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[0:06] Gordon Cox: Welcome to Stagecraft, Variety's Theater Podcast, bringing you backstage and behind the scenes with stars, creators, and industry leaders on Broadway and beyond.

[0:16] Gordon Cox: I'm Gordon Cox.

[0:18] Gordon Cox: On this episode of Stagecraft, I'm talking to Gregg Mozgala and Kara Young, two actors now on Broadway in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Martina Majok's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Cost of Living.

[0:31] Gordon Cox: Mozgala, also a dancer and a disability advocate, has appeared in shows including Teenage Dick and Shakespeare on the Park's recent Richard III.

[0:39] Gordon Cox: While Young was Tony-nominated last season for her Broadway debut in the Lynn Nottage comedy Clydes.

[0:45] Gordon Cox: In Cost of Living, Mozgala plays John, a wealthy graduate student with cerebral palsy.

[0:50] Gordon Cox: It's a role that the actor, who also has cerebral palsy, originated in three previous productions of the play.

[0:56] Gordon Cox: In the Broadway staging, Young plays Jess, the young woman John hires to be his caregiver.

[1:01] Gordon Cox: The two are now in the virtual studio with me to talk intimacy, connection, and making sure the water's warm when you're showering on stage.

[1:10] Gordon Cox: Hi Kara, Greg. Thanks for joining me.

[1:12] Kara Young: So great to be here.

[1:13] Gregg Mozgala: Thank you, Gordon.

[1:14] Gordon Cox: I wonder if we could start by just talking a bit about how each of you got involved in this show. First of all, Greg, you've been involved in Cost of Living pretty much since the beginning, it seems like. How and when did you first become attached?

[1:30] Gregg Mozgala: Well, the play started as two one acts, essentially. The Eddie and Ani stories and the Jess and John stories. And so I was in the Jess and John one act. It was originally called John, who just moved here from Cambridge, and it was presented at Ensemble Studio Theater as part of their monthly brunch series, where they have this boozy bacon and pancake brunch, you know, where they present a series of one acts. So we did it there, you know, with like a chair, a cup, and a bucket. And you know, you could tell right away it was pretty amazing. It was gangbusters even then. And then I've just been involved through the development process, you know, through all the different iterations and productions, and what a great journey and gift as an actor to see something from, yeah, as you said, pretty much inception all the way to where we are now.

[2:28] Gordon Cox: And so you did the show.

[2:30] Gregg Mozgala: Yeah, exactly.

[2:31] Gordon Cox: So you did the show at EST, and then it was at the Williamstown, and then it was off-Broadway in MTC production. Kara, you're new as of this production. Tell me about when you got involved.

[2:44] Kara Young: I auditioned for it, and I had my callback with Greg and the rest is history.

[2:52] Kara Young: Yeah. I mean, the callback was really just a formality, in my mind, I'll say.

[2:58] Gordon Cox: For both of you, what do you remember about really responding to your roles? Like what did you feel like you really connected with? Greg, I guess let's start with you since you first connected with the role.

[3:13] Gregg Mozgala: Sure. Well, so I was born with cerebral palsy, which is what John, the character, is dealing with. He has a much more severe case. And you know, it's very rare that you see disabled representation in theater, film, and television, particularly done so well, so thoughtfully and compassionately. And so that was really appealing to me. You know, Martina had crafted a real human on the page, and the fact that I was gonna have a chance to embody that, and the fact that I could bring my full lived experience to a character, which is something that I often grapple with in roles that aren't necessarily disabled, etc., was really appealing. I was really drawn to that, beyond just the brilliance of Martina's writing. It was really like this incredible human story that I was drawn in by.

[4:24] Gordon Cox: Can you expand a little bit more on what you look for in terms of thoughtful representation, like what is often missing and what you feel like this achieves?

[4:34] Gregg Mozgala: Sure. Well, I think there are three kind of pervasive narratives around disability in popular culture. They're overcoming adversity, being a font of inspiration, or dying with dignity. And oftentimes those characters don't have a lot of agency or voice. So I feel like this play really counters that or challenges that because you're presenting a full human being who's in the daily struggle for their life and who isn't necessarily perfect. And he's in relationship to other people in the world, particularly in this play, you know, Jess, played by Kara. So it's a feeling there's a sense of a real human integrated into the world, dealing with what they're dealing with, and it comes up when it comes up, and then they're just like anybody else, you know, he's just living his life trying to get by through the world.

