October 30, 2026

Nominated for Gulljerven 2026

Gulljerven 2026 is awarded by Scenekunstbruket at this year's Showbox festival. Here are the nominees.

Gulljerven 2026 is awarded by Scenekunstbruket at this year's Showbox festival. Here are the nominees.

Newcomer of the Year  

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

Nominees:

Rania Iraki debuted in September 2026 as a playwright and actor. With the performance Mourning Today, Forgotten Tomorrow? she has created an ambitious performance that both dares to depict great personal traumas, and to challenge and criticize politically, by rejecting a two-state solution for Palestine. Iraki navigates the audience through the five stages of grief, which both deal with the loss of someone you love, and the weight of belonging to the Palestinian people. Despite the seriousness, Iraki made room for both humor and warmth on stage, and has made an impressive performing arts debut. 

Marie Skogvang Stork is nominated for the performance Trolsk . The performance combines various artistic expressions where Stork is both a performer and artistically responsible for the text and choreography. With Trolsk , she has created a visual interdisciplinary performance for the young audience with newly composed music, together with the Arctic Philharmonic, Nordland Teater and Nordland Figurteater. Stork has a background as a performer in the performing arts, film and working with children and young people in the audience, and brings her previous experiences into this new concert performance. 

Numa Edema Norderhaug made his debut as a playwright in 2026 with the play Elva (Tigerstadsteatret). In Elva , Norderhaug, based on his own youth, has created a personal story about outsiders, brotherhood and belonging, where the surroundings along the Akerselva played the main role and his portrayal of the people is made with respect. The audience was invited into his own youth, but also to the historical significance the Akerselva has played for people for several generations. Norderhaug's text is a personal, human and timeless text for youth. 

Oldcomer of the year 

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

Nominees:

Sigurd Johan Heide has worked for many years on performances for and with children and young people, and is an inspiration for dancers and educators in the country. Heide was the first person with a folk dance background to enter the choreography studio at KhiO, and through his work has put folk dance on the map in the performing arts field. He has shattered prejudices and innovatively made the aesthetics of folk dance visible. Heide is known for his great generosity and ability to see and involve both professional dancers and young people, in order to draw the best out of the individual and the larger collective. 

Guandaline Sagliocco has produced performances for young people for almost 40 years, and has performed in DKS since the start of the scheme in almost the entire country. In particular, the Art trilogy about art as a phenomenon has been very successful. Her performances are still performed, new performances have been created and toured, while she is also actively working on art projects for the local community in Porsgrunn. Sagliocco and her Sagliocco Ensemble have managed to keep the performances fresh, absurd, funny and precise over several decades and have an artistry that is constantly evolving. 

The touring company was established in 1988 and has produced and toured performances for children and young people all over the country. Since the beginning, they have been the driving force behind a professional theater offering for children and young people in the Inland region. The Kippersund family, with artistic director Anders and his siblings Inga-Live, Peter and Jonas, can look back on a formidable audience. With almost 30 performances for young people, the touring company has presented classic drama, fairy tales and newly written drama. They have created their own idiom, and continue to develop their theater craft at a high level. 

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. 

Nominees:

Paulucci Bakke has been a sought-after technician for several years, including at the Fjaler Theatre Festival. Bakke approaches any technical score with deep expertise, and not only does he make everything work practically, but he uses his profession to elevate the artistic visions. Whether it's demanding rigging under tough deadlines, changing conditions (or western weather), or the seamless completion in the dark, Paulucci delivers craftsmanship of the highest class. His professional weight is matched only by his human warmth, which his colleagues remember for a long time afterwards. 

Oda Tonstad is a very versatile sound engineer who is consistently thorough in her work, and who actively seeks to develop professionally. She shows genuine interest in the projects and people she works with. Tonstad is known for her formidable efforts at both the Heddadagene and the Figurfestspillene in Tønsberg, and is not only good behind the soundboard, but also in meeting people and is able to balance professional integrity with humility. Tonstad contributes to security in the events and handles technical problems both elegantly and with almost stoic calm. 

Erik Spets Sandvik has a long career as a lighting designer for Opera Trøndelag, the Norwegian Opera, the Kristiansund Opera and Teater Ibsen, among others. Despite his impressive 30-year background, he also enjoys being a freelance technician on tour in kindergartens. This very tall man has a unique ability to fold himself into four to fit on a kindergarten bookshelf, with technical equipment stowed between stuffed animals and children's books. Erik makes things happen, without big facts or unnecessary fuss. He just gets it done. 

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. 

Nominees:

Elena Pérez , Associate Professor at NTNU, has for several years integrated sustainability goals into both research and teaching at bachelor's and master's levels in drama and theatre at the Department of Art and Media Studies, and now also at PhD level in environmental humanities. Among other things, in the subject Theatre Production, she has re-structured the entire teaching around the UN's Sustainable Development Goal No. 12, Responsible Consumption and Production. She has been involved in several research projects, such as Turning it sustainable and Ripple Effect. Pérez's work gives a new generation of performing artists the tools to create theatre that takes responsibility for the planet. 

Landmarks Collective consists of performing artists Espen Hjort and Mees Borgman. The performing arts collective has ecology at the core of their work. They seek to look beyond the human perspective and have created performances in collaboration with non-human co-creators: Stonework (2022) was created in collaboration with a stone from Hallingskarvet, and Treework (2025) was an opera for an ensemble of people and trees. Treework is composed and choreographed by trees, and the performance that played in Østmarka in 2026 made a deep impression on the critics of Unge stemmer. 

