Tomorrow marks the beginning of the annual Eleanor Frost Play Festival here at Dartmouth College. The Festival has been going on for 71 years running and is one of the greatest expositions of artistic talent we have here.
The festival is named for Dartmouth mother Eleanor Frost. 71 years ago she bequeathed an amount of money to the school in the name of her son, a playwright, who had recently died. She wanted it to go to young playwrights here at the College who would put on plays that were written, directed and performed by Dartmouth students.
The Festival has become an important annual tradition here. Three plays are chosen from the many submissions to be performed. This year's featured playwrights are Kristina Hagstrom '98, Nicole Savickas '00 and Jo Weingarten '98. They have been working for quite some time now to get their plays ready. I had the opportunity to sit down with Weingarten, Hagstrom and the director of her play, Lisa Bianchi '00, and talk to them about their upcoming performances.
All term the writers, directors, actors and other participants in the Frost plays have been taking a full class in which they work on their plays. Drama chair Paul Gaffney teaches it. "It's more an opportunity for us all to talk about how we're doing with the plays," Weingarten said. "We're really doing all the work on our own."
At the beginning of last term, Hagstrom was inspired to write her play, "Mabel, Edna and the tiresome Mr. Smith," all in one sitting. Unlike most of the other entrants in the festival, Hagstrom is not majoring in drama. Instead, she is pursuing a double major in music and French. She is, however, a veteran actor.
One of the things Hagstrom enjoyed most about her involvement in the Eleanor Frost Play Festival was being on the other side of the performance. "It was really different to be involved in the creative side of the process," she said. Bianchi agreed, "It's very cool to be part of the entire process, rather than just one acting part."
Both writer and director thought that working together was one of the most enjoyable parts of the experience. "Usually, I'm the kind of person who can't show something to anybody until it's totally completed," Hagstrom said, "but with this play, Lisa and I had to rewrite and rework constantly... because I wrote it so quickly, it definitely was a work in progress. Also, it was really interesting to see Bianchi interpret my work."
The "tagline" (if it can be called that) for "Mabel, Edna and the tiresome Mr. Smith," is "Two women, one love letter, five narcoleptic somnambulists and which Mr. Smith wants to 'do it'." And if that doesn't intrigue you, nothing will.
Weingarten, on the other hand, has written several plays. In fact, "Moonset" is her second Frost win. This particular play did not come easily. "I started it around January of last year. It wasn't going anywhere, so I put it down for a while. This year I figured out what it was about and finished it quickly," Weingarten said.
Weingarten is a drama major and hopes to pursue a career in writing for the stage. She is going to be a literary intern at the Manhattan Theater Club next year. In addition to her two Frost winners and a few others, she is particularly proud of her full-length play, "Gemini," which also served as her thesis. It was presented in the winter.
"Moonset" is directed by Amy Thomas '99, also a drama major. Weingarten found it hard to describe "Moonset." "It's about a 20-year-old woman named Nomi with a mother and father who've given her a dysfunctional family," she said. "It's a really hard question though ... some playwright said 'I can't summarize my play, my play summarizes my play.'" Oh.
Still, her festival comrades help her out. "It's about going home and about leaving home, right Jo?" Hagstrom said. Weingarten agreed.
"It's so much easier to describe someone else's play than your own," Hagstrom laughed. "You just get so wrapped up in it," Weingarten concurred.
The last Frost winner is "A Portrait," written by Nicole Savickas '00 and directed by Mary Albert '98. Savickas is a creative writing major. Last fall Savickas was in a class where she had to write a scene for an assignment. Her final was to write another or to expand that scene into a one act play. That scene became "A Portrait," about couples wandering a museum, looking at the pictures and talking about how they reflect the lives of the couples.
The Frost Play Festival this year showcases some of the best creative talent this school has to offer. Check out the hard work these women have done and you'll not only be amazed, but entertained. The show starts tonight and will run tomorrow and Saturday night as well.
