This is Jane Cox's third Tony Award nomination, she was previously honored for her work on Jitney, 2017 and Machinal, 2014. She is based in Princeton, New Jersey, where she has taught light and theater design at Princeton University since 2007, becoming director of the Program in Theater in 2016.
Some of her notable designs include The Marriage of Figaro at San Francisco Opera, 2019; King Lear with Glenda Jackson on Broadway, directed by Sam Gold; a new musical adaptation of The 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; and a theatrical adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates' book Between The World and Me, directed by Kamilah Forbes.
About her Tony Awarded-nominated work on Macbeth.
Production: Macbeth, Broadway, March 29-July 10, 2022
Collaborators
- Director: Sam Gold
- Set designer: Christine Jones
- Costume designer: Suttirat Larlarb
- Sound designer: Mikaal Sulaiman
- Composer: Gaelynn Lea
- Movement: Sam Pinkleton
- Special FX: Jeremy Chernick
What was your intent with the design, and where did your inspiration come from?
The design took inspiration from rage rooms, from the artist Judy Chicago, and from the concerts of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. (Instagram: @wearepussyriot) The core idea is that theater crafts are just like witchcraft; we want to show the range of the witchcraft inherent in lighting and sound and atmospheric possibilities. We want to highlight the magic and witchcraft of the actors - through having them change from one character to another in front of the audience, and through the actors taking control of the handheld lighting and fog machines to manipulate the stage picture themselves. We want the visual world to alternately threaten and surprise and to always keep pushing us forward energetically. The color palette and the energy is part punk show, part horror movie and part 70s feminist art.
What gear to you rely on for your design choices?
We relied on a range of LED equipment that can put out very pure reds, greens and blues; there is a lot of color saturation in the show. We relied on the X-bars to play a lot of roles - from audience sweeps to blinding to crackling witchy light effects. Their versatility is amazing. We used Mac Auras as downlights and boom lights along with Chauvet PROFESSIONAL Colorados and Lustr 2s. We build custom flashlights using Gantom Ones and custom handheld smoke machines using Gantom 7s, in collaboration with Jeremy Chernick and Pete Sarafin, the props designer.
The biggest challenge, without a doubt, was COVID. We essentially lost our preview rehearsal period because of COVID absences. Given the complexity of the show, it's a miracle that we integrated the technical elements into the show at all. The rhythm of the process was completely disrupted. We lost so much time with the actors that even the director went onstage to play a role one evening when we had no more understudies available!
What do you think made this design so successful?
The team that I worked with made the design successful. Tess James and Bailey Costa were the lighting associates, Kevin Barry was our production electrician and Alyssa Eilbott was our programmer. I'm proud that both Bailey and Alyssa are two women who were taking on larger roles on a new Broadway show for the first time. I think we had the best team on Broadway.
Additionally, I was lucky enough to work with a fierce and generous team of artists in my fellow designers and the two Sams (Gold and Pinkleton) as well as the most supportive, creative and imaginative group of actors. I wish we had had more time to integrate all the many ideas from the rehearsal room into the final show, but the pandemic had other plans. I still feel very grateful for having had the opportunity to make this show happen in this really challenging time. We got to explore a lot of exciting theatrical ideas.