The Vancouver Fringe Festival is stepping into a new era of artist support thanks to the generosity of the Levy-Ehrcke Family Fund. On average, the Fringe already subsidizes 80% of production costs for mainstage artists drawn through our annual lottery. Now we are going further through our brand-new Ensemble Prize to further reduce financial barriers.
The inaugural winner of the Ensemble Prize is returning Fringe artist Sophia Saugstad and her dark comedy, Coming of Rage.
This scholarship supports the sustainability and creativity of ensemble productions. Winners receive automatic entry to the Fringe along with waived venue fees, in addition to a cash prize. Collectively, this means that larger casts can stage projects that may be otherwise economically unfeasible.
“The Ensemble Prize is just one of the new platforms we have for artists in Vancouver,” says Duncan Watts-Grant, Executive Director. “It’s an example of the incredible potential our community has to make this festival special. Fringe artists take creative risks that enrich both our audiences’ experience and the wider arts ecosystem in Vancouver, and we’re thrilled to be able to provide more support for bigger, more ambitious productions.”
Initially developed at Theatre Under the Wire, Sophia’s winning project reunites a group of artists who are passionate about making theatre with puppets, masks, and homemade props. Fringe fans will recognize the ensemble from the 2025 Vancouver Fringe: they produced the Audience Choice Award-winning It’s Not the End of the World, which Sophia also wrote and directed.
Coming of Rage will premiere in September alongside 46 other mainstage shows and a bundle of BYOV and outdoor site-specific performances. Set a reminder: tickets go on sale on August 4 and you don’t want to miss out!
Applications for the 2027 Ensemble Prize will open in November 2026.
About the Production
Coming of Rage follows a young child as she discovers both the thrill of destruction and the power of eliciting reactions—from her peers and from the audience. As she grows into a young woman, the same assertiveness that once drew attention becomes a source of scrutiny and shame, and she is left to grapple with how anger is treated differently depending on gender, age and social status. Blending child-like curiosity with moments of sobering reality, Coming of Rage is about growing up in a world exposed to violence on a regular basis. It explores the relentless stream of conflict in the media – how it shapes us, unsettles us, and gradually desensitizes us at the same time.
About the Winner
Sophia Saugstad is a Vancouver-based theatre artist whose work plays within the worlds of mask, puppets, physical theatre, dark comedy, satire, and climate theatre. She is known for her satirical scripts exploring the absurdly comedic and depressing nature of existing in the world today. Sophia is no stranger to the Fringe, recently writing and directing It’s Not the End of the World at the Vancouver Fringe in 2025, which won the Audience Choice Award, and touring her satirical solo show Long Live Lexi Bezos to the Vancouver Fringe, the Edmonton Fringe, and Fates Fest in 2024.
