Linda Mussmann's Blog

July Calendar notes 2008

July 2008 Calendar: Then + Now + Next
by Linda & Claudia printed in the July Calendar.

TSL was founded in the early 1970s as a theater company and has been making theater happen ever since. We (Linda and Claudia) wanted a new kind of theater Ð a theater that spoke to its time, had no narrative, no beginning, middle or easy ending. We wanted a theater that was about art, politics, and the spirit of the times in which we are living. We created and realized performances that took place on many stages Ð from traditional to innovative; from Manhattan lofts to La MamaÕs vast theater annex to the garden at MoMA to a variety of other places and spaces. We did everything with virtually nothing. We begged, borrowed, and recycled and made a theater that addressed our lives and our times.

In defining our theater, we embraced the non-linear and the immediate and were named ÒpostmodernÓ in a modern world. We understood the reality of the 1980s and the strain on the art world that pushed many theater companies like TSL out of major cities and moved them on to even bigger stages like the Hudson Valley.

We have always been able to invent ways to speak to the audience of our time and space. We have made our stage wherever we are and now it is bigger. The performers and roles have changed. The vision gets more inclusive. The TSL stage is a large one and to define it by one place is an error. Our stage is our community, our region, and our nation. We make art and show art that addresses the now in which we live. We have many in our company and we have reared many on our stage who seek to find a way and the means to grow there.

Culture and art includes all that join our theater company. We need performers, audience, and benefactors as our vision continues and moves us into the next season of work. We want you to understand what makes TSL work and why it is so vital for you to be a member and contributor. Coming to TSL, seeing a movie, watching an opera, joining in on cabaret night, witnessing a Mussmann Bruce production, sending a child to camp, or viewing the art gallery is more than just something to do. TSL is a space and a time that affords us the ability to see a living, working theater company in action and on a stage that encompasses all parts of its community.

What is theater? A child planting the garden and watching beans grow. What is theater? A map of the USA dotted with thousands of pieces of paper, each marking the hometown of a fallen US soldier in the Iraq war. What is theater? A dialogue between a filmmaker and her/his audience. What is theater? An agreed upon space and a timeframe wherein an occurrence is noted. What is theater? For Linda, it is a tornado, a war, a campaign, a play.

Sometimes drama is real, sometimes contrived. It must be worth the time spent. TSL wants you to play a role in our theater company Ð be it by becoming a member or being a volunteer or buying a ticket or sponsoring an event. Whatever you choose to do Ð be it known that you are supporting the vast stage on which we Òplay."

ÒAll the worldÕs a stage, / And all the men and women merely players: / They have their exits and their entrances; / And one man in his time plays many parts, / His acts being seven ages.Ó (As You Like It. W. Shakespeare)

Or as John Cage used to advise us: ÒJust do the work.Ó

And so, my friends, the adventure continues. Join us, support us, and grow with us. Thank you.



Harold Pinter began his 2005 Nobel Prize speech with an observation about the relationship between reality and art: ÒThere are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false. I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I standby them, but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?Ó

TURN THE RIVER

Last chance to see Chris Eigeman's new film TURN THE RIVER.
this is great work by the young filmmaker----his first and it is very well written and a great story about a woman and a kid.
Pool Hall and great acting.
check it out.
today at 7pm. Sunday.
see you at TSL.
and it is cool. the AC is on.
and if you want some Goddard ALPHAVILLE is on at 5 & 9

TSL MONDAY NIGHT

Claudia Bruce will be singing on Monday.
and Amy Trompetter will be presenting some of her new puppet performance based on Howard Zinn's work
and Linda will be telling you something she has dreamed up
and all kinds of surprises.
look foward to seeing you at TSL MONDAY
we will be in the theater.
see you then.
www.timeandspace.org
PS TIME FOR PEACE will re-screen in July check website for times.

WAITING FOR GODOT

I am planning on a production of this play.
if you are interested in auditioning send me some information about yourself?
fyi@timeandspace.org
Linda.

MAUDE BARLOW

WATER and what you want to know about it all.
check in with this very bright lady and listen up.
Her new book BLUE COVENANT
http://www.alternet.org/water/76819/
maybe you want to stop drinking the "bottled water" and throwing the plastic bottle away---
cause it (the plastic bottle) in fact never goes away---it stays on long after our lifetime----
"you say you want a revolution"
well how does this happen anyway??
any ideas??
and then what happens after the revolution???
so much to think about and so little time.
"have a nice day" as they say in the land of Disney

STILL ALIVE

Still alive after all this and then some.
Volunteers needed to help tsl make phone calls on week-ends.
membership drive on for June and we need the phones ringing to get new members. If you want to help out give me a call 518-822-8448.
Calls are made on Saturday and Sundays.
Or e-mail fyi@timeandspace.org
Internships available as well at TSL and some housing available.
We will be looking for theater helpers.
What else????
TIME FOR PEACE is coming--- a new film by Lorenzo Rodriquez.
check the website for this and
the new Chris Eigeman film--- TURN THE RIVER.
Want to know more about Kids programs now is the time to call TSL for more info. or if you want to contribute.
And opera season tickets go on sale Aug. 15. TSL/MET members will be served first.
And do you want to know more???? become a member and get involved.
there is a lot to do in the neighborhood and the TSL community is a very large community.
See you at the movies. Lots of great things happening at TSL in June.
Come to TSL support local and regional organizations who bring good things to you. Travel less. save water and love TSL.

