated the children with her alert and stage presence. An exciting dancer with a very unique communication with the young audience.

OLDEST CITIZEN OF THE YEAR

The award goes to an artist or group that has worked with performing arts for children and young people for a long time, and which through its artistic work has provided many good art experiences to the young audience.

Jan Erik Skarby . For four decades, Skarby has been a technician for the Figurteatret in Nordland. Through his work, he has contributed to the development of hundreds of productions for the independent performing arts field. He has inspired and guided both newcomers and well-established technicians and artists from both Norway and abroad, and has helped make Stamsund a world-renowned and attractive place to visit. When those who recruit technicians learn that the person in question has attended the "Jan-Erik School", they are usually hired immediately. Skarby retired on September 1, 2025 and can be thanked for 30 years as a technician, supervisor and social entrepreneur for the performing arts.

Taro Cooper. Cooper has worked as an actor for almost 20 years, in both institutions and the free field. He reaches both younger and older audiences with his genuine appearance and unique acting craft, which combines classical and urban stage language. Cooper is the first Norwegian to be able to call himself a Nordic master of slam poetry, and has been one of the driving forces in increasing the status and position of slam poetry as a genre in the Norwegian performing arts field. Cooper has played in several performances for young people in recent years, including Asfaltpuls and To ulver , while he is also active in mentoring new actors and bringing new voices to the fore.

Inger Cecilie Bertrán de Lis. Bertrán de Lis is the artistic director, choreographer and director of ICB Produksjoner, and has extensive international experience both from institutions and the independent field. In 2003 she created her first performance for youth, and in 2006 her first performance for the very youngest. Since then, her artistry has focused on this audience group. Bertrán de Lis often invites to cross-aesthetic universes where she explores different forms of sensory inputs to the art of dance. An example is Tumble in the jungle , which is adapted for hearing-impaired and deaf children, which will also reach out to hearing people, and where dance becomes a common place to meet.

TECHNICIAN OF THE YEAR

The award goes to a steady technician who performs solid work before, during and after the performances. To someone who breaks codes, coils cables, uses expertise and creativity to create great performing arts experiences, and/or who shows strong commitment and exquisite precision during set-up and take-down.

Simon Mørland. Mørland is truly a true problem solver who always meets challenges with curiosity, whether it concerns sound, lighting, video, programming or electronics. Does the software you use not have a solution for what you are asking for already? Then Mørland can just program his own solution from scratch, zero stress! Mørland is employed at Det Andre Teatret, where he has both designed and been a technician for several of the theater's children's performances. He also works with the free field, where he has wired up everything from the intimate living room in Sorte gotter gråter ikke to the 60,000 square meter factory premises in Særp Tropez Pappen .

Anniell Olsen. In recent years, Olsen has traveled the world with sodium lamps to set up Elle Sofe Company's performance Vástádus eana – The answer is land on the largest stages and festivals. Despite variable local technical solutions, the performance has always shone with the brilliance that lighting designer Øystein Heitmann has desired. She has rewired, thought creatively and called a friend to untie technical and seemingly impossible knots. The team on stage has never been worried about whether there would be light, because there has been! Anniell is knowledgeable and solution-oriented and otherwise a sought-after lighting master at festivals and tours.

Peter Albers. It is said that this man knows everything, fixes everything and handles wildly complex productions as technical director at Panta Rei Danseteater, including recently in Oslofjorden danser . Albers is also production manager at Slemmestad Mek, is always gentle, always solution-oriented, and always on hand to fix big and small problems. In his long experience with several significant choreographers and companies, he is known for promoting good communication with performers and all parts of the team, and is considered by his collaborators as a subtle superstar without a need for attention, as most technicians tend to be. 

SUSTAINABILITY HERO OF THE YEAR

The award goes to an actor who has worked with sustainability in the performing arts field for children and young people, someone who through their artistic or administrative work has put the environment, sustainability or cultural heritage on the agenda. It can also go to a staff who has been reused in unimaginable combinations, or costumes, scripts, props and scenography elements that have had adventurous journeys through various performances and groups, or to someone who is otherwise working to make the field more sustainable.

The Flying Seagulls Norway. Bendik Sjømælling Nordgaard and his team in The Flying Seagulls are nominated for their work for social and mental sustainability through using performing arts and play to create joy for children in crisis. With actors, musicians, clowns and circus artists, they visit refugee camps, where play is the focus to replace fear and uncertainty. The Flying Seagulls also perform in several arenas in Norway, including with the performance and bus Blåmåka , reused from Cirka Teater Musica Mobile, and SkipOhoi . The overarching theme of their work is to build good social relationships and mental health in children, and contribute to a socially sustainable society.

Tiril Pharo. Pharo's artistry is built on clear sustainable principles. With her family's farm Åsheim as a starting point, she creates performances, holds workshops and theatre camps for children and young people. She is committed to creating meeting places where people can meet across interests and backgrounds. Pharo creates immersive performances in settings that reflect the theme; Korn played out in a field, Testløpet played out in a sports arena. Her next project is Felleskapet , and comes out of Pharo's frustrations related to fast fashion. Her artistic work includes nature, agriculture, sustainability and performing arts as equal elements.

ENT . A Scandinavian artist collective including new circus performers, who seriously take the ecological and posthuman value base into the performing arts. With an investigative approach to materials, nature and places, ENT has created a holistic social and sustainable practice that permeates their working methods. Among the performances are Aeldre , a traveling site-sensitive performance for large trees, Nesa i jorda , about the life and society of microbes found under our feet, and Plast , a performance about fragility and interaction in nature. ENT has also created several common guidelines for their work to be as sustainable as possible.

