Casey Kearns

Collecting and sorting through my work for this updated website has been a very reflective process. Maybe it's the amount of work I've completed. I've done a lot. Maybe it's the many wonderful people I've worked alongside. I've worked with many very gifted individuals and theatre companies. Maybe it's me witnessing my own growth as an experienced designer. I don't know. I acknowledge that I haven't accomplished this body of work alone. I've experienced various tiers of success and failures with many unyielding collaborators. One thing is certain.

I LOVE what I GET to do for a living! I am fortunate.

HAND PUPPETS "BUTTER" (LEFT) AND "BUSICUT" (R) DESIGNED AND BUILT BY CASEY KEARNS

DIGITAL MODELING

Digital modeling is a valuable resource and I've begun to incorporate more of these techniques into my work. It's a very different workflow, one which I'm still adjusting to, but the possibilities are endless and exciting.

HAND RENDERINGS

I love hand-rendered scenic designs. The classic, old-school, fine-art renderings that display a breathtaking interpretation of a real space in time are truly magnificent works of fine art. They allow us to capture the essence of the design and the designer who created it.

DIGITAL RENDERINGS

I'm developing a greater appreciation for digital tools. However, the costs are as steep as the learning curve. The quality of expectations are even higher. I'm hopeful that, as theatre designers, we will continue to create unique and original work while utilizing these modern resources.

SCENIC ART

I love scenic painting. I painted nearly all of my scenic designs (especially my early work). From the largest sets to the smallest properties, it brings me joy. There is something medicinal about painting.

COLLAGE

Collage is a quick way to narrow hundreds of research images into a composite image communicating your initial response to the director's vision. My early collages were old school: tear, print, cut, and paste. In recent years, I've started using more digital resources.

Twelth Night - Hand Collage - 1980's Miami concept.

Frankenstein

Picasso the Lapine Agile - Hand Collage

Dead Man Walking - Hand Collage

Oklahoma

Crimes of the Heart

Cybourne Park

The Prom

Julius Caesar

les Miserables

Below is a series of quick digital collages for the scenic and projection design for The Prom. This process allowed the director and other members of the design team to discuss and best understand the environment being created.

One of several digital collages preparing the The Prom - scenic and projection design.

MISCELLANEOUS

I enjoy building and painting too. I love to create objects that tell a story or suggest a story about to be told.

When you can't afford a surplus army jeep, you design, build, and paint one.

Who say's The Addams' Family better than a torture chair. Design, constructed and painted by me.

When the State Governor needs a big fancy ceremonial cake, you build it.

My Amazon/Walmart carriage.

Building my defenses during post Covid.

Concept Shadow Box

Painting study from a photo with five fellow artists. 12'x20'. No brushes. Three hours.

Scenic Painting

The beginning of the a clock for the ballet, Cinderella.

Laser cut dozer.

"Biscuit" and "Butter"

"A stage designer is, in a very real sense, a jack-of-all-trades. He can make blueprints and murals and patterns and light-plots. He can design fireplaces and bodices and bridges and wigs. He understands architecture, but is not an architect: can paint a portrait, but is not a painter: creates costumes, but is not a couturier. Although he is able to call upon any or all of these varied gifts at will, he is not concerned with any one of them to the exclusion of the others, nor is he interested in any one of them for its own sake. These talents are only the tools of his trade. His real calling is something quite different. He is an artist of occasions."

- The Dramatic Imagination by Robert Edmond Jones