CUArts’s Mosher builds ‘Bridge’ between Columbians and Broadway theater

Gregory Mosher lives a double life.

As the director of Columbia’s Arts Initiative and of the current Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge”—which opened on Jan. 24, starring Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson—Mosher is juggling both jobs, letting one inform the other.

“I used to work on the art,” Mosher said. “Now I am focused on finding the next generation of audiences.”

Summoning audience members with a variety of interests to the theater has been Mosher’s main concern during the Arts Initiative’s first five years, in which time the institution consolidated ticket-buying for campus group productions at one box office and paved the way for Columbia students to experience New York theater culture by offering heavy ticket discounts.

“No university has ever had anything like this before,” Mosher said, referring to CUArts. As unique as the program is, the future plans of the organization—which is nearing its 200,000th ticket sold—are in question in light of last week’s announcement that CUArts is facing a 30 percent budget cut next year on top of the 10 percent cut implemented this year.

“We are still working on how we are going to do that and keep the Arts Initiative alive,” he said.

But Mosher, a man who values the ideas of others over his own, is quick to ask for assistance, especially from the Columbia student body.

“Everybody in this office has ideas, but we’re just 10 or 12 people,” he said. “There are 25,000 students here, and among you, you will have better ideas and more useful ideas and more productive ideas than the ideas the 10 or 12 of us can generate.”

Even with the fate of CUArts unknown, Mosher remains optimistic. He approaches directing the organization with as much energy and enthusiasm as he does the plays he directs. Over the course of his career, Mosher’s passion for all things theater helped pioneer the Chicago theater movement of the 1970s and rejuvenated a floundering Lincoln Center Theater in the 1980s, during which time he produced 37 plays, three of which garnered him Tony Award nominations.

Mosher’s directing style is notoriously unobtrusive, allowing actors to make natural discoveries and letting the text speak for itself. “I’ve always been writer-centric,” he said. “I’ve never thought that plays were an excuse to do something interesting. I always thought your [the director’s] job was to do the play as well as you could do it.”

This notion is especially true when the playwright is of the caliber of Arthur Miller, whom Mosher knew personally. He cites his respect for Miller as one of the reasons he chose “A View From the Bridge” as the vehicle with which he would make his return to Broadway after a 17-year absence. “I think I always knew I would direct it someday—somewhere deep in the subconscious,” Mosher said.

When trying to choose the show, he said, “I narrowed a list of a couple hundred plays down to 10, and then I thought, ‘Well, if I could cast “A View From the Bridge,” that would be fun.’”

Schreiber, a Broadway veteran and friend of Mosher’s, was the first actor to be contacted. He was cast as Eddie, the main character. Both men thought film star—but Broadway rookie—Johansson would be an ideal Catherine, who serves as the catalyst for much of the drama. Both actors, as well as the production itself, have received almost unanimously positive reviews.

But even though Mosher has directed yet another success, he is still very much focused on Broadway’s uncertain future.

“No one has figured out what’s next. American theater … has always been a young person’s game. I think you have to make the theater you want to make,” Mosher said. “You have to take what’s useful from theater history and be inspired by the performances that you see, but you have to be willing to say, ‘I’m sorry, but this is boring nonsense and I can do better.’”

And to Mosher, this daunting challenge is a reasonable one. “I have great faith in you guys, in young people, to create something new,” he said. “But I do feel that something new has to be created, because I think the old thing is old and doesn’t work anymore.

“Go do it,” he said, in an artistic call to arms. “Just go do it.”

Tags: Arts & Entertainment, Steven Strauss