Theater & Music Theater Faculty

Jane Cox

Jane Cox headshot

Photo by Evan Alexander

About

Jane Cox is a lighting designer for theater, opera, dance and music based in Princeton, New Jersey. She is currently lighting Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate on Broadway and Michael R. Jackson's and Anna K. Jacobs' Teeth at Playwrights Horizons. Recent designs include 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. In 2020, she received a special citation from the Henry Hewes Design Awards as part of the design team for María Irene Fornés' Fefu and Her Friends.

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.

News + Links

“Lit from Within” | Princeton Magazine

Jane Cox receives WhatsOnStage Award for Best Lighting Design | WhatsOnStage, February 21, 2016

Jane Cox receives the Ruth Morley Design Award | League of Professional Theatre Women, May 2, 2016

Jane Cox receives Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical for The Color Purple | Drama Desk Awards, 2016

“Light & Lighting Design in the Museum” | Princeton University Art Museum,

Jane Cox on LEDs, lighting design and the role of light in storytelling” | Discovery Research at Princeton magazine, November 27, 2017

This Othello Is Powered by Women” | New York Times, June 6, 2018

The arts take center stage in the entrepreneurial spotlight” | Princeton University, November 2, 2018

“The VIV NOMINEES — Jane Cox for Lighting Design, The Secret Life of Bees” | AUDELCO — Audience Development Committee, 2019

2019 AUDELCO’s VIV Award Nominations — Jane Cox for Lighting Design, The Secret Life of Bees| Playbill, October 15, 2019

2020 Drama Desk Nominations: Jane Cox for Lighting Design for a Musical, The Secret Life of Bees | Playbill, April 21, 2020

An Interview with Jane Cox | City Theatrical, April 30, 2020

4Wall Entertainment Sunday Roundtable, Episode 2, on Facebook Live — May 24, 2020

“Winners of 2020 Henry Hewes Design Awards Honored October 14” | Playbill, October 15, 2020

Preserving Black Theater Histories” — Theater Program + CLASSIX partnership receives Dean for Research Innovation Funding | Princeton University News, July 21, 2021

Bringing back Broadway: Princeton artists and students return to New York City theaters” | The Daily Princetonian, Nov. 28, 2021

Jane Cox on “How to design with light” | Irish Times, Jan. 2023

Symposium: Sound & Color — The Future of Race in Design | Park Avenue Armory, January 14-15, 2023

Video: Jane Cox Talks Music, Lighting Design + More with Princeton University Concerts | PUC on Facebook, February 2023

Lighting for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate on Broadway, November 2023 – March 2024

Lighting for Michael R Jackson and Anna K Jacobs Teeth at Playwrights Horizons, February 21 – March 31, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

Campus Address

Wallace Dance Building W318
Lewis Arts complex
122 Alexander Street

Email Address

janecox@princeton.edu