And that was, again, that alone in 2022 is kind of a radical experimental act. So I think that's why for me, and I think even early on in this preview process, I feel audiences are really responding to that.

[5:47] Gordon Cox: And then Kara, what do you remember really connecting with in your part?

[5:52] Kara Young: I remember connecting with the play. Like when I first read the play, I felt there were moments where I had full, like the amount of frequency of emotions just kind of went through my body and it's like the whole spectrum of what you can feel. Particularly, I mean, I knew I was going in for Jess, so I had like a different light bulb on that story. But you know, the first-generation American experience is, you know, could be very universal at times and what hard work means and what survival means and what it means to feel like you have a great responsibility to take care of your own in a way, and that it really does fall on your shoulders to uplift and continue legacy in some kind of way. And also just, you know, the story of survival, you know, I've found that in a lot of the characters that I've had the honor of stepping into these roles.

They are incredibly resilient women who are, you know, moment to moment, day to day surviving as best as they could, you know, with dignity. And sometimes pride is at the very last thought, but they push forward. So I think Jess's story, and I'm still finding new stories around Jess's story to fill her, and I'm gonna be doing that to the very end of trying to honor this person, this very real person that represents a lot of us first-gen Americans in this country who, you know, the immigrant story is almost like a story of no reward. And I feel like Jess definitely embodies those worlds, like, you know, we do hard work with often no reward, no acknowledgment of the hard work and the labor that goes down.

[8:36] Gregg Mozgala: I would say the play is also incredibly funny, you know, Martina's humor sings through. And even in our sort of like author's note, you know, the script says there's no room for sentimentality in this play, but there is room for humor. And I think that's what's so great. Like the laughter between the characters and, you know, from the audience is just, there's a ton of it, you know, even though the play is dealing with these heavy subjects, you know, there's so much humor, there's so much heart in this play, and that was immediate from first read, like jumping off the page, which is also really exciting. The play is structured really interestingly. Greg, you mentioned that it started as two separate one acts, and you can sort of see that in the way the show moves along.

It's like these two parallel stories in a way, the story between John and Jess, which is the story you two are telling on stage, and then the other story with two other actors, and they sort of only intersect at the very end. What do you feel like John and Jess's arc is about, and how do you feel like it contributes to what the play overall is about for you?

[9:36] Gregg Mozgala: I think the difference between Eddie and Ani are a married couple, right? But they're estranged, they're separating, they've been brought together through circumstance because of Annie's car accident, which has left her a quadriplegic, right? Jess and John are meeting for the first time. They're new. It's almost like there's this kind of first date quality to their relationship, and they have to figure out how to work together. They have to build this not only like a verbal vocabulary but also a physical vocabulary based on John's needs and that care relationship. And I think that the care relationship runs throughout the play, I think through both stories hugely. And I think there are all these echoes in the scenes, you know, words like basics and please, and you know, they're just these little things that Martina has sort of expertly threaded through echoes from the various couples, right?

That, as you said, don't intersect to the end. And I think that's, I think it's what runs through is the universal need for human connection and for interdependency. I think that is what, again, that's what makes the play so relatable, I think, and so powerful is that like anybody watching the audience, anybody, I think all of us on stage, even embodying these characters, understand what that is because we're all human, we're all flesh and blood, you know. We've all had people in our life deal with illness, deal with pain, deal with death, deal with trauma in varying degrees. So we get to bring all of that, you know, to bear in sharing this particular story night after night.

[11:45] Kara Young: And Gordon, what about for you? What's the play about?

[11:49] Kara Young: The play is about many things for me. There's so many different stories in this play that I particularly feel connected to. You know, and like the intersectionality between the feelings of John and Jess, there are many commonalities in a lot of ways.

