Jennifer Cox

Jennifer Cox is “one of the most popular directors” in Chicago’s storefront opera scene, directing classic works with “freshness and immediacy” (Chicago Theatre Review). With a background in straight theatre, her aim is to keep opera powerful, engaging, and—above all—relevant, by encouraging visceral, organic performances and utilizing contemporary settings with a social-justice focus whenever possible:

• A new work about the 1963 March on Washington, which interwove opera scenes with spoken monologues

• The first production of Madama Butterfly set in present­-day Kenya

• The first-ever theatrical staging of Mahler’s song cycle Das Lied von der Erde, with a through-line of personhood in the face of homelessness

• Hansel & Gretel set in a modern-day trailer park, with themes of the rich eating the poor

Her most recent production of New Moon Opera’s double comedy bill — Gianni Schicchi and Il Campanello — was hailed as “constantly surprising with [its] ingenuity” (Chicago Theatre Review) and “fantastically physical…in opposition to ‘park and bark’ style” (Scapi Magazine).

Last fall she directed the popular Patience and Sarah with Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, and for several years she was the director in residence with Main Street Opera, heading their productions of Madama Butterfly, Falstaff, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Hansel and Gretel, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi. Other credits, in both opera and theater include: Madam Butterfly with American Chamber Opera, The March: Concert and Mass Meeting, The Curate Shakespeare: As You Like It, Half Life, Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

Jennifer is also the creator of the late-night penguin musical Tuxedo Love, and she is an acting and movement coach and speech teacher.  

Next up: A contemporary, gender-bent concert production of Camelot, coming in Fall 2019 from Janus Concert Series. https://www.janusconcertseries.com/