Ann magnuson biography
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She is currently finishing a recording project with the LA-based DJ consortium Dub Lab.
MOMA recently acquired MADE FOR TV (the 1984 art video she made with artist Tom Rubnitz) as well as Ann’s student films from her time at Denison University (including “One God, One Singer”, a short film about Elvis Presley’s 1976 concert in her hometown of Charleston, West Virginia.)
Ann Magnuson currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, architect John Bertram.
Detailed Bio:
Born and raised in Charleston, WV, Ann received a BFA in Theater & Cinema from Denison University and studied theater in London at the British and European Studies Group.
She was a series regular on the ABC-TV sitcom Anything But Love starring Jamie Lee Curtis.
As a singer and songwriter, Ann has been in many bands, including the sardonic folk trio Bleaker Street Incident and the heavy metal band Vulcan Death Grip. Her short art-video, “Made for TV” (a collaboration with video artist Tom Rubnitz, where she portrays every character on every channel during a regular broadcast day) premiered in 1984 on the PBS show “Alive From Off Center”.
The video was recently acquired by MOMA and was featured in their Club 57 exhibition. She is a one-woman mandala of brilliance. She has acted in Hollywood blockbusters, Off-Broadway plays, TV sitcoms and indie films; fronted various bands; made records; written for numerous publications and has presented her original performance art pieces at art institutions worldwide including the Whitney Museum (performing a 5-hour “Tribute to Muzak” in the museum elevator), The Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, BAM, LACMA, MOCA, The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, The Walker Art Center, The Andy Warhol Museum and in places as far flung as Tokyo’s Sogetsu Hall and The Ice Hotel inside Sweden’s Arctic Circle.
She performed often at Joe’s Pub in NYC and at The Steve Allen Theater in Los Angeles as well as in theaters, cabaret spaces and music clubs all over the country and parts of Canada and Europe.
She was commissioned to create two new original pieces about her experiences growing up in West Virginia for FestivALL! Woman” for PAPER magazine. She also wrote and performed songs with the legendary John Cale for his performance piece Life Underwater. Magnuson has released four solo projects and has written and performed in numerous one-woman shows, many which feature stories and songs about growing up in West Virginia.
She recently released “Open Letter to an Open Letter” (an epic spoken-word-with-music rant about the Internet) and was guest curator of a major gallery exhibition about Club 57 that opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2018.
Ann Magnuson
| Actress Date of Birth: 04.01.1956 Country: USA |
Content:
- Early Life and Education
- The Birth of "The Club"
- Early Film Appearances
- Breakthrough and Supporting Roles
- Filmography
Early Life and Education
Anne Magnuson was born in Charleston, West Virginia, and attended Denison University, graduating with a degree in theatre.
The Birth of "The Club"
In 1978, Magnuson moved to New York City and, together with Eric Bogosian and Joey Arias, founded "The Club 57," a neo-Dadaist cabaret.
Early Film Appearances
Magnuson made her big-screen debut in 1982 in the crime thriller "Vortex," followed by a small role in "Sleepwalk."
Breakthrough and Supporting Roles
Magnuson's breakout role came in 1987 in the comedy "Making Mr.
Right" alongside John Malkovich. She also co-curated (with artist Kenny Scharf) EAST VILLAGE WEST, a 2011 retrospective of East Village art from the 1980s at the Culver City gallery, Royal-T.
Off-Broadway stage credits include “The Vagina Monologues,” John Patrick Shanley’s “Four Dogs and a Bone” and her own one-woman show “You Could Be Home Now” (performed at The Public Theater/NYSF.) Magnuson also starred as Liz in The Blank Theater’s LA premiere of Amy and David Sedaris’ play “The Book of Liz” and her one-woman show “Rave Mom” played P.S.122 in 2001.
She performed “The Bongwater Songbook” at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) in November 2017, reuniting with her former bandmates who also accompanied her in the 2016 MOMA performance, “Dream Sequencing” (featuring video as well as music and spoken word from her 2016 CD, “Dream Girl.”) Her epic track “Open Letter to an Open Letter: Seriously WTF?!,” (a serio-comic rant about the insanity of the internet) was released in 2017.
She has acted in Hollywood blockbusters, off-Broadway plays, TV sitcoms and indie films, fronted various bands, written for numerous publications and has presented her original performance art pieces at museums, including The Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Andy Warhol Museum and Tokyo’s Sogetsu Hall.
Growing up in Charleston, she performed in local theater productions.
There she managed the now-infamous neo-Dada cabaret space, Club 57. Her psycho-psychedelic band Bongwater issued five albums and gained an international cult following. She has also appeared as an actress in music videos, most notably as the crazed Annie in the Redd Kross video “Annie’s Gone” and as the mysterious Goth chick tormenting Alice in Chain’s Jerry Cantrell in his video for “My Song.” (Both can be seen on YouTube.) She collaborated with musician John Cale on his experimental musical “Life Underwater,” performed at the original St.
Anne’s Church in Brooklyn in 1994.
She has contributed tracks to two West Virginia Hall of Fame tribute records for Blind Alfred Reed and Little Jimmy Dickens. Magnuson has also released three solo albums, “The Luv Show” (Geffen 1995); “Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories” (Asphodel 2007) and “Dream Girl” (Pink Fleece 2016) as well as the EP track “Open Letter to an Open Letter: Seriously WTF?!” (Pink Fleece 2017) Her latest single “The Sun Don’t Care” was released in October of 2018.
Her EP, “The Jobriath Medley” was released in 2012 along with a reissue of her 1997 cover of David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream.” Ann deconstructed the concepts of success and failure through the stories and songs of glam rockers Jobriath and David Bowie at SFMOMA in 2011 in a song-cycle entitled, “The Rock Star as Witch Doctor, Myth-Maker and Ritual Sacrifice.” In 2012, she performed portions of that show as well as all of The Jobriath Medley at REDCAT as part of the OUTFEST Platinum series and in July 2012 was asked to create a special “Mudd Club Cabaret” for the Cindy Sherman retrospective opening at SFMOMA.
(the summer arts festival held annually in Charleston, WV) – “Dreaming of Charleston” (2009) and “Back Home Again: An Evening of SurRURALism” (2015)
Ann appeared as a guest vocalist on the Tindersticks album Curtains (singing with Stuart Staples in the duet “Buried Bones). In 2018 she played opposite Judd Hirsch in the CBS sitcom “Superior Donuts.”
Magnuson co-wrote and starred in Vandemonium (1987), a surreally comic special for Cinemax.
In addition to her many bands and solo work, Ann regularly collaborated with performers Eric Bogosian, Kestutis Nakas, John Sex and Joey Arias in numerous shows.