[12:16] Gregg Mozgala: Um I feel like the play is about like what it means to connect. Like what's that point of connection, you know, what it means for hearts to beat with each other as one. Like to be not to be so cliché about it. I feel like again the this this answer is going to evolve over time. You know, I I you want when the play's over I'm gonna be thinking about the play for forever. So but right now I feel like there's this incredible um this there's like this train to connection between Jess and John right now, right? And and even for Eddie and Ani, right? Because they they they're separated but they've they've been married but they they were separated when when we first meet them and they're coming together again and and uh with Jess and John this the this point of contact this point of comfort like what does it mean to be comfortable and for it to get ripped away from you in a way you know like when we think things are what they when we really believe things are what they are are they really what they are you know like it's just you know who who like the our judgments on each other um you know how we how we actually see each other the masks that we do put up in order to step into a room and uh you know what what we're really going through on the outside where we find solace where we find where we find um joy happiness uh what what makes us tick like literally I I guess I said it earlier like the spectrum of emotion, the spectrum of what it means to be human and to to to want to connect with each other, to want to be with each other.

You know when when when when you actually can't think about survival, like both Jess and John need something very, very different, but at the same time very similar. What they actually end up needing or end up getting is a is a is a visceral what it means to be two humans in a space together, what it means to actually need each other, you know? Uh like I think Eddie says something like he says something like you people go after people when they when they really fucking need them, need them. And these two people really need each other right now and end up finding something else in their need for each other, what they're they're what their knee is. It ends up being completely different. Um that was all over the place, but I feel like you know, like this play, it's it's a very it's a like you know, you you you know the thing, you understand the thing, and then like it's what I'm what I've been finding is like it's a very living, breathing thing up there because it is about the the magic of of humans together, you know, it is it is that like at its core.

[15:29] Gordon Cox: I'll have more with Kara and Greg right after the break.

[15:40] Gordon Cox: And now here's more with the actors Gregg Mozgala and Kara Young. There's a lot of intimacy in the scenes between you two, both emotional and physical. How did you go about rehearsing in a way that made you both feel comfortable? Like was there an intimacy coordinator? How did you how did you work to get to a point in those scenes where you could um you know do them comfortably every night?

[16:06] Kara Young: I almost want to give it to Greg, but we we didn't have an intimacy coordinator for this, um, for this project. And I do think that there is a place for intimacy coordinators. Um Greg Mozgala and I were we we were just very communicative with each other, and I think it really starts at leadership. Uh leadership really created a very safe space for us to be as honest and honest and feel safe um in a way that if anything that we said or felt we weren't gonna be judged about anything because we are who we are and and so that creating that that safety with each other and also just an honest communication between me and Greg that we've built over time, we're pretty honest with each other, you know, it just I think it it evolved into um what what it means to really truly be intimate with the with with two people, you know, what that really means.

[17:10] Gregg Mozgala: Yeah.

[17:11] Kara Young: Do you have anything to add?

[17:12] Gregg Mozgala: I think I just um yeah, uh the script calls for uh just to shave and shower John, and you actually see those actions on stage. And I think intimacy is a perfect word, but there's it's intimacy without the sex, right? There's a huge amount of physical intimacy, right? Um and I think in this particular iteration, you know, having done the show um several times, you know, the it's choreographed within an inch of its life. You know, so Kara is doing an amazing job uh just managing all that. It's like juggling chainsaws on a tightrope, you know. I like just, I don't know, you know, just keeping all of those balls in all in the air. You know, uh, it's really, really incredible. Um, I mean, I just have to sit there, you know, and and respond.

Um, but it's so it's really, I mean, it's a really wonderful thing to see, and I think, um, and and not an easy task in in that process. But again, I think we we operated with an assumption of competence and you know, with a great deal of grace uh and respect for for each other for the play, the process, and we carried that through. And yes, I I I would um just co-sign what she said about you know, leadership, Joe Bonnie and Martina, um, our stage management team, you know, making sure that we were um respected and appreciated and we were in a safe, brave space. Um there's a great deal of intimacy between Eddie and Ani too. And again, we just gotta, again, that's that the demand of the story is is what it is.

And I think that's that's that's where this play really, really pops and crackles. Um, in those quiet moments, in those silent moments, in the intimacy between the bodies. Um, and I think so you have to, you just gotta go there.

