Westward. Encounters with Swiss American Women

“Fortunately my parents allowed me to participate in evening courses at the acting school even while I was still in school. Margarethe Schell-von Noé directed this department of the Conservatory. As luck would have it, they were preparing a student production in which I was allowed to participate. It was an open-air performance, and I was given the part of a young sentimental girl who was enamored of her teacher and in her lover’s grief wanted to jump into the river, the Aare. What a beginning!” Now Linda wanted to join the professional theater.

“Mrs. Schell admonished me that I still would have to learn a whole lot. What for? I already had a first engagement at the newly established studio theater at the Effingerstrasse. Nothing could hold me back now. I resolved to observe in every detail what the experienced actors did and to imitate everything. This worked.” Linda Geiser adds: “However, this does not mean that I did not have to learn a lot more about this profession in the course of the years.” Thus it was a settled matter. Linda’s father signed her first contract for the Atelier Theater under director Adolph Spalinger. “I was only sixteen, and my parents were relieved that I had a firm engagement. They knew: She won’t run away from there!