We recently connected with Omar Madkour and have shared our conversation below.

Omar, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I started learning Lighting Design during my Theatre undergrad back home (Cairo, Egypt). At the time, I did not know that people had real careers specializing as lighting designers. I did not enroll in my first lighting class because I had any intention of starting a career in lighting design. I was rather curious and fascinated with this magical field. When I say magical, I truly mean it. I always thought of lighting as the closest thing there is to magic. It is intangible energy that is capable of transforming a room 180 degrees and taking you on journeys and affecting your mood… and funny enough, most people do not even notice nor realize how lighting affects them and their surrounding.

So it was really curiosity & fascination that set my foot on the first steps of this journey.

After graduation, I was trying to find audition opportunities in Cairo because I was interested in acting. One day a friend called me saying he is directing a play. I secretly hoped that he was calling to ask me to audition, but instead he told me it is a high-school play that was going to tour three academic venues and that he was looking for a Lighting Designer. He had watched a show I designed during undergrad and he liked the lighting, so he called.

I gladly took the job, again thinking this must be a one-off. I had no idea this was the beginning of my lighting career. I visited the three high-schools where the show was going to perform and the first thing that struck me was realizing each school had different equipment from the other, and all of them had different equipment from what I learnt how to use in my undergrad program. It was intimidating, but I had already said yes to the job. So I had to figure it out.
Not only was I able to figure out the equipment, I even taught one of the technicians in these schools how to program their console more efficiently.

One theatre show led to another and eventually I became aware that this is now my career.

I started touring internationally, and again, at each country, they had equipment that was new to me and I had to teach myself how to use it. The touring was great exposure and a great opportunity to watch shows from all over the world and I was making very good money. At one point – when my lighting career was doing well – I decided to pause and move to the US to get a MFA Degree in Lighting Design from CalArts.

In the US, my relationship with lighting shifted from being tech heavy to being a creative process and an artistic craft. So in a way it felt like I was learning the ropes all over again.

I also started to understand lighting as an art practice independent from any medium. Lighting in the past was associated in my head with live performance only. At CalArts, I became aware of lighting for galleries & museums, for architecture, for themed entertainment, immersive experiences, for the camera, etc.
Certainly I am no expert in all these fields, but I have become a much more aware lighting artist and more appreciative to all these specializations and the different skillsets that go into them.

In fact, this awareness & appreciation of the different career options is a place I wish I had reached earlier. Not that I regret anything about my career, but my overall approach & understanding of lighting as a visual art will always be framed within the limitations of what I know and do not know about my craft.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

A bit of a backstory about who I am – my name is Omar Madkour. I am an Egyptian Lighting Designer. I was born & raised in Cairo. I lived there until the age of 28, then I moved to the US.

Cairo has always been a huge part of my personality and identity. I have always had a love/hate relationship with it. It is older than time and greater than life yet it can be a soul sucker & a dream crusher like there is no tomorrow.

Every-time I left the house in Cairo, I could come back with at least one crazy story about something I saw or heard or an unreal conversation I engaged in with the cab driver or a funny situation I found myself in the midst of in the underground. It is such a vibrant place that is full of magic, pain, history… and it does not sleep! So its non-stop.

The second half of the twentieth century held a lot of socio-political changes in Egypt, which really paved the way for a great art scene in Cairo. Be it film, music, art, poetry, theatre, fiction, you name it. Some of Egypt’s finest modern artists came out of that time.
My interest in the arts (and politics) is certainly a product of the art I consumed growing up in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

I became very interested in political art – especially subtle one… Movies and Theatre that was not conventional in its storytelling and that was mind intriguing was something that drew me since I was a kid. Movies that were too philosophical and would not make a commercial success were my favorite to watch and try to understand… and more importantly, try to analyze why the majority did not appreciate it.

I have always been fascinated with artists who broke out of the line and did something different (be it outrageous for its time or not). Community responses to these moments are also very telling of what drove that artist to do this.
Most of the time it is to wake people up and push them to change or take matters in hand. Change is a scary word for most people because it interrupts their routine. Routine is familiar and comfy – it is your living room couch. Change on the other hand is someone defending Jews in Nazi Germany or defending Palestine in a Zionist America or Israel (or a 2023 Germany also).

As an artist, I aim to be a part of work that is unconventional & disruptive to our routine. Of course I do not control what work comes my way and what doesn’t, so I cannot not say that every project I am a part of fits my interests, but I try as much as I can to be part of work that drives people to think and reflect on their lives, surroundings, and controlled environments or societies that make us think we own our decisions when in reality we are all gears in multiple machines that are far from having our interest at heart.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

It changes from time to time depending on my age, what I have achieved so far, and what I am looking for.

I think right now, one of the most important things for me is finding a balance that satisfies me. This balance is for projects as well as life/work.

My ideal world nowadays would entail me juggling work that span from live performance to more permanent projects such as themed entertainment or museums or immersive experiences.