"TSL CABARET TAKE 1" MONDAY MAY 26 @7:30pm

CLAUDIA SINGS & more
Claudia Bruce, at the piano, will sing some more of her favorite songs. She has been singing, in public, since she was fifteen when her mother insisted that she join the regional theater in her small hometown in Georgia. Since then, she has sung songs written by many composers as well as compositions of her own which were written for original performances that she and Linda Mussmann have created since 1976.
IN Addition, Take 1 includes a 15-minute spoken word piece, Louisiana Voices, by Frank Ortega which was written in response to Katrina. The piece contains ten voices. They are all true voices, living people recalled in Louisiana, on the eve of Katrina. Frank Ortega has had work published in many reviews and journals. He has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony for the Arts among others, and a Poetry Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Most recently, he has read and performed in NYC at the Cornelia Street CafŽ.

AND LInda will present something special !!!.
come early----special event to be sure.
$10. gets you in the door.

TSL plans to present a monthly cabaret on the 4th Monday of every month.

PATHS and WAYS and LONGING FOR UNDERSTANDING

There are many ways to do things.
The path is the way --- the road is always filled with possibilities.
What we think we know we are not sure and what we don't know we fear.
it is the struggle for knowing that is the challenge----the process is the way.

Robert Frost's words are some of my favorite when is comes to paths and choices. as he says in his:
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

"Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

THE FREE TRANSLATORS ~~~~~~TUESDAY @ TSL

Hi; All bring a friend --- a dish and $5 to this event.
We will have a special gathering before the event with some good eats and a
spirit of discussing our favorite topics of art and women and how the ladies
are doing after "liberation" did it happen or not??? Always a question we
are asking ourselves.
We will have some food and drink (in east gallery) prior to the event (6:30
PM-TUESDAY) ====TSL will be having some "pasta" if you will bring a dish to
go along with it or a dessert we will enjoy your company and have a chance
to see this traveling show:
Special Event: The Free Translators
Tuesday,
5/20:
Ê
7:30
members/students/general: $5.00, suggested contribution (more info. Call
518-822-8448)

The Intelligence Community Presents: The Free Translators. A video
screening plus "live tactical translating" featuring Miss Reading and Miss
Recognition

In consideration of over thirty years of critical feminist studies
concerning women as subjects of language, the Free Translators ask: What is
your source? What is your Who? Your Where? Your When? Your How? For those of
us who do not know, The Free Translators offer an array of possibilities:
Miss Reading, Miss Communication, Miss Appropriation, Miss Opportunity, Miss
Literacy, Miss Informed and of courseÉ (their own) misgivings.

In a world that invents and facilitates endless methods and technologies for
successful communication, The Free Translators happily construe known
grammars and vocabularies in favor of the barely heard and the
incomprehensible with the purpose of uniting the political and poetic in
language. Culling from a multitude of conflated narratives, The Free
Translators present a program of video screenings deliberately complicating
the textual content of our everyday lives and dedicated to the idea that
multiple translations continually unhinge single meanings.

Website

BIOGRAPHIES

Mary Billyou is a film and video maker living and working in New York City.
She attended The Whitney Independent Study Program in 2003-2004. Her films
and videos have shown throughout the United States, the Czech Republic, and
in China. Her practice includes community building collaborations through
both filmmaking production and in curated screenings. Her recent documentary
on Arabic translator Mohamed Yousry showed at the microcinema venue at
Sundance 2007. Her early films and videos are available on Big Miss Moviola
compilations.

Sabine Gruffat is a media artist living and working in Madison, WI. Her
films and videos have screened at festivals worldwide including the Image
Forum Festival in Japan, the Split Film Festival in Croatia and the Ann
Arbor Film Festival as well as microcinema venues/galleries - the PDX Film
Festival in Portland OR, Discount Cinema and The Ice Factory in Chicago, IL,
and more recently, Hull screen U.K, The Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago
Filmmakers, and The Gramercy Theater in New York. Her photographs and video
installations have been shown at the Zolla Lieberman Gallery in Chicago, Art
In General in New York, the Rochester Art Center and the Centro Cultural
Telemar in Brazil.

INTERNS FOR TSL

Interns apply now.
send information to fyi@timeandspace.org
some housing available.