STAGE DESIGN

Engineer, Architect, Artist, Designer, Printmaker, Creative Director, Stage Designer, Poet, Playwright, and Filmmaker – Kevin Draper (1967) was born in Michigan, USA.
After a few years working as a mechanical engineer, Draper completed a Master’s in Architecture, studied printmaking, and began his trajectory as a multimedia artist. In 2010 he moved to New York City. There, he founded Satellite Collective, a vibrant and innovative community of creatives that has developed award-winning theater productions, films, music recitals, dance performances, and multimedia exhibits.

In Draper’s own words, “As an architect, stage design is my own, personal playground.”

From its inception, the artist is involved in every phase of each project. He writes libretos and poems that generate choreography. Stories that reimagine mythical love, like the one of Echo and Narcissus in New York City, are set at different points in time.

Informed by his understanding that we live in a geometric world, his stage designs are created taking into account the distortion created by the audience’s point of view. The way humans and objects move in space and their frames of reference are at the hub of Draper’s creative ethos. He understands the mechanics of stage design instinctively: A place that plays a fundamental role in storytelling, transporting the audience into the world of the performance. The designer has mastered the visual context for the unfolding narrative, creating a cohesive visual concept.

Incorporating his multimedia creations, and projections, Draper informs the dynamism of each production. Using his knowledge of lighting, and digital art created using photographs of some lesser-known dystopian sites around New York, the ambiance is set for the unexpected.

An accomplished stage designer, Kevin Draper was awarded an honorable distinction for his work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music by New York City’s Mayor Adams.
His outstanding contributions come from intertwining a spectrum of disciplines. His is a process of discovery: Where forms are in motion, space is the primordial unit of design. That which moves on stage, and which moves us.

– Mariana Pavetto