A career as entertainment producer for Royal Caribbean took Robert Kerns far from his home in Front Royal, Va., and his first job at Kings Dominion in rural Doswell, Va. He produced Hairspray on the world’s largest cruise ship and worked with Broadway directors to stage Chicago on a Royal mega-ship.
Robert Kerns ’81 boarded a cruise ship in Dubai earlier this year. From that vibrant city nestled along the Persian Gulf, he traveled to Malaysia and Singapore. He explored India before returning to his home in South Carolina.
An entertainment producer for Royal Caribbean International, Kerns has visited much of the world: Italy and Spain, Turkey and Greece, the island of Malta in the Mediterranean. He has traveled the Caribbean extensively. Sometimes, all his travels still seem unlikely when he looks back at where he started.
Kerns grew up in Front Royal, Va., a small town in the Blue Ridge mountains, 70 miles northwest of Fredericksburg. He chose Mary Washington because it was relatively small. “It really kind of gave us the opportunity to grow up in a safe environment,” he said.
He planned to major in education, but he quickly made friends with the students working in Klein Theatre. “I had a desire to be really involved in that group. By the beginning of my freshman year, I knew that’s where I needed to be. I slowly made my way over to Klein.” When drama instructor Neil Howard asked Kerns to serve as stage manager for a production, Kerns’ path was set.
Kerns began his career while he was still an undergraduate and took a summer job at Kings Dominion. At the end of the season, Kerns was promoted to costume supervisor of entertainment. He worked for the company for 15 years, building costumes, managing the costume shop, and traveling to theme parks for fittings and alterations. After taking a break to care for his ailing parents, Kerns went to work for Royal Caribbean.
In 2008, he produced his first Broadway show – Hairspray – on the world’s largest luxury cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas. When Royal unveiled its next mega-ship, Allure of the Seas, Kerns produced Chicago with the aid of Broadway directors.
“Everything I had learned at Mary Washington and experienced in my life brought me to that point,” Kerns said.
Kerns also produced aerial shows, ice shows, and “aqua theatre” – shows with divers and synchronized swimmers. He produced an original aerial show called Come Fly With Me and an original ice show called Frozen in Time.
Now he’s entertainment project manager on a new class of ships, the first of which will be unveiled in 2014. Another will follow in 2015.
At 54, Kerns said, “I still feel really blessed that I can sit in a dark theatre during rehearsals, surrounded by a talented cast.” And he gets to travel to places he couldn’t have imagined 30 years ago.