THIS YEAR'S (D)JERVESTE

The award goes to a person or actor who has spoken up for art in the past year. To someone who has researched, written about, supported, lifted or worked with structures. To someone who has fearlessly dared to ask questions about the conditions of art or artists, or in other ways has put art on the agenda.

Caroline Marie Sprott . Sprott is nominated for her work in establishing Kompani D, a new professional company in inclusive performing arts, where dancers with and without disabilities work together professionally. The company is a collaboration with Dissimilis Norway and will collaborate with, among others, the Norwegian Academy of Dance and Dansens hus. Sprott has worked with adapted dance and theater for almost ten years, and her goal in the project is to increase professional competence in inclusive performing arts, so that education and the cultural industry can change their view of how to work diversely with performers with disabilities.

Vibeke Harper and Kyrre Hellum: Jallah Jenin. The Jallah Jenin project started in the summer of 2023 with a collegial and solidary desire to send lighting and sound equipment to The Freedom Theater, a theater in the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank. Donations from, among others, The Norwegian Theatre and the Opera are still waiting to arrive to support Palestinian theater colleagues. In several rounds, Harper and Hellum have traveled to the surrounding area to find a solution, and have received help from Nordic Black Theatre and private donations for fees and customs. The project is demanding and meets a lot of resistance, but their solidary and concrete action gives hope and collegial community for the field.

Kjersti Horn. Horn is nominated for her work in opening Det Norske Teatret to a younger audience with her initiative on Scene 3. As a theatre director, Horn has continued the role that the stage has had in the theatre as a risk arena and a place to revitalise the performing arts. Nevertheless, her initiative here has been something new in the field, challenging traditional views of theatre and having a very specific goal of reaching a younger audience. With the three artists Tani Dibasey, Claudia Cox and Tobi Pfeil as creative forces, the goal is for the theatre to change from within, a task she started immediately as the new theatre director at one of Norway's largest institutions.

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

The award goes to someone who constantly delivers behind the scenes, who takes care of the big and small things for a production or tour - from budget, production plans, tour plans to hot coffee. Would there be any performing arts without producers? Be they independent producers, performing artists who work as producers themselves, producers in the counties or performing arts consultants.

Anders Gaarder Karterudseter. Karterudseter has worked for a number of years as the subject manager for performing arts at DKS Oslo. He always goes the extra mile to create good artistic projects for the young target group – hundreds of thousands of children and young people have collectively seen really good performing arts with Karterudseter behind the wheel. He is an active producer who not only does the job, but is keen to take artistic risks to push performing arts and the field forward. He himself is a trained actor, and is known in the industry for meeting artists in a warm, responsive and constructive way, always with a smile on his face.

Mette Spjelkavik Enoksen. Enoksen is a hard-working producer with a big heart for theater, who understands that a good producer is often the answer to a good artistic result. Enoksen started as an actor for KATMA at the age of six, and traveled on tours throughout elementary school and then chose theater as a way of life. What happens when one of the actors gets sick? Then she puts on her tracksuit pants and throws herself on the floor. What happens when the marketing department doesn't have time to make a promo video? Then she makes it herself. Enoksen is a true artist who, despite her young age, has great expertise in theater, and is a great support and driving force in all of KATMA's productions.

Heidi Lundbakk. Lundbakk is the producer for Tigerbussen, and there is probably not a janitor, health nurse or cultural contact who has not met the northerner with a propeller on her head. She answers phones and reassures school management and teachers, and drives to all venues and locates power outlets and toilet facilities. She creates and sends out detailed route plans along with words of encouragement in addition to writing applications for street rent, project support, state budget, operating grants and inclusion funds. The propeller on her head is not just a costume, but a symbol of Lundbakk's entire being and work.

ARTISTIC EFFORT OF THE YEAR

The prize is awarded to an artist, group or institution that has distinguished itself over the past year with an idea/performance/concept for what performing arts for a young audience can be.

Frida Vige Helle and Nami Kitagawa Aam with Take all my resources and trickle some down on me, Daddy. Helle and Aam call the performance a bimbo performance about housing. They are nominated for their work in developing the project together, in continuation of Helle's previous mask work. The performance challenges what can be shown to young people from the age of 16, and exquisitely comments on housing policy and capitalism with prostitution symbolism, and becomes a kind of feminist and open commentary on the welfare state. The performance mixes satire and humor with narrative techniques where their own bodies are the medium and where Helle and Aam have a distinctive timing and presence.

The performance Frida by KATMA, in collaboration with Hålogaland Theatre and Figurteatret in Nordland. Frida is an interactive performance for children aged 9-12 about the life of Frida Kahlo. Three groups of audience members walk around the set and the story with headphones, where they get up close to bullying, falling in love, accidents and art. The performance is nominated for the high artistic level and technically fine-tuned work, where the means merge to give the children space to connect with their own stories and emotions in the encounter with the story. The involvement is never sentimental, but equal and intimate, and a door opener to understanding both art and oneself.

Jens Trinidad . Trinidad is nominated for the breadth of his artistry and achievements as a dance artist in recent years. He has several current dance performances for young audiences of various ages. In addition to being a raw performer in other people's projects, including Smeltasang , Undersang and JAM , he has created Compassion stories (together with Jon Filip Fahlstrøm) for children 8-10 years old. His previous street dance performance for children, Labyrint, has now also been adapted for students with functional variations. Trinidad has a background in street dance, hip hop and club culture, and his artistry often takes issue with genre conventions. He has distinguished himself as a major dance artist in the past year.

The prize is awarded by Scenekunstbruket during this year's Showbox Festival, 27 November at Kloden theater.