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We are rounding out 2017 with episode #76 and a fantastic chat with two-time Tony Nominee, Jane Cox! Jane has exploded a lot in the past couple years with her lighting designs for such diverse shows as ‘The Color Purple’, ‘Jitney’, ‘Amélie’, and ‘Machinal’ and she’s chatting about all of them. She tells us about her long-standing relationship with John Doyle and their collaboration on shows like ‘Color Purple’, ‘Road Show’, and ‘Allegro’ as well as her projects with Sam Gold like ‘The Flick’ and the recent ‘Othello’, which saw her trying to light an enclosed army bunker with zero conventional theatre lights. Cory and Jane also chat about her new role as the head of the Princeton theatre department, how she’s using that position to help create more diverse creative teams, and her path from Dublin to New York. And stick around till the end to hear how she ended up touring with Bob Dylan!
Jane Cox is a lighting designer for theater, opera, dance and music. Recent designs include Jitney (directed by Ruben Santiago Hudson), Amelie (directed by Pam MacKinnon) and The Color Purple (directed by John Doyle) on Broadway; Othello (directed by Sam Gold) at NYTW; the new play Roe (directed by Bill Rauch) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage and Berkeley Rep and Hamlet directed by Lyndsey Turner (with Benedict Cumberbatch) at the Barbican in London. Other Broadway credits include Noises Off, Picnic, Come Back Little Sheba, and Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance.
Jane has been nominated for two Tony awards for her work on Jitney and Machinal (directed by Lyndsey Turner) and for three Drama Desks for her work on The Color Purple (directed by John Doyle), Machinal and Passion (also directed by John Doyle). In 2016 Jane was awarded the Ruth Morley Design Award from the League of Professional Theater Women; and in 2013 she won the Henry Hewes design award for her work on Annie Baker’s The Flick (directed by Sam Gold). Other exciting projects in the last few years include designs for All the Way on Broadway (Tony award for Best Play, directed by Bill Rauch); Lucia di Lammermoor at Sydney Opera House; The Whale at Playwrights Horizons and The Ambassador Project, a stage show of Gabriel Kahane’s album directed by John Tiffany. Other notable Off-Broadway credits include Pacific Overtures, Passion, Allegro, Peer Gynt, Road Show, and The Mystery of Love and Sex.
Jane is a company member of the Monica Bill Barnes Dance Company, whose recent projects include One Night Only at the Women’s Project; Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host with Ira Glass; a museum workout of the Metropolitan Museum with illustrator Maira Kalman; and Happy Hour, a piece involving karaoke, cocktails and suits. Jane has an ongoing relationship with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with Bill Rauch and Classic Stage Company with John Doyle. She maintains personal and professional connections with Dublin and London; and has been teaching about light and theater design to anyone who will listen since 2007. In 2016 Jane became the director of the program in theater at Princeton University.
