Who is it now?

Kristen Bailey * kBird TreeStar

Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah under the Wasatch Mountains and the red rock cliffs, I was encouraged by my parents to delight in the beauty of nature since I could walk and talk. Always a ham, I ended up in the theater. Every summer from second grade on was filled with either romping around in the mud and the trees or theater school. These are the places I have most often experienced joy.

My BFA in Theater from the University of Utah gave me a solid foundation in classical performance styles, but when I graduated, I had my sights set on street theater. Ticket sales meant pandering to those who already agreed with me. On the street, I could dazzle them from afar with spectacle, keep them there with humor, and slip in a social message they might just think was their idea. I was ready to rabble rouse and ruffle feathers! So I set out to educate myself in a new way. Rather than grad school, I moved to Philadelphia and volunteered with companies I admired who were pushing the boundaries of what theater could be. They taught me how to invite audiences into immersive worlds, give them the opportunity to step inside the story themselves and give them some agency in how the story unfolds. With Applied Mechanics Theater Company and Bearded Ladies Cabaret, I was part of creating and performing in a dozen original immersive plays this way and continuously delighted at the overwhelming positive feedback from our audiences and it was a glorious decade of life. Yet that rabble rousing street theater artist inside of me still felt there was something more I could do with these storytelling skills. And while there was plenty of joy to be found in those spaces, I still dealt with a certain degree of anxiety and low level depression every day.

After reading a few key books about the importance of our connection to the planet and inspiring stories of living off the land, I started to incorporate just a little gardening and some time in the forest and found a lot of joy in those places. It occurred to me that if these things were so healing for my depression and anxiety, it may well be what is plaguing most of us with mental health struggles. And what better way to share this joyful news with them than through a visceral, delightful, fully immersive story, where they have an opportunity to get their hands dirty, too.

So I moved west to where it looks the most like Fern Gully to tell immersive stories, inviting my fellow human creatures to take on once again their essential connection to each other and the planet.

WilderHouse has been growing in my mind since 2019 and I am so pleased it is finally ready to make it’s debut in the internet world on it’s way to being realized in the material world!

I currently live with my cat in a skoolie in Olympia, WA. You can find me most mornings on the trails in Squaxin Park, taking notes on further inspirations for WilderHouse.

Corinna Burns

I’m a Philadelphia-based theatre-maker, writer, and coach who specializes in helping people to create: projects that light up their souls, the life of their dreams, deeper relationships with others. As a part of Team WilderHouse, it has been a joy to partner with KB while she hones this vision of a sacred space where we can all reconnect with Nature and our own wild selves. At WilderHouse, you will likely find me taking a meditative stroll through the Butterfly Labyrinth, or snoring away on a nap flower…

Who COULD it be?