[19:03] Kara Young: Yeah. I found myself being very protective over Greg's body in a lot of ways. Uh talking about intimacy, you know, like, I mean, I just found myself, I mean, uh Greg, I don't know if you saw that like during our rehearsal process, but I was just like very like, nobody's gonna be cold, like, you know, like things of that nature. It's like, you know, like, no, I gotta make sure that, you know, there's certain things that, you know, it was just really, I was just like, no, like, you know.

[19:35] Gregg Mozgala: So I I still find myself that way.

[19:38] Kara Young: Totally. I mean, but our you know, I had to, I had to also um, you know, articulate what was actually going on with my body neurologically, you know, with CP. And there was a lot of, you know, life mirroring art and you know, this overlap Venn diagram between the characters and Kara and I'd, you know, and all of that stuff, and just making sure we that's that's the journey of these two characters. See me, understand my body, you know, respect my body. So we don't have an so there's so the very room d John is kind of in danger all the time, you know, he's just because of his physical circumstances, you know. So there was a lot of that, you know, and it was I wouldn't say it was never tense at times, you know, but we we uh worked through it, and that that mirroring of of our conversations, um, it was almost exactly what the characters were going through through the process. And that was that was something I think quite quite magical.

[20:32] Gregg Mozgala: Yeah.

[20:33] Kara Young: I did spend some time the other night hoping that water was warm because it was a little chilly sitting out there in the house, and I thought, well, I don't want to take a shower right now. We have the best crew. We have like the best crew on Broadway. Uh I might be a little biased, um, but you know, they are fantastic. I think the first one of the first previews, uh like they let the it was too hot or something, and they told us they literally had a bucket brigade of people backstage, like pouring in cold water, right? To keep it regulated. You know, we I we didn't know that was happening, you know, but like they are they are on it. They are on it, and they're they're fantastic. And actually what's cool about the play is they you know, they're four understudies, obviously two um disabled understudies.

Yeah. Um minor study also has through a palsy, and um Katie's understudy is uh paraplegic uh named Reagan Linton. And so they actually built again why we have the best crew, um our uh production manager Celeste, they have built a dressing room on stage for Reagan. Right? For Reagan. I mean it's and it's like the nicest room in the house. He's got a chandelier and a comfy chair and artwork, you know, and they were all hanging out there the other day. All the under studies were just like chilling in there the other day. I was like, I want to be in there.

[21:53] Gordon Cox: So how what's your sense of how well Kara, had you seen this play before you audition more?

[22:00] Kara Young: Okay. No, I never saw it. I never read it until I read it. And um I had only obviously like theater, the theater community talks about the pieces that move them. And I actually I feel like I had some kind of pseudo-understanding of what the play was about, but um I had been hearing about cost of living for very long time. Yeah, um, in the theater community. Uh so I mean that was also obviously intriguing of like what moves people and and like what shifts consciousness in people. Um is always something that's like gonna spark something inside of me.

[22:45] Gordon Cox: Yeah. And so Greg, tell us a little bit about how the play has changed and how in particular John has changed, the the part you play has changed.

[22:54] Gregg Mozgala: Yeah, I mean, I would say the play hasn't changed hugely, right? Since since the first presentation of the uh full length uh in Williamstown. Uh little things here and there. Um but um I've changed. Do you know like I've grown up with this, you know, I feel like I've really grown up with this play. And you know, full disclosure, it's like there are a lot of obstacles to my participation in life and in particular this industry. So I feel like when I started, I I was as green as grass in a lot of ways. So I have really learned how to kind of I've really had the great opportunity to learn my craft, you know, work with amazing people, you know, and so I just feel more confident, you know. I'm now f I'm a father now, you know, like my whole just everything, my world is much larger than it was, you know, uh w when we started.

Um and I just have the fantastic privilege of working with the amazing Kara Young. You know, there's just uh, you know, she said, you know, um we're always gonna be finding it. It's never, you know, people talk about previews and opening and you know, and I'm like, that doesn't I don't even know what that means, you know, because every night I still have to show up, be present, and respond to what this beautiful, you know, actor is giving me every night.

