Virtual Event — Conversation with a Theater Maker: Anne Kauffman
Event Overview
Dates
May 22, 2020
Hours
4:45-5:30 PM (EDT)
Location
Admission
FREE and open to public
Since late March, Program in Theater Director Jane Cox has invited special guests to join her students for informal conversations about theater-making and the creative process. The broader community is invited to join these virtual conversations on Zoom. We ask — what inspires these significant theater artists? What does community mean to them? How do they think about audiences, casting, design, arts education?
Each virtual event features 20 minutes of conversation with Cox and guest, followed by 20 minutes of Q&A with the audience. All of the guest artists either collaborate with Cox professionally or have connections to the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater.
On May 22nd, OBIE Award-winning theater director Anne Kauffman joins Cox in a virtual conversation.
Described by The New York Times as “one of the leading lights of downtown theater,” Anne has directed at most major New York non-profit and regional theaters. Her recent credits include, Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison with Playwrights Horizons, Buzzer by Tracey Scott Wilson with The Public Theater, The Nether by Jennifer Haley with MCC, You Got Older by Clare Barron with P73 Productions (Obie Award), Smokefall by Noah Haidle at The Goodman Theater and South Coast Rep, 100 Days a new musical by The Bengsons at Z Space in San Francisco, Your Mother’s Copy of the Kama Sutra by Kirk Lynn with Playwrights Horizons, The Muscles in Our Toes by Stephen Belber with the Labyrinth Theater Company. Other credits include: Lisa D’Amour’s Pulitzer Prize finalist play Detroit starring David Schwimmer and Amy Ryan at Playwrights Horizons (NY Times, New York Magazine, and TimeOut NY Top 10 Productions of 2012), Maple and Vine also at Playwrights Horizons, Somewhere Fun by Jenny Schwartz at the Vineyard Theater, Amy Herzog’s Belleville for Yale Rep, NY Theatre Workshop and Steppenwolf (Lortel Nomination for Best Director), Chloe Moss’ This Wide Night starring Edie Falco and Alison Pill for Naked Angels (Lortel Nomination for Best Director), the musical We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Adam Bock and Todd Almond with Yale Rep, Stunning by David Adjmi and Greg Pierce’s Slowgirl for LCT3, You Better Sit Down: Tales From My Parents’ Divorce with The Civilians at Williamstown, ArtsEmerson and The Flea, God’s Ear by Jenny Schwartz with New Georges and the Vineyard.
She is a Sundance Program Associate, a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, an alumna of the Soho Rep. Writers and Directors Lab, a current member of Soho Rep.’s Artistic Council, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, The Drama League of New York, a founding member of The Civilians, an Associate Artist with Clubbed Thumb and member of New Georges’ Kitchen Cabinet. From 2000-2006, Anne was on the directing faculty at NYU. She received her MFA in directing from UCSD, and a BA in Slavic Languages and Literature and Theater from Stanford University.
Anne’s awards include two Obie Awards, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Exceptional Creativity from Lincoln Center, the Alan Schneider Director Award, the Barrymore Award for Best Director, and a Lilly Award.
Photo by Evan Alexander
JANE COX is a lighting designer for theater, opera, dance and music based in Princeton, New Jersey. Designs in 2019 included The Marriage of Figaro at San Francisco Opera; Fefu and her Friends at Theater for a New Audience in NYC, directed by Princeton alumna Lileana Blain-Cruz; King Lear with Glenda Jackson on Broadway, directed by Sam Gold; a new musical adaptation of Secret Life of Bees (the design was nominated for a Drama Desk Award 2020); The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by fellow faculty member John Doyle; a theatrical adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates book Between The World and Me, directed by Kamilah Forbes and a revival of True West on Broadway, directed by British director James McDonald.
Projects postponed due to COVID included Assassins at Classic Stage Company in NYC; Three Sisters starring Greta Gerwig and Oscar Isaacs, at NYTW; and As You Like It for Shakespeare in the Park NYC, directed by Laurie Woolery.
Other exciting designs include Othello for the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park and Jitney on Broadway, both directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson; All the Way and Roe directed by Bill Rauch; Annie Baker’s The Flick, directed by Sam Gold; a new musical of Amelie, directed by Pam MacKinnon; Color Purple directed by John Doyle; and Hamlet directed by Lyndsey Turner (with Benedict Cumberbatch).
Jane has been nominated for two Tony awards, for her work on Jitney (2017) and on Machinal(2014). Jane has also been nominated for four Drama Desk awards and three Lortel awards, and in 2013, was awarded the Henry Hewes Design Award for her work on The Flick. In 2016, Jane was awarded the Ruth Morley Design Award by the League of Professional Theater Women, and a British What’s Onstage award for her work on Hamlet.
Jane has been a company member of the Monica Bill Barnes Dance Company for twenty years. Highlights of work with the company include Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host with Ira Glass; a museum workout at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, partly developed at the Princeton Art Museum, with illustrator Maira Kalman; and Happy Hour, a piece involving karaoke, cocktails and suits. Jane has long-standing collaborations with directors John Doyle, Sam Gold and Bill Rauch, among others. Jane has taught at NYU (Tisch School of the Arts) where she also got her MFA in theater design, at Vassar (drama department) and Sarah Lawrence (dance department) and has been teaching about light and theater design at Princeton University since 2007. Jane became Director of the Program in Theater in 2016.
