Theater faculty member Jane Cox and Princeton alum Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ’06 were honored at the 68th Annual Drama Desk Awards, which recognize the best of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions.
Professor Jane Cox, Director of the Program in Theater & Music Theater at Princeton University. Photo by Jon Sweeney
Jane Cox, Professor of the Practice and Director of the Program in Theater & Music Theater, won the award for Outstanding Lighting Design of a Play for Appropriate. In a recent interview with Broadway World about the design for Appropriate, Cox says she utilized “contrast and darkness as well as intense brightness to modulate the audience mood.” Cox also notes, “I really enjoyed finding ways to get the audience to really listen—from the careful use of darkness to subtle ‘close-up’ lighting that really focuses on actors’ faces in the most intensely personal moments.”
Award-winning writer, producer, and current Lewis Center Advisory Council member Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ’06 is the playwright for Appropriate, which won the award for Outstanding Revival of a Play.
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ’06. Photo courtesy MacArthur Foundation
Called “easily the most electrifying Broadway play of 2023” by TheatreMania, Jenkins’ Appropriate follows a dysfunctional family picking up the pieces of their recently-passed father’s estate in Arkansas. Uncovering the past brings up age-old resentment, which the family must work through.
Appropriate was one of the most-nominated productions at the Drama Desk Awards this year with a total of seven nominations. Besides the award wins for Cox and Jacobs-Jenkins, Appropriate also took home a win in a third category—Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play—for Sarah Paulson. Appropriate also boasts eight nominations for the 2024 Tony Awards, which will be determined on June 16.
Held this year at The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the Drama Desk Awards honor all aspects of New York’s professional theater and are voted on by 100 New York theater critics, journalists, and arts editors. The Drama Desk was founded in 1949 to explore key issues in the theater and to bring together critics and writers in an organization to support the ongoing development of theater in New York. The organization first began presenting its awards in 1955.
View all 2024 Drama Desk Award winners
Banner image: The set and lighting design of the play, Appropriate, at the Belasco Theatre. Photo by Joan Marcus / Lighting & Sound America.
