Lighting designer recognized for her work on the Broadway production of August Wilson’s play Jitney
Jane Cox, Director of the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater at Princeton University has been nominated for a Tony Award for her lighting design of the Broadway production of August Wilson’s play Jitney. In addition to her work as a professional lighting designer, Cox has served as a lecturer in the Program in Theater since 2007 and was appointed as Director in July 2016. She was also recently nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for her lighting design of New York Theatre Workshop’s production of Othello starring Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo.
Jane Cox, professional lighting designer and Director of the Program in Theater at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts. Photo by Evan Alexander
The Tony Awards are given for Broadway productions and performances and are selected by a committee made up of select members of the American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League, the Dramatists Guild, Actors’ Equity Association, United Scenic Artists, and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Founded in 1947, this prestigious award celebrates excellence in Broadway theater.
Jane Cox has received numerous awards for her work as a lighting designer and recently received the Ruth Morley Design Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical for the recent Broadway revival of The Color Purple, directed by fellow Princeton faculty member John Doyle. Other recent projects include the National Theatre’s production of Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch in London, directed by Lyndsey Turner, for which she was awarded the 2016 Onstage Award, and the new musical Amelie, directed by Pam MacKinnon. Cox was nominated for the Tony and Drama Desk awards in 2014 for her work on Machinal at the Roundabout Theater. She was also the most nominated designer in any discipline for the Henry Hewes Design Awards, being nominated for her designs for Machinal; All the Way at the Neil Simon (Tony Award for Best Play); and Dinner with Friends.
Originally hailing from Dublin, Ireland, Cox has taught courses at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts graduate program in theater design; Vassar College; Sarah Lawrence College; University of Massachusetts Amherst; and workshops at universities all over the country and at the Kennedy Center. She is represented in the book Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance.
The 71st annual Tony Awards will be broadcast on CBS, live from the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, on Sunday, June 11.
