Performing Arts Professor Jane Cox keeps busy in the summer

By Julia Ferrell
ames247 Staff Writer

Students that know her may think Professor Jane Cox is busy during the school year, when she balances her Theater 106 lecture along with directing numerous plays for ISU Theater. But in the summer, relaxing in some tropical getaway is the last thing on Cox’s mind.

Currently, Cox is working on projects ranging from books to one-woman shows. Many of her original shows have been performed at venues across the nation, including the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian.

This Sunday, Cox will perform one of her solo shows, based on the life of Eleanor Roosevelt, at the Salisbury House in Des Moines.

While the campus began to clear out the week after finals, Cox spent the majority of her time grading exams. She will begin teaching her Theater 106 lecture in the second session of summer classes.

After finishing her undergraduate studies at Iowa State, Cox has been a faculty member for over 20 years. She has been involved in more than 250 productions, whether on stage or behind the scenes. Her first performance, in “The Belle of Amherst,” toured many states, as well as Russia.

When she is not acting, Cox focuses her free time on her 11 original plays and her current project: A book about Iowans in the Civil War. She hopes the book’s release in 2011 will coincide with the 150th anniversary of the start of the war in 1861.

Cox has some previous research experience with the Civil War, as one of her original plays, “Love and Hope”, focused on the same topic.

Another of Cox’s plays focused on Iowans in World War II, and her book, “Heroes Among Us,” was written along with it in 2001. The work consisted of interviews with World War II veterans and although student actors portrayed their roles in the show, the real soldiers were featured at the end of the play.

“I enjoy those two times in history,” Cox said of her topic choices. “[The Civil War and World War II] were defining events for our country.”

Although her original work mainly focuses on history and famous Iowans, her first ISU Theater show in October will be Tennessee Williams’ “Orpheus Descending,” a modern twist on the Greek myth of “Orpheus,” the poet and musician.

Shortly after finishing the summer term, the show’s first practices will begin the day before fall semester kicks off.

Along with preparing for her first show of the year, Cox hopes to make progress on her latest book. But these two large tasks are nothing compared to her major goal for the summer.

“I’m cleaning my office!” Cox said, laughing as she looked around at the stacks of papers on her floor. “But sleeping is nice, too.”