Suddenly the lights went out and, in the darkness, a voice was heard: “What would we do without lights?” It was 1999 and the gala for the second edition of the Max Awards was being held, directed by Lluís Pasqual. It was the way to vindicate the importance of lighting in the performing arts and the demand for a Max award for the best lighting design, an award that was included starting in the next edition. At 67 years old and already in retirement, the pioneer of lighting design in Spain, Juan Gómez Cornejo, self-taught, claims light as an essential element in the performing arts and fights to implement regulated teaching for this subject. “We are at the tail end of Europe,” laments this lighting guru, the first illuminator to win the National Theater Award, in 2011. Technical director of different theater spaces, Gómez Cornejo is currently dedicated to theater lighting design , dance and opera. With four Max awards, among many others, he has just been named honorary member of the Association of Lighting and Video Scene Authors (AAI), which he created 25 years ago with the aim of reclaiming the profession of light and which he presided over for eight years.
Ask. He was going to be a teacher and the theater crossed his path. How was that?
Answer. It was a coincidence. In Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real), my town, I had teachers who were passionate about theater and literature. They closed the classroom windows and read Poe or García Márquez to us, in addition to proposing to form theater groups. I never wanted to get on the boards, I always took care of what was happening in the back. It captivated me ever since and when I came to Madrid to study teaching, I combined my studies with jobs in alternative theater venues to make extra money. My family is humble and I couldn’t be in Madrid without working.
P. Was that when you knew you didn’t want to be a teacher?
R. I never knew, not even now. What started as a hobby took hold of me little by little and also allowed me to make a living from it.
P. You are a pioneer of lighting in Spain, a profession that had to be invented due to the lack of schools and studies. How do you remember it?
R. I have always been necessarily self-taught. I have had a great absorption capacity and I paid attention to and followed with passion the work of all the international artists who came to Madrid with their shows. I was nourished by all these experiences, by colleagues who have taught me. I was fortunate that not only did great directors sponsor me, such as Francisco Nieva, José Luis Alonso, Marsillach, José Luis Gómez, Gerardo Vera, Miguel Narros and many more, but they also let me experiment. I have learned my trade on the boards, experimenting.
P. What does light give you?
R. Light is a form of artistic expression, like painting or photography. It is an art that requires a somewhat specific tool and that makes everything a little more complex, in which the technique and the developments around that technique are essential. Lighting is an artistic profession, which offers me the possibility of expressing myself.
P. Unlike other trades in the performing arts, lighting is not taught in schools. How is that?
R. It is something unusual. We are behind Europe, where there are specific lighting studies. We lack culture in this sense. No one has thought about the importance of light in the performing arts, which is a craft that must be taught in universities or in specific theater schools, such as Resad (Royal Higher School of Dramatic Art). Curiously, there are no costume studies either, something also key in the shows. I always said that I was not going to retire until we achieved the formal teaching of enlightenment, but now I am regretting it.
P. So the future isn’t very hopeful?
R. Specifically in Resad, which depends on the Community of Madrid, a study itinerary regarding lighting was approved in 2014 that has not yet been launched. We are fighting intensely to recover this itinerary, as well as the locker room discipline, which is very important. We also trust that all this will be transformed with the law on artistic teachings and that these disciplines will have the same category as any other.
P. With a profession so out of focus, do you feel that the illuminator is little considered in the world of the performing arts?
R. It’s been a long fight. It all started in the second edition of the Max Awards, directed by Lluís Pasqual, when he decided to turn off the lights and make it dark for Spanish Television, which was broadcasting the gala, and thus highlight the absence of an award for the best lighting. in the Max. The light is taking its rightful place, although the budgets never include an allocation for lighting, as is done with scenery or costumes. We miss having a specific budget item for lighting, especially with the brutal technological change that we are experiencing.
P. The Association of Lighting Authors that you created together with other colleagues 25 years ago was born with the aim of dignifying this profession. Has something been achieved?
R. The first idea was to dignify the profession and make ourselves known, in addition to sharing what we know in the absence of schools and teaching centers. I think we have managed to create a culture of light.
P. It is a vital profession for the performing arts, but it seems somewhat relegated. Do you feel that way?
R. Not relegated, but we still have a lot to do, such as being considered part of the teams from the beginning of productions. I am fortunate because I have been there since the birth of a project, but there are many other colleagues who are not.
P. What is asked of the light?
R. Communication. The light on a stage is an emotional vehicle that leaves that stage and reaches the audience. If the fluctuation is appropriate, the stories told there reach the public in the best way. Without forgetting aesthetics and beauty.
P. Would you define your lighting in any way? Is there a Gómez Cornejo seal?
R. If I have any trademark, it is the use of color in a certain way.
P. Do you like the colors?
R. In just the right measure. I’m not a big fan of color, unless it’s absolutely necessary.
P. Is it, therefore, an illuminator of blacks and whites?
R. Yes. I am very austere in the use of color.
P. Do you miss the world of incandescent lamps, in the technological world of LEDs?
R. I still haven’t managed to get rid of them. We have to embrace LED technology because it represents significant energy savings. I come from the old school and I’m having a hard time adapting, but I will do it. When he stops having incandescence on stage, I will miss him.
P. You are a regular theatergoer. You see him a lot sitting in the seats in the theaters. At what moment in theater are we in Spain?
R. We always hear that theater is dying, but it is not true. The theater will always be there. The other day it gave me tremendous joy to see Bohemian lights (at the Spanish Theater) in a public theater and with a large production, with many actors on stage. Public theater has to go there, something that was lost for many years due to multiprogramming, to do theater in any room. I always say with all due respect to the programmers that the María Guerrero Theater cafeteria was a good cafeteria and now it is a bad theater.