ONSTAGE 30 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 16-22, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com The debut of PorchLight Stories in May attracted many metaphorical moths to the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts in Carmel. After a sold-out evening of great fun and standing ovations, another round was planned for Thursday, July 16. This time two such shows are packed. PorchLight Stories was inspired by NPR’s Moth Radio Hour. The formula relies on people each presenting a brief true story about themselves. The series’ format is deliberately old-fashioned: eight storytellers, no notes, no props, five to seven minutes each. The performers are coached by Robin McKee, an experienced theater director and Cherry board member. The goal is to strip storytelling to its bones and let a room full of strangers listen to each other the way neighbors used to. “The only criteria is that the stories are true, personal and involve some stakes for the storyteller,” says Ellen Osborne, a board member at the Cherry and the local creator of the series. “This could be emotional like love found or love lost, or perceived or real physical peril, or a change of an intellectual as in a change of a preconceived belief.” The porch in this case is the Cherry’s black box theater—once Carl Cherry’s workshop, and it’s worth mentioning that the Cherrys themselves had quite a story to tell. After all, the center is the monument of love between a much older woman, who left her family for a man over 20 years her junior, scandalizing the neigborhood. For the current show, the best storytellers—charming Hans Lehmann and charismatic Magnus Torén—return from the debut event. Four of the eight tellers this round were born outside the U.S., a reminder that Carmel’s sense of community stretches well beyond its zip code. This round’s stories move through love, sailing, education, wisdom, proposals and guilt, each built around a turning point, a moment when the teller’s sense of themselves, or of someone close to them, shifted for good. Expect laughter, expect a few held breaths and at least one moment when the room goes quiet. The show runs about an hour, followed by a half-hour reception in the Cherry gallery, where the audience can meet the storytellers face to face. Hosting the evening is Mary Adams, who served as Monterey County supervisor from 2017-2024 and spent decades in public service. Her real love, though, is theater; she made her stage debut at 3, singing “Angel of God” to a packed house. Among the storytellers are two Moth regulars, Mindy Myers and Hope Silver. Myers, a playwright, storyteller, young-adult author and culinary educator, describes her style as equal parts New York wisecracking and dinner-table sarcasm. Silver was born in Siberia on a freezing December day in 1981— the same day Charlie Chaplin died— before eventually winning a green card, moving to the U.S. and translating her long Russian name into English. She still hopes to become as wise as Jesus and as funny as Chaplin. Torén, executive director of the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur, brings a life spanning ocean crossings and remote islands; a Swedish-born former sailor, musician and podcaster, he has spent his career sustaining a literary haven while chasing ideas, places and people through conversation and art. Alison van Diggelen, a journalist and author of The Love Project, has interviewed Meryl Streep, Martin Sheen and Elon Musk for the BBC, but says the people who taught her the most about life were never famous—a lesson drawn from her Scottish mother’s late-life romance. The book was praised by Kirkus Reviews for its reminder that “love remains a vital and animating force.” Lehmann, 94, immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1939 and holds degrees from the University of Colorado and Harvard. He spent 28 years at Macy’s, has published three books and still writes a blog twice a week from his home in Carmel. Paul Riley, self-described as garrulous, loquacious—or simply chatty—spent a brief stint in seasonal summer theater before a long career as an artist in show business. Now retired, he has devoted himself to building a retaining wall in his San Francisco backyard. Robin Sawyer, a painter and photographer with what she calls an adventurous spirit, lives in Carmel Valley. And jazz guitarist Bruce Forman closes five decades of recordings, soundtracks and concert stages with his acclaimed one-man show, “The Red Guitar,” performed around the world—and, fittingly, right back at the Cherry. This is the second show of a planned three-part series. The next show is scheduled for Oct. 29, and submissions from storytellers are now being accepted Dedicated to the craft of storytelling, The Moth is a nonprofit, founded by poet and novelist George Dawes Green in 1997. Today, the group produces The Moth Radio Hour, a popular weekly program carried by more than 540 public radio stations nationwide. The Moth Podcast publishes new stories every week, accumulating tens of millions of downloads annually. PorchLight Stories 5pm and 7:30pm Thursday, July 16. Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, 4th and Guadalupe, Carmel. Sold out. (831) 624-7491, carlcherrycenter.org. Moths to Flames An NPR-inspired storytelling series brought to the stage has conquered Carmel. By Agata Popęda Expect at least one moment when the room goes quiet. The storytellers from the July 16 event receive applause. Right to left: artist Michael Lojkovic, Ellen Osborne from the Cherry, blogger Hans Lehmann and others. Below: Lehmann in his house. He keep honing his storytelling skills even in his 90s. CARL CHERRY CENTER FOR THE ARTS DANIEL DREIFUSS
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==