About Rhonda Vespestad, founder of Krik Krak

For more than 20 years, I worked in Human Resources in New York City, where I dealt with some of the most complicated parts of working life: recruitment and onboarding, ethics and discrimination training, workplace investigations, conflict, union negotiations, and difficult decisions involving people.

Over the years, I saw how often people struggle because they have never had the opportunity to stop and reflect, question their assumptions, and then think through difficult human situations.

That realization eventually led me somewhere unexpected: back to my first love, literature.

After moving to Oslo, I earned a master’s degree in Ibsen Studies at the University of Oslo which built on my bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Columbia University. Studying Henrik Ibsen deepened my belief that stories can be more than entertainment or literature to analyze. They can give us a safe space to examine choices, values, relationships, responsibility, belonging, courage—and the consequences of the decisions we make.

That is the idea behind Krik Krak.

I use powerful stories—including Henrik Ibsen’s plays, classic films, literary excerpts and live readings—to create facilitated experiences where people can watch, read, question, discuss and reflect together.

For newcomers to Norway, Ibsen becomes a window into Norwegian culture and society. For organizations and groups, his plays become an opportunity to step inside ethical dilemmas and navigate towards solutions. And for young people, classic films become a starting point for critical thinking and conversations about challenges they are already beginning to face.

The purpose of all these offerings is the same:

to use great stories to help people think more deeply about themselves, other people, and the world they share.

Why the name “Krik Krak”?

The name comes from my Trinidadian background. Before beginning a story, elders, like my grandmother, would call out, “Krik?” and we children would answer, “Krak!”

It was a call and response signaling that the listeners were ready to focus on the storyteller. Stories in my childhood were never simply stories. They invited you to notice symbols, consider the message, and practice empathy and discernment.

That spirit is at the heart of Krik Krak today:

Krik? Are you ready to listen?
Krak! Let’s begin.