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[caption id="attachment_47293" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The Neo Political Cowgirls "Voyeur" premiered at the JDTheater Lab in 2014. Tom Kochie photo.[/caption]
By Dawn Watson
When it comes to theatrical drama, Josh Gladstone likes to keep his colleagues close and his community even closer.
In his role as Artistic Director of the John Drew Theater, Mr. Gladstone makes it a point to not only support the work of the big names who come to the stage at Guild Hall in East Hampton but to also remain a fervent advocate and strong ally for those local talents who are still trying to get a foot in the door. Thanks to his creation of the John Drew Theater Lab two years ago, he’s been systematically building a tight community for up-and-coming writers and artists and the East End audiences who love them.
The JDTLab, as it’s less formally known, is a place for directors, musicians, playwrights, choreographers, actors, singers and local performing arts companies to try out their creations here in the Hamptons before a live audience. The workshop format is all about supporting local talent by offering them the space and the resources to present a one-night showcase, as well as to cultivate an audience for their work. The free programs are presented a dozen times a year on select Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m.
“The goal of the Lab serves a couple of different functions,” says Mr. Gladstone. “It’s a place for new plays and theatrical material from artists in the area and also for those artists who want to tackle the plays.”
Next up, on Tuesday, January 26, is an example of the latter. A pair of young East End actors approached Mr. Gladstone about putting up a reading of Gabe McKinley’s full-length completed play, “Extinction.”
In the JDTLab reading, the dark and edgy drama, published in 2009, will star Raye Levine, Kelsey Torstveit, Jon Kovach and Sawyer Spielberg. The latter two actors recently shared the stage with Mr. Gladstone during a Literature Live! production of “Of Mice and Men” at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. Megan Minutillo, whose “Staged Reading: H …, A New Play” will be performed through the JDTLab in September 2016, will direct.
“I was blown away by this evil, sharp, brutal piece,” says Mr. Gladstone of the “Extinction” table read he recently sat in for. “And the cast has the talent for it. It should be a good one.”
Another upcoming JDTLab will hit even closer to home when former Sag Harbor resident Holly Goldstein directs a staged reading of “Perfect Fifths” by Dan Rider. Ms. Goldstein, who was in virtually every Pierson production during her time as a student there, directed her final high school theatrical production, “The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds,” during her senior year in 2011. The show won a slew of awards at the ninth annual TEENY Awards.
The New York University alum now lives in Brooklyn with Mr. Rider but has returned to her East End roots with some regularity. Most recently she assisted director Stephen Hamilton on “All My Sons” on the Guild Hall stage and has also performed stage-managing duties for the Young Artists and Writers Project at Stony Brook Southampton.
The young director learned of the opportunity to workshop “Perfect Fifths” at JDTLab while acting as assistant director for Kate Mueth’s “Eve” production last year. Mr. Rider served as the sound technician for that show.
“We had a great talk about my future as a theater maker,” remembers Ms. Goldstein of the discussion she had with Ms. Mueth, who is the founder and artistic director of the Neo-Political Cowgirls dance theater company. Afterwards, getting her presentation for “Perfect Fifths” in front of the artistic director for Guild Hall wasn’t too much of a stretch, says Ms. Goldstein, since he was also acting in “Eve” and is married to Ms. Mueth. “We were able to present the show to him and he said ‘yes!’”
“Perfect Fifths,” according to Ms. Goldstein, is a musical exploration into the ways that people relate to others. In it, the main character, Sam, is out of sorts in the world until she meets, Rose, her cello, who helps her to find her meaning.
Going deeper, Mr. Rider explains that the musical is “inspired by struggling with depression and exploring sexuality, with the cello being a kind of intersection between beauty and emptiness.”
Told by a cast of five—including three actors who will voice the parts of people and two who will personify musical instruments—and including musical styles from classical to punk rock, the show is “an allegory for finding your music in life,” says Mr. Gladstone.
Now in their third draft of “Perfect Fifths,” Ms. Goldstein and Mr. Rider are hoping that their workshop at Guild Hall will help them to polish the piece and get it to performance level.
Ms. Mueth, whose next JDTLab production, “Andromeda,” will stage on March 22, is rooting for her fellow creatives. And if her experiences can be used an indicator, she says that those who utilize the program should benefit greatly from the opportunity.
“The JDT Lab has been extremely helpful … as a place to offer ‘sneak peeks’ for audiences into the early stages and development of new work,” says Ms. Mueth. “The feedback we get and our chance to observe audience involvement … offers tremendous guidance as to how we proceed. This opportunity is immeasurable in its importance in the process.”
The benefits aren’t just for the people who make dramatic art, says Mr. Gladstone. For theatergoers who come to view the work, there’s always an opportunity to catch something great before it gets to the mainstream, he says.
“Not only is it something fun to do that’s free,” he says. “There are actual moments of brilliance.”
View the entire JDTLab schedule for 2016 on the Guild Hall website at www.guildhall.org
