Alex Vásquez Dheming: Choreographing Light.
Salvadoran lighting designer whose expressionist practice turns light into narrative, emotion, and
Salvadoran lighting designer whose expressionist practice turns light into narrative, emotion, and
Japanese costume designer and cultural advocate whose research-driven practice interrogates representation, identity,
German scenic designer whose kinetic scenography builds sets that move with the
Mexican cultural worker, director, and playwright whose practice is rooted in collective
Classic plays for community theatre: Shakespeare, Greek tragedies, Chekhov—masterpieces with zero royalties.
Helen García-Alton has always been drawn to the spark behind the curtain—the unseen hands that transform space into story. She grew up in Venezuela, performing onstage but her earliest brush with theatre magic wasn’t onstage! When she moved to the United States she watched a teacher tug the heavy main drape for a group of third graders. That small act revealed something bigger: the wonder of making atmosphere, of creating a world where reality falls away. Years later, she’s still chasing that sensation, now with light as her chosen tool.
Helen’s artistry lives in dual worlds: she is a theatre lighting designer with a flair for collaboration and experimentation, and she also works as a lighting director for CNN in Washington, D.C. Whether it’s a world premiere production filled with electric energy or a breaking news broadcast that millions will watch, her impulse remains the same—light the moment, guide the eye, craft the story. Her process is intuitive and playful, a collage of influences from sky-gazing to eclairs, music playlists to fireflies.
Update: Helen left CNN in December to embark on a long term dream of moving to Scotland. She is excited to make more artistic contacts and hopes to find herself designing in UK theatres soon.
In this edition of PROFILES, we meet an artist who shines light—literally—on imagination and possibility.
I was always in performance, as a little girl in Venezuela I participated in chorus, as well as a Christmas ad for my preschool (I think it’s still on Youtube somewhere!) and when I moved to the states in 1998 I saw a teacher pulling the main curtain open for the 3rd graders and I was like OH! I want to do THAT! The teacher was obviously thrilled to finally get a chance to sit down, and I was transfixed! I think that my core desire for art is to be the magic maker. I want to know how it works, I am forever thinking about how the piece creates the atmosphere, the world!
In high school, I wanted to be on the light crew because the cute guy was the head of the crew. I ran the light board for his senior design (Beauty and the Beast) and I could feel the moment the audience was in it, when they felt their real lives fall away. I later learned that feeling is called Collective Effervescence. It’s the sociological concept for when you are at a concert and you feel united by the music, or the feeling of going to a sporting event and being in a stadium together.
Yeah. I wanna make that, and keep making that.
I recently enjoyed working on a few co-designs with my dear friend and frequent collaborator, Mike Durst. We designed the world premiere of Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show for Spooky Action Theatre in DC. It was an absolute thrill of a piece and we were working on it with fierce, electric, passion! Mike and I always seem to share a seamless, immediate, connection that somehow works without a thorough conversation as to how our process will transpire. He was programming and I was determining location and communicating with the other teams.
By opening night the work really shone and everything had come together nicely except for a cue that in hindsight, I don’t remember if it was communicated properly to the stage manager, or if it was a new one (oops), either way, it had not been called properly. I timidly asked the director, stage manager, and leading lady if we could re-run the piece very quickly for placement before going to celebrate our opening. Everyone said yes and it truly made all the difference! Although I was timid, I felt like I could safely ask that, and that’s collaboration, baby!
I have never met a routine! I typically receive the script, read it a few times over a period of weeks, maybe I take a walk, maybe I eat an eclair, I look at the sky and try to keep an open mind until our first meeting. I really enjoy the process of getting to know the team I am working with before I get to know where the design is going. We are all approaching the work from different life experiences and to feel that energy first communicates volumes to me of how our approach will form. From there it might be listening to music that somehow gets associated with the piece, photographing leaf shadows because they are the right ones, text messages to the director about how we need to have fireflies to help make sunset onstage. It’s a collage of different shapes that get pulled together!
My work is incredibly diverse and perhaps the biggest challenge I have faced is remembering that the impulse to create translates into my life constantly! I currently freelance in theatre and I work full time for CNN as a lighting director out of their DC office. I was so nervous about lighting the news until I remembered, HEY. You are a lighting designer, you are lighting people, that is literally your thing girl, calm down. The way my work translates from studio, to theatre, to aquarium, to swimming pool photoshoot, the constant remains: I’m a lighting designer, I am an artist, let’s put the light where I want it!
I’m inspired by the artists who trust us to take their beautiful ideas and make them real for the audiences around us. That’s a crazy level of trust, and I am honored each and every time I am fortunate to have that trust.
I see work getting scrappier! Yes, we are doing big sexy shows, but it really feels like opportunities for new works that are grungy and revolutionary with small amounts of equipment -or hell even flash lights- are happening. Last year I saw a piece in a cemetery lit completely with battery powered lanterns, I’m so into it.
Talk to the people you look up to, don’t be nervous! We WANT to help you, we’ve all stood in the same sweaty shoes hoping we can make it. When I graduated grad school I emailed 30 artistic directors, and about 15 emailed back, and of those 15 I worked with every single one of them. People will respond to you, and if they don’t, it’s likely that the email is in their spam folder! If you email me, I will email you back!
I hope you go into the show, and lose yourself in the moment, and you come out of it dreaming bigger.
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