[24:16] Gregg Mozgala: You know, I have to match her grace and power, you know. So I think that's and that is really, really cool. You know, that is really fantastic. There's something I don't know what it is. This is my first time on Broadway. I so I don't I I'm just kind of blown away by the response and and the energy from from the house every night, but I feel the the mix, the alchemy between the four of us, there's something really special going on. Even though we don't have any scenes with with David and Katie, you know, like we are a tight ensemble. We were joking last night at the stage door. Everyone's gone. You know, we're hanging out on 47th Street. Oh really? Just talking to each other, you know. Because we just I don't know, it just feels lovely.

And this is a rare time, you know. There's no guarantee that this will happen again, or you know, you never know what's gonna work or what's gonna be received, or you know, like I don't know, my phone's not ringing, you know. It's like, okay, so I want, you know, like day to day enjoy the time, enjoy the ride, because this is, you know, the show, like the big show on the Great White Way, you know. Like, so this is we're just we're having a blast. We're working hard, you know. But um, I think we're I I think I don't know. I I love that work, you know. Kara and I have to be told to go on break. We do, but you know, we're both like I just think we're gonna be. Wait, wait, wait, what? Wait, what we gotta get this right, you know.

No, no, no, we'll get there. Come on. You know, but I think we we just are so that's what I love. I just think we have um I don't know, I think we're similar in a lot of ways, uh, just for uh as actors, and you know, how how we work and and our our our attention and passion for the work. Um and how we how we dive into things. And I just I I love that. We just want to get up and do it, you know. It's like just do it, just do it, find it, find it, find it, you know. And um, so yeah, until you know, and probably I don't know, we'll know. We'll know if we ever like that magical thing happens where suddenly you enter the matrix and like you're just moving, you know, and like the it's just happening to you, you know, that that amazing magical merge between yourself and character where the world opens up, but um that's very rare. So every day we're we're just we're like digging in every night, and it's I say it's work, but it's a real real pleasure, you know, every every evening.

[26:48] Kara Young: Yeah, there's like the collective, like everything you said is so beautiful, Greg. Um the collective, like the fact that theater is it's really special and sacred and ancestral and spiritual, it's a spiritual experience, and there's something about um Martina Mayok is doing something like that on the page already, you know. There's something spiritual and ancestral, and there's there's so much um history on that page, and she does it in a way where like lifted, fully realized with all of the elements, sound, set, costume, actors, uh being in the space of a theater, people sitting down for two hours, being with us in in this world. There's like to be in the theater in this time, to make to to come out uh, you know, and be with us for the two hours that we're that we've been working on for a month.

Like it there's something really there's an inexplicable something about that, right? Like what we do and what we've decided to do with our lives and how we've all come together in community to share this very this story. Greg, you're also a dancer and you're an advocate and you're an artistic director. How do you think about the work you do as an actor and you know, in particular the work you're doing in this play as fitting into kind of the overall scope of your activities?

[28:47] Gregg Mozgala: Yeah, I mean it's all on a continuum, I think. Or they're all tributaries that I think feed into the same, hopefully the same source, right? Um again, uh again, I would just go back to my my body on stage, Katie's body on stage is a radical experimental act. You know, we have been we are on the forefront of something, like the fact that we are embodying these characters who have physical disabilities again for eons, you know, that was the practice has been to cast non-disabled and disabled roles, right? That kind of erasure, that kind of symbolic annihilation is something we have just been dealing with historically forever. Um, and even in this industry, it happens still to this day, you know, and there are a lot of issues, you know, related to that.

So I at the end of the day, I just I want to work, you know. I want to get into a room and I want to make stuff with people. You know, I want to make good work with people. And so everything is, I think, that may be reductive, but really that's all all the things you listed in all these different hats that I wear. I'm not the only actor, you know, has to do multiple things, right? I've taken on multiple roles, right, to make that happen. Um, I think my particular idiosyncrasies and my challenges, while there are overlaps, you know, in particular to my experience and the experience of members of my community. But at the end of the day, I just want to make work because plays are the currency with which we in the theater deal with.

