CONTACT:
Kaelen Novak (any & all pronouns acceptable, Mx. honorific)
EMAIL: kaelen.novak@gmail.com
INSTAGRAM: @kaelen.novak
INSTAGRAM: @kaelen.novak
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BIOGRAPHY:
Specializing in theatrical, experimental, and virtual design for live entertainment, Kaelen Novak is a Theatre Design MFA graduate from the University of Iowa concentrating in Costume and Scenic Design, along with an additional focus in experimentation with motion capture and emerging technology in live performance.
Interested in finding the overlaps in live performance, interactive art, and emerging technologies, they strive to expand their artistic knowledge and skillset to better enable and collaborate on the unique projects they become a part of.
They recently have been designer for a variety of projects including Creative Director for ARatorio for the Mis-Remembered (a live virtual reality based theatrical show), Media Designer for Disney's Frozen at PCPA, and Motion Capture Technologist for the Future Stages Festival at Juilliard. They are currently traveling the United States, designing and teaching at various institutions in a variety of disciplines.
They recently taught a hands-on workshop at USITT 2025 in Columbus, Ohio on using Motion Capture in Live Performance and on the Devising Process for ARatorio for the Mis-Remembered and how it can create more sustainable and smooth design and rehearsal processes around incorporating emerging technologies into performance. In the aftermath of ARatorio and other projects, they are in the process of writing a textbook about using Unreal Engine in live performance, spanning all the disciplines of design and devising which will be published in late 2026.
They continue their research and expand their artistic outreach to help teach and inspire the future of live performance innovators and artists.
UPCOMING PROJECTS:
Disney's Frozen: The Broadway Musical | PCPA, Solvang, CA | July 2025 Media Designer | Director: Mark Booher
CLO3d Masterclass and Fashion Show | Wright House of Fashion, Iowa City, IA | Summer 2026 Masterclass Teacher and Fashion Show Designer
A Midsummer Night's Dream | Iowa Central Community College, Fort Dodge, IA | October 2026 Scenic and Media Designer | Director: Sean Mulvihill
Infinite Spaces | Seattle, WA | Ongoing Creative Technology Consultant for Installation and Immersive Projects
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IN PROGRESS RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS:
Motion Capture Technical Demonstrations and Explorations | Ongoing Personal Research Exploring Optical, Kinetic and Markerless options to make motion capture live performance more accessible, with a current focus on Meta Quest headset series to provide actors a view into the digital world while freeing up the need for a dedicated performance space for these sorts of pieces.
Unreal Engine for Live Performance: Creating Theatre in Tandem with Technology | Estimated Fall-Winter 2026 A textbook covering live performance use cases and tools for Unreal Engine, with examples in both live theatre, virtual production and mixed reality experiences | Published by Taylor & Francis
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PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS:
"Bridging the Gap: Inhabiting and Costuming Bodies in Physical and Digital Spaces" by Kaelen Novak USITT Theatre Design and Technology, Volume 61, Issue 3 (2025), pages 6-15
"Making the Unimaginable Real" by Mark Bruckner, Mary Beth Easley and Kaelen Novak USITT Theatre Design and Technology, Volume 61, Issue 2 (2025), pages 14-29
Herbert D. Greggs Award Winner 2026
"Iowa Theatre Graduate Explores the Frontiers of Digital Fashion" by Josh O'Leary https://magazine.foriowa.org/story.php?ed=true&storyid=2327
"Dare to Discover: Kaelen Novak" by Leslie Revaux https://dare.research.uiowa.edu/novak-kaelen/
"Exploring Connections Between Converging Fields" by Ander Freiberg https://grad.uiowa.edu/news/2021/05/exploring-connections-between-converging-fields
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