I’m a generation from the 80s, and a story that follows a long arc of management effort aimed at streamlining and reducing bureaucracy in public administration for the performing arts. This look at a slice of that history reveals meaningful outcomes: depoliticizing cultural administration while smoothing daily processes that sustain the performing arts. The aim was artistic freedom, even as economic controls remained necessary and overseen by certain administrations. These reflections echo the farewell words of Guillermo Heras at the 2021 closing of the Muestra de Teatro Español de Autores Contemporáneos de Alicante, bidding farewell to a cultural manager, writer, director, and theater teacher who had just passed away in Buenos Aires. He left this world shortly after celebrating a long career dedicated to the stage and its freedom of expression.
Guillermo Heras was known for his role in shaping the Alicante Writers Show, a project he created and promoted in 1992. He helped broaden Spanish authorship and expand the Ministry of Culture’s presence beyond Madrid, arranging for this theatrical event to take root in 2013. He also supported the Max Nuevas Tendencias Award to promote contemporary dramaturgy. Over nearly three decades, he earned the trust of varying political administrations and institutions, including NAEM, the Diputación, and the Alicante City Council. The city became a reference point for live drama, attracting notable directors, translators, and actors who helped keep Alicante in the public eye as a thriving cultural hub.
“There is no doubt this journey, like any cultural project, has its lights and shadows and will be weighed by critics and historians in the years to come. Yet the achievements deserve recognition,” he said in 2019, praising the team that had run the Show for 29 years.
Orbit
An influential figure in theater, he was part of a group known as gadfly (active 1973–1983) and later led the National Center for New Stage Trends from 1983 to 1993. He chaired the Spanish Association of Managers and served as technical secretary of Iberescena, contributing to major theatrical projects. He directed the works of many authors, spanning Calderón, Brecht, Cervantes, Pasolini, Koltés, Mayorga, Lope de Vega, Lorca, and Durringer in his varied career at the Shipyard Theatre.
He also directed operatic pieces and contemporary dramas that crossed borders, including collaborations and productions across Argentina. His repertoire included works by Marisa Manchado and Rosa Montero, as well as Diana de García Román and Muñoz Molina, and Rigoletto by Verdi. Productions took place in Argentina’s Teatro San Martín among others, illustrating a career that blended theater with opera and musical theater across continents.
Beyond directing, he wrote plays such as Useless Light of the Night, Girl, Pearlescent Eyes, Rottweiler, and Accidents and Wills. He conducted workshops in direction, stage direction, and dramaturgy across many Ibero-American countries, nurturing a new generation of creators and performers.
Reactions
The Performing Arts and Music Documentation Center noted his passing with a tribute that echoed his lifelong commitment. They recalled his perseverance and simplicity, and described him as a co-founder who infused humor and a healthy disrespect for pretension from the earliest days of his career. The arc of his leadership at the National Center for New Natural Trends is highlighted as a pivotal period for renewal and cross-disciplinary collaboration in national culture. Those who worked with him remember a figure who helped open contemporary opera, contemporary dance, and modern theater to wider audiences, while keeping the creative space at the CNNT headquarters under his guiding influence. The Olympia room stood as a testament to his leadership and his ongoing influence as a playwright and director.