You know, dancers can practice go to the bar every day, musicians can play their instrument every day, painters and sculptors can paint every day, you know, or sculpt. Actors need an enterprise, right? Things, you know, it's a lot to occur before they can practice their craft in most cases, right? And that usually happens with the with the script, you know, with the playwrights. So it's it's develop work, develop content, give people the opportunity to do that in in plays that where they can show up as themselves, where there's a seamless kind of integration between uh disability and character, or you know, whatever it is. I don't know. I'm just really uh in my mind, I I was inspired by um other communities, African American communities, LGBTQ plus communities, Asian American, you know, they had these culturally specific theaters where they developed their work, you know, uh where they had spaces, you know, where they could build their talent, right?

Hone their craft, show up and be in community with one another, and eventually that proliferated through to the mainstream, right? And larger platforms of film and television and wherever we are today, you know. And I felt like I don't I didn't I never felt that I didn't see that for my community, you know, so it's like, well, somebody's gotta do it. You know, so it's like so, and I but we are integrated with the disabled experience is an integrated experience, you know. So it's not about being separate, it's how are we what are our stories, what are our histories, who are our villains, our role models are, you know. Um where do we come from? What is our individual and collective history and identity? And again, that's that's what theater has done. Again, it's in the storytelling, right? And bringing that to an audience and sharing that. I think that's I'm in awe of that power.

[32:06] Gordon Cox: And uh Kara, this is your second show on Broadway. You made your Broadway debut last season and uh you were nominated for a Tony for it. What um what tell me about that attention what that attention has meant for you as now as you're back on Broadway and as you're sort of looking ahead at the end of the day?

[32:25] Kara Young: She's impossible. Yeah, she's impossible. What? I mean, great. Um you know, I don't want to sound clear, I don't want to sound like you know, it had it's been one of it's been such a be it was a beautiful, it's a beautiful chaos. I feel the real prize is getting to really work with incredible people and incredible artists, and I feel like the prize is getting to do the show and getting to step into roles that are going to do something to people, right? I think though there's there's certain feel there's certain things that can be very fleeting, right? Like the the sparkly things are and and note like very appreciated because they're so unexpected when it happened. That was such an unexpected thing.

Um because I I was really focused on the work. So it was very unexpected of what what that was. Um and I feel like the the opportunity to delve into these worlds it it requires so much of the artist to really to really go there and I hope that I only hope that I serve the playwright and the director and the vision as best as I can, you know, and that is always right here for me, you know.

[34:13] Gregg Mozgala: Yeah.

[34:14] Kara Young: I don't know if that sometimes I talk and I'm like, I don't know if like Greg has read a lot of books, and I'm like, I don't know if I'm making any sense.

[34:26] Gregg Mozgala: Yeah.

[34:27] Kara Young: Um all appreciated and all beautiful. Um I can't believe I get to do this every day. That really that really I wake I literally wake up and sometimes I'm in that theater and like I'm like standing next to Greg, I'm like standing next to David Zayus, and I just want to cry. I'm like, wait, what? What am I doing? And like you're honoring the little girl in you, you know, you're like, oh my god, you're honoring your dreams. Like you followed through. You said yes constantly to yourself, and that you know, yeah, it's all very magical.

[35:09] Gordon Cox: Well, you're going to continue to be on stage every night with Greg um through the run of the Cost of Living, and uh we look forward to seeing what's next for you both after that. Um thank you so much. Thank you both for talking to me.

[35:22] Gregg Mozgala: Gordon, thank you so much.

[35:24] Kara Young: Yeah, Gordon, a real pleasure. Thank you, thank you.

[35:30] Gordon Cox: That was the actors Gregg Mozgala and Kara Young of Cost of Living. Now playing on Broadway at the Friedman Theater. If you like what you're hearing on this and other episodes of Stagecraft, I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps us grow our audience of folks who love theater as much as you and I do. Or tell a friend about Stagecraft, or give us a shout-out on social media. Find past episodes and subscribe at all the pod purveyors, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and on the Broadway Podcast Network, which is a great place to find more theater for your ears. Until next episode, find me on Twitter at G Cox Variety. Thanks for listening and see you at the theater.