Nina Ossavy is a director, performing artist and playwright who has worked with sustainability in large parts of her artistic career. In 2013, Ossavy started CAN, Concerned Artists Norway, a network of artists who highlight environmental and climate issues. She has created, among other things, an ecopolitical crisis trilogy, and a trilogy about humans' relationship to the ocean, land and air. She has several performances for a young audience, including Havengler about life in the ocean, with collaborator Marius Kolbenstvedt, Jorda er klodens hud , URD about how the world was created, and Yggdrasil, which has played for both kindergartens and in DKS. 

The boldest of the year 

The award goes to a person or actor who has spoken out for the arts 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. 

Nominees:

Julie Rongved Amundsen has been the editor-in-chief of the journal scenekunst.no for nine years, and as both a critic and editor, has many years of experience in making performing arts accessible to the public. She has been fearless in the face of heated issues that have arisen in the performing arts field. Amundsen has managed to navigate a variety of discussions, and has been both precise in her description of individual cases and at the same time raised her gaze and made the context and the big picture clear to the reader. When she now steps down after nine years, she has built a journal where professionalism is maintained at a very high level. 

Vestfold County Council is nominated for its work in establishing Vestfoldscenen, a new model for strengthening the independent performing arts in the county. The goal of Vestfoldscenen is "more performing arts for the people", and is a groundbreaking work in how to develop regional infrastructure for the field. The pilot project is coordinated by Vestfold County Council's arts and culture team in 2026-2028. The initiative includes production funds, a hub with professional artists, talent initiatives for young adults, collaboration between local cultural centers, a development program for stage texts and Danseløft Vestfold. 

KIKI – artistic initiative for the regulation of artificial intelligence is a Norwegian organization that highlights the use of AI in culture and the public sphere. KIKI has a particular goal of protecting artists' copyright, and since its inception in 2025 has managed to gather the creative industry to call for and disseminate knowledge about the impact artificial intelligence has, and will have, on art and communication in the future, also in the performing arts field. KIKI is committed to protecting children's right to create for themselves, and that they deserve a future where they can encounter human-made art, with resources to interpret what they see. 

Producer of the Year 

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

Nominees:

Camilla Svingen has been a central driving force in the Norwegian performing arts field for many years. Together with Hjørdis Steinsvik, she is the co-founder of Syv mil, which has laid an invaluable foundation for the professionalization of the producer role in the independent field. Svingen shows a great deal of flexibility in the production profession and has worked with dance, theater, music, figure, with festivals, establishing companies, promoting new and experienced artists and creating safe production frameworks for both the artist and the producer. Svingen has many years of faithful work behind the scenes. 

Aud Kristine Horseng is a producer who meets both performers and audiences with commitment, warmth and consideration. She makes a great effort to ensure good conditions for artists on the DKS tour, through thorough planning, close follow-up and good communication. Horseng is a producer who is present on the performers' terms, who opens her own home and provides shelter when flights are canceled, and who listens to small and large concerns, even when it is half past nine on a Sunday evening. A producer who has an eye for both the performers' needs and the audience's experiences. 

Rannveig Øygardslia is a creative producer in the free field, closely connected to artist Silje Onstad Hålien and the company Mamelukk. Øygardslia also leads Sprang, a new regional scene for folk dance and folk music in Ål. Her nickname is Rivjødn (grater in dialect) and she can really work. She creates live schedules and budgets that are worth melting, and in addition to having an overview of the administrative and financial aspects, she is a valuable professional sparring partner about what is happening on the floor. Rivjødnet Øygardslia should take the title of "creative artistic producer".  

Artistic achievement of the year 

The award goes to an artist, group or institution that has distinguished itself with an idea/performance/concept for what performing arts for a young audience can be. 

Nominees:

Det Andre Teatret opened its doors 15 years ago, and from the very beginning has helped to change the Norwegian performing arts field. The theatre has professionalized the improv genre and elevated it as an equal genre, and through this work has also recruited new audiences, from young children to young people and adults. Det Andre Teatret's performances are of a high standard, and their children's performances tour in DKS all over the country. The theatre is nominated in particular for their work in experimenting with the improv genre and creating their own artistic concepts that explore the boundaries of performing arts. 

William Kjeldsberg is a composer and sound designer. In recent years, he has composed for a large number of performances. Several of the performances are for children and young people, such as Naboskap (Ann Sam Bell), Himstregimster og andre duppeditter (Utvik/Barfod), Skipbrudden (Kompani Oval) and Equinas' diagnos by deWangen productions, and recently for Big foot by GUTS. Kjeldsberg shows great sensitivity for each of the projects he is involved in, and manages to create both music and sound that seamlessly fit into the performances and at the same time have their own recognizable quality. 

Camilla Tellefsen and Mathias Jin Budtz are nominated for their work in starting Souls Sessions Oslo and the Subsdans dance school. Tellefsen and Budtz have been important drivers for developing and professionalizing the street and club dance culture in Norway, and for building vibrant communities. They have established inclusive platforms that give children and young people faith in the possibilities of their own bodies. By arranging workshops, the festivals Soul Sessions Encounters and Extended, Soul Sessions Community, Open Practice and Subsdans, new talents are developed that give an artistic boost to the dance field. 

The award will be presented on Thursday, November 26th at Kloden theatre, as part of the Showbox festival