Although Jo Weingarten '98 dabbled in theater in high school, initially she didn't consider pursuing it at Dartmouth.
"I was going to an astrophysicist, and I'm leaving as a drama major," she said.
On a whim she tried out for a Dartmouth Drama Department production of "The Bald Soprano" her freshman Fall.
"I was surprised I got a part," she said. "After that I got sucked in by the Drama department. Happily sucked in."
While acting may have initially sparked her interest in the performing arts, Weingarten now focuses almost entirely on writing and directing plays.
Last year she won the Elinor Frost Award for best student written one-act play. The Frost award is given to three students each year. The award recipients then have the opportunity to direct their plays and see their work on stage for the first time.
Weingarten's one-act, "The Perfect Woman," focuses on a young woman with anorexia and her three friends.
"It took a long time to get used to people saying the words I had written," Weingarten said of the experience.
"It was also good to see how things translate from script to stage, what things worked, what things changed, and what things didn't work."
Last Winter Weingarten left for a Drama Foreign Study Program in London where she watched a total of 40 plays.
"I learned a lot from what I watched in London," she said. "I got to see pretty much everything."
Last summer she helped Professor James Loehlin direct Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" at Dartmouth, and in her home town of Houston she assisted Rob Bundy direct "Jack and Jill" by Jane Martin.
"[Loehlin and Bundy] have different styles, and I got to watch them both from beginning to end," Weingarten said. "I also got to bounce my ideas off of them, so it's made me a lot more confident."
As to her current projects, Weingarten is working on a one-act play titled "Moonlight," which she began in February in London.
"It seems to take me a long time to write. I go through periods when everything flows and periods when I need to take a rest," she said.
Although the subject matter of "Moonlight" remains somewhat nebulous, Weingarten has a positive feeling about the piece. "I can't tell you what its about, but I feel good about it," she said.
For her senior thesis, Weingarten is writing another one act. As of yet untitled, this play will deal with subjects of deep psychological, social and religious import.
The play will deal will Old-Testament descriptions of golems, men made of dust brought to life by inscribing the magical Tetra-grammaton into the mouth, and the Guff, the mystic hall of souls in Jewish folklore.
According to tradition, there are a finite number of souls in the Guff, and when the last child is born, Armageddon will ensue.
Weingarten is combining these themes with the sometimes unsettling modern-day magic of assisted reproduction and genetic engineering.
Weingarten will write her final play at Dartmouth this Fall. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in drama, either in California or New York.
