Now Entering the “Storybook Forest”!
“Oos!”and “ahs!” when this little flower first entered the Storybook Forest!
A little brown bear popping out of the portal in the “Wardrobe of Dreams.”
Completed in June 2026, The Storybook Forest is all handcrafted using painted paper collage, carpentry, painting, block printing, cloth and paper-mâché sculpture.
In the forest, kids dress up as a wildflower or an animal and put on their own puppet shows inside “the Little Acorn Theatre in the Old Oak Tree,” burst out of the portal in the “Wardrobe of Dreams,” put the baby animals to bed in the “Animal Friends Apartments,” wake up that mama owl with the turn of a knob, or just curl up with a book in a loving parent’s lap.
It was designed by Playhouse founder and executive director Kathy Parham, with help from key volunteers Ed Folts (carpentry), Anna Welsh (art), and interns Emma Wenzel (structural design) and Stevie Watson (interior design). Other community volunteers, including children, contributed elements to the exhibit.
Generous support from the Celia Lipton Farris and Victor W. Farris Foundation Home Community Fund, a fund administered by the North Carolina Community Foundation, and Cynthia Cero made the exhibit possible.
For behind-the-scenes pictures of how the Storybook Forest was created, click here to download a pdf of the project slidedeck.
