2020-Present
Recent Work
Manifesto 10.10.2020 (2020)
On October 10th, 2020, for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce took to the stage once more. The world was halted but the show had to go on. Linda recited her manifesto outside TSL on the new parking lot stage. The screen behind her gave viewers a glimpse of Claudia as she performed both inside and outside via a Zoom livestream. Documentation of the event is provided by Karen Keats. Linda and Claudia's original iphone clips are weaved between their archival material featuring "Indiana Cornfield" (1983) and "Paperplay" (1981). Edited by Kevin Gilligan.
See They Say (2021)
On September 3rd, 2021, The Hudson Eye presented a TSL production featuring:
A reimagining of a text by Linda Mussmann which dates back to 1983, first appearing as Is the Dialogue Read, then Camouflage, and now See They Say.
The performance featured music and voice by Claudia Bruce, at the piano, and the music of composer Semih Firincioğlu, on a stage designed by Mussmann. The films, edited by Kevin Gilligan and Henry Munson, have been compiled from videos and 8mm films shot during the 1980s by Linda in TSL’s New York City storefront and in parts of upstate NY and rural Indiana. An encore performance took place on September 24th, 2021.
Table of Contents (2022)
On September 2nd, 2022, The Hudson Eye presented a TSL production featuring:
One voice: Claudia Bruce
One sonic landscape artist: John Moletress
One text writer and image maker: Linda Mussmann
The performance features Claudia Bruce's unique vocal style honed over 40 years of performances; the unconventional sound instruments that John Moletress has constructed out of copper pipes, glass, and water – outfitted with various digital technologies and artist-programmed circuit board; texts by Linda Mussmann whose poetic nature offers a meditative use of language to make statements about seeing & saying, weather reports, time & space, and how to move from the meaning of words (only) to the sound of words as a way to create stories outside the narrative.
The film images of Linda Mussmann's outdoor sculpture (Table of Contents) were compiled and edited by Teo Camporeale. The work meditates on chance and the willingness to let go of the habits and expectations of a rigid theater. Leave your past and future at the door and step into a moment of live theater which requires someone to do something and someone to experience the doing of the thing.
THE WAVES [Chapter 1] (2023)
Virginia Woolf’s THE WAVES [Chapter 1] Adapted and directed by Linda Mussmann. January 28th, 2023
Woolf’s novel, The Waves, was the first performance project that Linda Mussmann adapted and directed in her storefront theater on 22nd Street in Chelsea NYC. Acquiring the storefront gave Linda the freedom and security to create and experiment in a space that was hers alone. It also proved to be the right place for developing her company – without having to worry about interrupted rehearsal and performance scheduling.
Linda’s desire to experiment with language and movement naturally evolved in the 20’ X 80’ space with 10’ tin ceilings – the perfect size space to imagine and realize new ideas for her theater. The sound was perfect and there was no “stage” – just a long rectangular box waiting to be filled with words and gestures. Everything and anything was possible. She was looking for a performance language that would eventually become her own by studying and adapting the works of Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf – two key influences on her thinking in the 1970s.
After directing a multitude of plays, in college (1967-69) and early in NYC (1969-76), by authors including Ibsen, Pinter, Beckett, Brecht, Chekhov, and Shaw, Linda began to search for a new way to approach theater – moving away from strict storytelling while also searching for more women’s voices. Her experiment focused on language – words – words with rhythms and repetitions that could create a landscape of mood and a dreamscape distanced from the narrative and created through the essence of the spoken word.
Linda took the first chapter of The Waves, written in 1931 by Woolf, and adapted a portion of it for the stage in 1977. Using six performers to play Woolf’s six characters, the project was presented in the 22nd Street storefront.
46 years later, on Saturday, January 28th at 7:00pm, the original script was read by six new performers: Claudia Bruce, Nat Drake, Dave King, Sienna Reid, Wendy Spielmann, and Antony Zanetta – and was be followed by a discussion.
The reading provides an opportunity to look at some early work that Linda created in NYC as she experimented and searched for her own voice. After The Waves, Claudia Bruce joined Linda as a performer and quickly become the central presence in Linda’s work. The Woolf project that followed was based on an essay published after her death in 1941 called The Moment. It marked the beginning of the collaboration between Linda and Claudia that continues today.