NINA WESTER
ARTISTIC LEADER
Nina Wester is a trained director and playwright from the Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm. She has been theatre director at Hålogaland Teater (2013-2016) and has extensive experience with a number of large theatre productions in both Sweden and Norway, including at Den Nationale Scene, Dramaten, Stockholms Statsteater, Riksteatern and Turnéteateret in Trøndelag.
After her time as a theatre director, she has again worked as a freelancer, including directing Mattias Andersson's Openberringa for the Norwegian Theatre (2019) and the musical Cabaret for The National Stage (2020).
Wester has won several awards, including Hedda of the Year in 2022 together with Rimfrost productions for the performance Develop Senior. She was also nominated in the categories of best script and best direction during the Hedda Prize 2023 for the performance IDIOT! which she wrote and directed at Turneteatret. She is originally from Otterøya, but lives in Oslo.
MAREN E. BJØRSETH
DIRECTOR
Maren E. Bjørseth is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the Netherlands. In 2012, she received the Ton Lutz Award for best direction for her graduation performance Een poppenhuis (A Doll's House). She has worked in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. In Norway, she has worked at Det Norske Teatret, the Nationaltheatret and Trøndelag Teater, among others. She was nominated for the Hedda Award for best direction in both 2021 and 2025. In the period 2022-2025, she directed the Elden music theatre in Røros. In addition to her work as a director, she is the artistic director of the Norwegian Drama Festival.
THOROD WIGUM
MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Torod Wigum was born in Trondheim in 1970, and he conducted at Stiklestad for the first time last year. In addition to being the musical director of "The Play of Saint Olav", he is currently artistic advisor to the Ringsaker Opera.
After studying at the Trøndelag Conservatory of Music and the Norwegian Academy of Music, he was employed as a solo violist in the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and a central member of the Trondheim Soloists for many years, before he followed his dream and devoted himself fully to conducting.
In the years 2007-2009, Wigum was assistant conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, an arrangement that was the first of its kind in Norway, and in the period 2010-2016 he served as house conductor of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. In the years 2016-2024, he was chief conductor of NUSO, the Norwegian Youth Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to regularly conducting the Norwegian symphony orchestras and defense corps, Wigum has also conducted more and more opera in recent years. He has conducted opera productions at the Funen Opera in Denmark, at the Ringsaker Opera, at the Opera in Kristiansund, with Opera Trøndelag at Steinvikholmen and Stjørdal and Henning Sommerro's opera "Querini" at Røst in Lofoten. In the fall of 2025 he will conduct Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" at the Ringsaker Opera and in 2027 he will again be a guest at the Opera in Kristiansund during the Opera Festival.
Wigum also has a growing international career, and in recent years he has guest-conducted, among others, the Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Estonian National Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Sonderjylland Symphony Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic and the MDR Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig.
MAGNUS MYRH
CHOREOGRAPHER
Magnus Myhr (b.1985 han/ham) is from Klæbu in Trøndelag and is a trained dance artist from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, BA modern and contemporary dance in 2007. Magnus has broad experience as a performer and choreographer within dance, performance, musical and theatre in the project-based field and at institutions such as the National Theatre, Den Nationale Scene, Riksteatret, Det Norske Teatret, Oslo Nye Teater, Teater Innlandet, Trøndelag Teater and Carte Blanche. In 2013/14 he worked at the National Theatre as an actor in, among others, "The Housekeepers" by Jean Genet and in "Visning" by Cecilie Løveid, which won the Critics' Award 2014 for best text and direction. Magnus has choreographed and produced the performances I SAID ON A STONE AND LOOKED ACROSS THE “SEA” (2014), GREEN (2016), IN THE DISTANCE, TROJA (2018), HEARTFELT (2020), BANGER (2024) and KAUK (2026). I SAID ON A STONE…won the Trondheim Prize 2014 for Performing Arts of the Year.
Recipient of a working grant from the Norwegian State Artist Grant 2011-2012, 2017-2019, 2022, 2025-2026 and the Klæbu Municipality Culture Award 2015.
Together with Jørgen Strickert, he made his directorial debut with Prosjekt Prøysen at Teater Innlandet in 2025.