Czerton Lim began designing for the stage in high school when he directed a production for a One-Act Festival in Virginia Beach, VA. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Biology from the College of William and Mary, he worked for a few years as a scenic artist at TheatreVirginia in Richmond and started his long and continuing relationship with the The Rev Theatre Company (formerly the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival at Merry-Go-Round Playhouse) where he served as the scenic charge for three seasons, while also having the opportunity to design a few of their Mainstage and Youth Theatre shows as well. He went back to school to pursue his Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre Design at the University of Washington’s School of Drama in Seattle where he worked on a self generated piece by the graduating acting class titled Panophobia, a production of Macbeth set in post Civil War Reconstruction era, and a modernized version of Mother Courage and Her Children where her wagon was updated to a ’53 Chevy truck as his thesis production. Shortly thereafter, he moved to NYC and worked with groups such as the National Asian-American Theatre Company, Columbia University Directing MFA Program, Theater for the New City, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, Storm Theatre, Collaborative Arts Project 21, Manhattan Shakespeare Project, New York Musical Theater Festival, and Theater Mitu.
Mr. Lim is the recipient of the New York Theatre Workshop’s Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship 2008/09 (now called the 2050 Artistic Fellowship), the Marvin Sims Design Fellowship at the Kennedy Center for the American College Theatre Festival Summer Intensives, as well as having his design work presented at Ming Cho Lee’s Clambake (Stage Design Portfolio Review) and the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. In June 2007, he accompanied his wife on her fellowship in an eye-opening eight month trip around the world. Highlights include; walking 800km across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, the Vienna Opera House performing Mozart’s Requiem in memory of Luciano Pavarotti and the moment of silence that followed it, the whole city of Istanbul, sharing a meal with holy men at a Sikh Temple in Delhi, the sunrise boat ride on the Ganges River in Varanasi, trekking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal and reaching an elevation of 5,417m, becoming an impromptu “guest of honor” at a village wedding in Cambodia, giving alms each morning to Buddhist monks in Laos, and staring across the DMZ into North Korea, not to mention seeing a number of different theatre, dance, and music performances, museums, houses of worship, and cultural oddities along the way. In February 2011, he traveled to the United Arab Emirates to design NYU-Abu Dhabi’s inaugural production of Chaos, a joint venture with NYC based Theater Mitu. In June 2011, A Number was presented at the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists’ 3rd National Asian American Theater Festival held in Los Angeles, California. In 2019, he was the recipient of the Syracuse Area Live Theatre Awards for Best Set Design of Elf the Musical at Syracuse Stage.
Mr. Lim continues to do freelance design while (un)successfully balancing a home life that consists of his talented set/costume designer/illustrator wife, six very patient cats, three young chickens, two friendly bunnies, several aquariums of various fishes, and his extremely well adjusted twelve year old and adventurous four year old sons. He teaches design and other related topics as Associate Professor of Scenic Design with the Department of Theatre and Dance and holds the position of Managing Producer for the Walter Gloor Mainstage Series at the State University of New York at Fredonia. He is a proud Member of United Scenic Artist local 829. He is originally from the Philippines.