Present-2020
*this page is currently under construction
pardon our progress*
THE WAVES [Chapter 1]
2023
Virginia Woolf’s THE WAVES [Chapter 1]
Adapted and directed by Linda Mussmann
Performed by Claudia Bruce, Nat Drake, Dave King, Sienna Reid, Wendy Spielmann, and Antony Zanetta
January 28th, 2023
Linda Mussmann first adapted the chapter one of The Waves, written in 1931 by Woolf, for the stage in 1977.
Using six performers to play Woolf’s six characters, the project was presented in her 22nd Street storefront in Chelsea NYC.
46 years later, in 2023, the original adapted script was read by six new performers: Claudia Bruce, Nat Drake, Dave King, Sienna Reid, Wendy Spielmann, and Antony Zanetta.
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.
Table of Contents
2022
The Hudson Eye presents a TSL production featuring:
One voice: Claudia Bruce
One sonic landscape artist: John Moletress
One text writer and image maker: Linda Mussmann
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 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.
See They Say
2021
The Hudson Eye presents a TSL production featuring:
A re-imagining 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, and the music of composer Semih Firincioğlu.
Stage design by Mussmann.
The projected films, edited by Kevin Gilligan and Henry Munson, have been compiled from 8mm films shot by Mussmann during the 1980’s in TSL’s New York City storefront, as well as in parts of upstate NY and rural Indiana.
Manifesto 10.10.2020
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 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.