Part of the magic of live performance and why I fell in love with theatre is the ‘present moment’. You can watch a play multiple times, but it will never be identical in the same sense that Marlon Brando’s performance will be identical every time you watch The Godfather. The performers onstage are human beings who are affected by life and even by the audience in the house tonight vs last night vs the night before. When you feel something while watching a play or attending a concert, it is a very unique connection that is a product of your baggage as an audience member and the performer’s skilled craft – and baggage.

I find this very rewarding and I admire being able to be a part of storytelling that creates these rare and genuine moments.

However, as I get older, I also learn the value of being able to point at a project that is more recognizable to thousands of people and that is meant to be more permanent than a theatre or a dance show and to take pride in being a part of it.

So that’s the project balance I refer to.

As for the work/life balance, I would simply love to have one or two vacations per year with my wife without having to worry for weeks about the bills because we dared leave town and stay at a hotel for  a few nights. I do not think this is a lot to ask, but in the world we live in, it does seem like a luxury.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Most people would not know what a Lighting Designer’s job entails – and this is expected. It is a very specific and unique job.

The details of what a lighting designer does differ from one specialization to another.

In live performance (Theatre, Dance, Music, etc) a Lighting Designer works with the director/choreographer/band on creating some guidelines to draw inspiration from. For instance, the play I am currently designing is a courtroom drama and it was very important for the director that the design elements do not stand out in an imposing way. So we are keeping most looks on the simpler side while still complimenting the overall feel of the scene by changing color temperatures and shifting focus from one part of the stage to another. It is a very delicate dance.

The show before that was about the main character’s relation to his mother who has dementia. The show shifted very frequently between the real world to memories to mental space to dreams/fears/nightmares, etc. So a lot of the design was stylized & bold in its look and color choices. It also had to be very dynamic & big in its visual shifts to compliment the changes in the scenes.
There are rehearsals and meetings throughout the process that allow these design concepts to develop further.

Aside from the conceptual design conversations, the designer drafts a light plot and generates other paperwork that informs the technicians at the venue what fixtures need to go where, what colors need to go in them, etc.
After the venue loads in the equipment and circuits it, then comes Focus – which is basically aiming the fixtures at certain parts of the stage and adjusting a lot of technical details with how the lighting coming out of every fixture looks.

Following that, comes Programming and Technical Rehearsals. Programming lights allows the operator during the show to apply changes to hundreds of lighting fixtures simultaneously by one press of a button. This allows for very sophisticated looks and precise timing. Technical rehearsals is when all of it comes together. Lighting, Sound, Video, Actors, Director, Stage Management, Production Management, etc are all in the room finessing so many details and making sure that all technical elements are achieving their purpose in the storytelling.

In museums for instance, the Lighting Designer plays a similar part to theatre but they are not dealing with a script or lyrics. They are dealing with static inanimate objects. So the designer needs to draw their inspiration from the nature of the object; and equally important they have to consider things such as the age and material of the art object. Light affects old objects and causes them to deteriorate. Many people find this surprising, but I always tell them to leave a newspaper in the sun for one month and see how it fades. In museums, you are dealing with priceless objects that could be hundreds or even thousands of years old. So you cannot use incandescent lighting (due to the heat it emits). You have to use LED’s. You have to adapt your design sometimes to the strict regulations set by the art conservator. If that art object is on display for one year and it is only allowed 3 foot candles for that run, then your design has to adapt a simple and dim lighting scheme.

In architectural lighting, there are other considerations to take such as city codes, safety measures, minimum brightness required for each space, etc. For instance a kitchen space in a romantic restaurant needs to be a lot brighter than the dinning area – for utilitarian and safety purposes. So as a lighting designer, you would most likely specify bright ceiling downlights for the kitchen and in the dinning area specify dimmable, elegant looking decorative fixtures.

You also do not really see the lights on until the construction is near completion. So you cannot go to the space after the fact and say, oh we need to add another row of lights in the ceiling. This comes at a serious cost to the client and inconvenient delays to the opening date. Therefore, if you are a lighting designer in architectural, there are very precise calculations that you need to run in advance to make sure that your design will properly serve its function of illumination and provide the required ambience.

If you are lighting for the camera, you have to take into consideration the different sensitivity of the camera vs the human eye. So you adjust your brightness and colors keeping in mind the lenses and cameras used on set.

Of course if you look at Themed Entertainment or Aquariums/zoos or Immersive Experiences or anything else, you will find different considerations here & there in a Lighting Designer’s job. However most of the time you are hired to help guests/audiences see something or someone in a certain light – see what I did there!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.omarmadkour.com
• Instagram: @OmarBMadkour

Image Credits
(1) Medea Refracted Creator: Constance Strickland Director: Jonathan Takina Taylor Produced By: Theatre Roscius Photography: Caitlin Dennis (2) Into The Woods Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Director: Fran De Leon Produced By: Pasadena Playhouse Photography: Jeff Lorch; Courtesy of Pasadena Playhouse (3) Miss Julie: Freedom Summer Director: Gregg T. Daniel Produced By: USC School of Dramatic Arts Photography: Craig Schwartz (4) The Chandelier Choreography & Direction: Heidi Duckler Produced By: Heidi Duckler Dance Photography: Gina Clyne, Lawrence K Ho and Rush Valera (5) Headshot by Dara Jaffe