Josh Gladstone has served as Artistic Director of the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall since 2000 where most recently he directed Alec Baldwin, Blair Underwood and Rob Morrow in the comedy Stan The Man by Eugene Pack, and acted alongside Mercedes Ruehl and F. Murray Abraham in Jules Feiffer’s A Bad Friend, an evening celebrating the playwright’s 90th birthday. At the Drew he’s directed and produced such plays as Romeo & Juliet, Extinction, Steve Martin’s The Underpants, All My Sons starring Laurie Metcalf and Alec Baldwin; Clever Little Lies starring Marlo Thomas; Tony Walton’s productions of Tonight at 8:30 starring Blythe Danner, Equus starring Alec Baldwin and Moby Dick Rehearsed starring Peter Boyle; and The Glass Menagerie starring Amy Irving. Regional credits include Children’s Theatre Co.; Shakespeare Theatre, DC; and four seasons as Artistic Director of Hamptons Shakespeare Festival.

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THE CREATIVE PROCESS

So we're here backstage at the John Drew Theater in Guild Hall. Just tell me a little bit about how you came to direct for Guild Hall and some of your recent projects.

JOSH GLADSTONE

Well, thanks. Thanks for asking. I'm the artistic director of the John Drew Theater, which is a 360 seat proscenium stage at Guild Hall. Guild Hall is an Arts Center that's been here since 1931. It's a museum, a theater, and an education center. And it serves the community year-round. We do plays, we do concerts, we produce work, we present work. We partner with artists. We make the space available. We do everything from concerts and staged readings. We do dance performances. And since the year 2000, I have been the producer here and have basically been involved in every project, in some way or another, that has gone across the stage for the last 19 seasons or whatever it is. Talking about creative process, having mostly had experience in theater and acting, a little bit of directing at the Shakespeare Festival, a little bit of producing, working at Guild Hall, I've had a chance, and you can see the pictures in the office and the pictures that were taken backstage.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Oh, the people you've worked with!

GLADSTONE

It's been an incredible adventure meeting with all kinds of people.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Let's just talk about some of the photos you have here, and your experience working with these actors.

GLADSTONE

Well, in this office, there's pictures of Nathan Lane and Mario Cantone and Kathleen Chalfant and Joy Behar and Danny Glover. Mandy Patinkin is over there, underneath Blythe Danner. These are all the headshots. Liza Minnelli is up there. James Earl Jones is over there. Spalding Gray, who lived in the Hamptons. Harris Yulin's picture is here. Harris has been a tremendously useful director to know and work with because he's so well-connected in the industry. He's got such a long career.

And he himself is–I've produced shows for him. We did The Glass Menagerie with Amy Irving and Ebon Moss-Bacharach a few years ago. That was right after we renovated because when I got here the place was a disaster, structurally. And Ruth and the board wanted to renovate it because really, I mean, you could walk in the theater and put your hand right through the seat. It was so rotten and old and everything was falling apart.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Well, it's beautiful, I mean, we were just out there. It's a beautiful house. And to think that visitors have the opportunity to see all these greats in this kind of–it's not the same, if you see them out in the city or whatever. It just seems this, it does feel like a family, a community...There are others over here. We have, Alan Alda we have...

GLADSTONE

Roy Scheider. Peter Boyle did. One of the last plays that Peter Boyle did. We did a production that Tony Walton directed, which was Moby Dick–Rehearsed. Tony directed and Peter played Ahab. And that was one of the first big plays that we did here back in 2005. There were a handful of plays we did before that. There's posters on the wall, Macbeth. When I got here, I started to do some of the Shakespeare plays, working sometimes with kids from the community and professional artists. Michael Nathanson played Hamlet with us in 2005. Shortly before, we did Moby Dick–Rehearsed.

But Alec Baldwin, Eric Bogosian is up there. Geoffrey Tambor, Melissa Errico, there's Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach, who lived in East Hampton about two blocks from here. They were involved in the John Drew Theater from the 60s, 70s, 80s, all through much of their life. They were lifetime performers at Guild Hall, always in the summer doing a little something. And I was lucky enough...Eli, you know, he worked up until his 90s, and he was still working, as sharp as a tack. So we had the pleasure getting to know him.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

And even Laurie Anderson.

GLADSTONE

Laurie Anderson, Leslie Odom Jr. from Hamilton was here a couple of years ago. Judd Hirsch, Charles Durning. I got a chance to drive in my car with Charles Durning and Jack Klugman. You know, Jack Klugman from The Odd Couple. And the two guys were in the back of my Toyota. And, you know, having studied in the Circle and the Square and worked in the city in the basement and been the hindquarters of Babar. And then the next surreal couple of years later, I'm driving around the Hamptons with Charles Durning and Jack Klugman, who were two character actors that I admired all my life. It was a surreal experience.

And I've been very fortunate that for 20 years I've been the steward of this place and been able to interact with these incredible artists and have a life in the arts. Now that my son has grown up, and he's gone off to college in Emerson. I don't know what the future holds. He's had his life growing up here playing in the oceans, in the bays and being around here.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

What a great foundation.

GLADSTONE

A great foundation! And my wife and I kind of look at each other in the empty nest and say, "Okay, we raised him. He's a big guy. What do we do now?"

But I, you know, I salute her because she's taking her work out of The Hamptons and doing stuff in Berlin and Finland and New York and so... Now I have to think maybe I want to do some work, too that, you know, as much as I've enjoyed being here and having this experience. So, who knows? We'll see.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

And so, as a director and also as a performer, how do those two activities inform each other? I'm interested in the casting process, the rehearsal process. You know, what you look for in actors or in building an ensemble. And then the experience of being an actor.

GLADSTONE

Well, I think that there's a holistic quality to being a theater artist. In the old days, you had theater managers and they were everything. You look back at Shakespeare's day, they wrote, they produced, they traveled, they got their funds from patrons. They were actor-managers.

And the era of the actor-manager has probably passed, but in a curious way, I feel like I've been living that life as an actor-manager because I will both act, direct or produce and they all inform each other. You know, they're all part of the same creative language. And I think, having been an actor and first and foremost loving being an actor, I think I know how to speak and communicate with other actors at various levels.

Whether they're very established or whether they're kids coming up who have just an interest and, hopefully, what I look for as a director, are actors that have that spark of energy, that curiosity, the imagination and playfulness, that they want to jump in and learn and work. And they're not shy, they're brave and they're bright and they're willing to be part of a collaborative, an ensemble experience.

When I'm directing, it's often not just about the credits on the resumé, but it's about that energy and that passion that they may bring to a project. That's why I like particularly working with younger actors who are starting out in their career. They're coming at it with...they're not jaded.

But I also love working with seasoned professionals because it's always a joy to see great artists who are so in control of their instruments, who are able to summon forth their emotions with such ease and who are able to play with language in such a nuanced way that it's always a joy to work with–you know, the commonality is the love of the process. So I hope to engender that with artists that I work with. And I hope to be inspired by artists I work with. I look for those who inspire me. And I find that in the rehearsal room, the best work comes from letting artists really explore and play and be free. And then you start to shape the clay and form. You don't have the performance set until very late in, at least in my process, allowing a lot of fluidity to happen along the way.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Emma Veon. Assignment Editor was Sorella Lark. Digital Media Coordinator is Camille Montilino. “Winter Time” was composed by Nikolas Anadolis and performed by the Athenian Trio.