Kristen Vehill
Kristen Vehill
NNPN Board Member
Prop Thtr Board Member (NNPN Founding Core Member Theater)
Chicago Dramatists Board Member
Former Board Vice President of 16th Street Theater (former NNPN Core Member Theater; shuttered 12/2022)
I believe in the transformative power of live theater—in its ability to move people to new places and ideas and perspectives, and in the power that comes from...
Prop Thtr Board Member (NNPN Founding Core Member Theater)
Chicago Dramatists Board Member
Former Board Vice President of 16th Street Theater (former NNPN Core Member Theater; shuttered 12/2022)
I believe in the transformative power of live theater—in its ability to move people to new places and ideas and perspectives, and in the power that comes from...
NNPN Board Member
Prop Thtr Board Member (NNPN Founding Core Member Theater)
Chicago Dramatists Board Member
Former Board Vice President of 16th Street Theater (former NNPN Core Member Theater; shuttered 12/2022)
I believe in the transformative power of live theater—in its ability to move people to new places and ideas and perspectives, and in the power that comes from experiencing it together, shoulder to shoulder, breath to breath, laugh to laugh, and tear to tear. Live theater is magical, and magical theater resonates and lingers and ripples with the power to change lives.
I have loved theater since I was a little girl, and have a running list of my top 10 favorite performances that includes everything from the first show I ever saw on Broadway (A Chorus Line, of course!!), to a very young Kenneth Branagh as Henry V at RSC at Stratford in 1984, to a long-running play about Chicago’s own royal family – Hizzoner, Daley the First, at Prop Thtr, to a play about a necklace at the tiny but mighty former 16th Street Theater in Berwyn. All have shaped me.
Professionally, I have been in the advertising field for almost 40 years, starting out as a copywriter for the Sears Catalog. In the years since, I have been everything from a creative, to a marketer, to a strategic planner, to my present role as marketing research consultant and principal of my own company, InsightStorm, specializing in consumer and brand insights. I refer to what I do as ‘Margaret Mead meets the Marlboro Man,’ applying a cultural anthropology approach to getting into the hearts and minds of consumers, ultimately in order to persuade them to do something—from buying a particular product, to visiting a restaurant during a promotional period, to taking a chance on a new play at an unfamiliar theater.
My resume also includes stints at dude ranches and a year spent as a foreign exchange student in Norway (ja, jeg snakker norsk!). Academically, I hold a B.A.in Scandinavian Studies from The University of Texas (true!), as well as an M.S.A. in Advertising and Ph. D. candidate status (ABD) in communications, with concentrations in consumer behavior, persuasion and cognitive processing, both from Northwestern University.
Prop Thtr Board Member (NNPN Founding Core Member Theater)
Chicago Dramatists Board Member
Former Board Vice President of 16th Street Theater (former NNPN Core Member Theater; shuttered 12/2022)
I believe in the transformative power of live theater—in its ability to move people to new places and ideas and perspectives, and in the power that comes from experiencing it together, shoulder to shoulder, breath to breath, laugh to laugh, and tear to tear. Live theater is magical, and magical theater resonates and lingers and ripples with the power to change lives.
I have loved theater since I was a little girl, and have a running list of my top 10 favorite performances that includes everything from the first show I ever saw on Broadway (A Chorus Line, of course!!), to a very young Kenneth Branagh as Henry V at RSC at Stratford in 1984, to a long-running play about Chicago’s own royal family – Hizzoner, Daley the First, at Prop Thtr, to a play about a necklace at the tiny but mighty former 16th Street Theater in Berwyn. All have shaped me.
Professionally, I have been in the advertising field for almost 40 years, starting out as a copywriter for the Sears Catalog. In the years since, I have been everything from a creative, to a marketer, to a strategic planner, to my present role as marketing research consultant and principal of my own company, InsightStorm, specializing in consumer and brand insights. I refer to what I do as ‘Margaret Mead meets the Marlboro Man,’ applying a cultural anthropology approach to getting into the hearts and minds of consumers, ultimately in order to persuade them to do something—from buying a particular product, to visiting a restaurant during a promotional period, to taking a chance on a new play at an unfamiliar theater.
My resume also includes stints at dude ranches and a year spent as a foreign exchange student in Norway (ja, jeg snakker norsk!). Academically, I hold a B.A.in Scandinavian Studies from The University of Texas (true!), as well as an M.S.A. in Advertising and Ph. D. candidate status (ABD) in communications, with concentrations in consumer behavior, persuasion and cognitive processing, both from Northwestern University.