Art & Dine Series featuring Josh Gladstone and Dawn Watson at The Living Room

The Living Room Restaurant at c/o The Maidstone announces the next in the dinner series called Art & Dine at The Living Room.  The series features special dinners highlighting guest artists, writers, musicians and more.  The next dinner in the series will be held on Tuesday, April 19th and will feature artistic director at Guild Hall Josh Gladstone being interviewed by Southampton Press Features Editor Dawn Watson.  The evening will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a meet and greet with the special guests followed by a prix fixe dinner of two courses prepared by Executive Chef James Carpenter with a cookie plate for dessert and a glass of wine.  After dinner, Dawn Watson will lead a lively discussion with Josh Gladstone.  The cost of the evening is $36 per person, plus tax and gratuity.

About Josh Gladstone

Josh Gladstone is a perfect Renaissance man -- he acts, produces, directs, sells tickets, moves sets, paints scenery and even does clean up. He is artistic director of Guild Hall's John Drew Theater since 2000, and also happens to be married to the actress Kate Mueth.  Josh backed into doing theater in the Hamptons about ten years ago when he was between acting jobs and visiting his cousins David and Neal Brandenburg one winter weekend at the family's Amagansett home. After graduating from Colgate with honors in art history and English, he went on to do some graduate work. "I had acted in college and loved theater, so I got a small apartment in Manhattan and did odd jobs while studying at Circle in the Square [the well-regarded Off Broadway theater company].

Gladstone and his younger brother Dan and cousins the Brandenburgs, started the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival. With donations from parents and friends, a grant from the Suffolk County Department of the Arts and assistance from their unemployed actor friends, they opened a full production of Romeo and Juliet, with music, in the summer of 1997.

Gladstone has developed good working relations with "local" professionals Harris Yulin, Roy Scheider, Mercedes Ruehl, Tony Walton, Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Robert Wilson, Dina Merrill, Steven Hamilton and Emma Walton. He also started a summer theater affiliation with Mitzi and Perry Pazer's Playwrights Theatre of East Hampton to co-produce staged readings of new and classic plays with professional actors.

In 2002, he met Josh Perl, an original member of the Pilobolus dance troupe who was doing graduate work at Southampton College. Perl had started Naked Stage, an informal cooperative of local writers, artists and actors meeting bi-weekly during the winter to read plays. In 2003, Gladstone invited Naked Stage to do its off-season readings at the John Drew and opened the readings to the public, free of charge. Naked Stage is now a contributor and source of talent for the John Drew Theater.

In his years at JDT, Josh has selected, produced, directed and/or worked on more than two dozen shows, including Robert Wilson's Persephone, and staged readings of Joe Pintauro's Beside Herself, The Price (with Harris Yulin, Eli Wallach and Alec Baldwin), Don Juan in Hell (Ed Asner, Dianne Wiest, Harris Yulin, Paul Hecht), Golf with Alan Shepard (Dan Lauria, Jack Klugman, Charles Durning, Peter Boyle, Len Cariou), Murray Schisgal's Pushcart Peddlers and Regret (Judd Hirsch, Estelle Parsons, Lewis J. Stadlen), Leftover Stories to Tell: A Spalding Gray Tribute (Hazelle Goodman, Richard Gere, Carey Lowell), Viva La Vida! (Mercedes Ruehl, Jeffrey Tambor) and The Exonerated (Mia Farrow, Billy Dee Williams).

About Dawn Watson

Dawn Watson is the Features Editor for the Press News Group, which publishes the Southampton Press (Eastern and Western editions), the East Hampton Press and 27east.com. Her responsibilities include oversight and management of the Arts, Residence and Round & About sections and she is the host of the "5 Questions" web series on 27east.com. Additionally, she continues to write features and take photos for The Press whenever the subject matter strikes her fancy--particularly when the story involves a juicy arts story, house and garden tour or fun-filled event. She also writes a weekly community column for The Press and is a frequent guest on Bonnie Grice's "Eclectic Café" on 88.3 Peconic Public Broadcasting.

An award-winning journalist and photographer, Ms. Watson recently earned first place honors for "Best Home/Real Estate Section" in 2010 and first place for "Best Use of Color" in 2010 at the statewide New York Press Association awards, held in April 2011 in Saratoga, New York. She has also earned first place recognition for "Most Comprehensive News Story" and first place honors for "Art Photo" from the New York Press Association for her work in previous years.