Carl Cherry Center for the Arts

Monterey Plays with San Francisco
2019-11-01 19:30 - 2019-11-16 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Monterey Plays, an Arts Council for Monterey County sponsored festival of short and one act plays written by Monterey playwrights. Tickets are $25 for Friday/Saturday performances (7:30 p.m. curtain); and $20 for Sunday matinee performance (2:00 p.m. curtain). Tickets are available on brownpapertickets.com.
Friday, Nov. 1/Saturday, Nov. 2: Euterpe by David Norum; Daylight Savings, by Erik Roycraft; Bank Street Blues, by Nina Solomita; He Fell In, But I Did Not, by Nina Solomita; Conversation, by Joe Nance; The Cats by David Norum; And Still I love This City by Nicole Henares; a monologue from My Name Is by David Norum; Blaze by Janice Blaze Rocke
Friday, Nov. 8/Saturday, Nov. 9: He Fell In, But I Did Not, by Nina Solomita; Daylight Savings, by Erik Roycraft; Euterpe, by David Norum; Brick House by Janice Blaze Rocke
Sunday, Nov. 10: La Petenera and the Flamenco Time Machine by Nicole Henares and Aideed Medina; The Story of No Existo, by Monique Rose; Conversation by Joe Nance; Euterpe, by David Norum; He Fell In, But I Did Not, by Nina Solomita
Friday, Nov 15/Saturday, Nov. 16: He Fell In, But I Did Not, by Nina Solomita; Daylight Savings, by Erik Roycraft; Euterpe, by David Norum; Brick House by Janice Blaze Rocke.
The Playwrights:
Nina Solomita, MFA, is a playwright, actor, workshop and writing instructor, and professional editor committed to writing roles for women that show them in all their humanity. She was last seen at the Cherry in 2018 as Seal in My Mother’s Keeper by Jane Press.
Erik Roycraft lives in Salinas. As a Monterey County Theatre Alliance board member, he designs the organization’s newsletter. His play “Euphoria” appeared at the Cherry earlier this year, and his literary sci-fi novel “Crooked Corners Elegiac” is on Amazon.
Joe Nance graduated from San Jose State with a degree in English and Radio and Film Arts. He is deeply interested in writing, acting, music, and visual art.
David Norum became a cop after graduating with a music degree. After retiring from the force, he became a musician, actor, and writer. He has had two full-length plays “Mozambique” and My Name Is” produced in Monterey and beyond.
Janice Blaze Rocke is the creative director of the local performance arts group, The Eclectic Collective. She has written, performed in, and produced events at Carl Cherry Theatre, Henry Miller Library, The Lab, Dali Expo, Paper Wing Theatre, The Pacific Grove Art Center, and The Lost Church in San Francisco.
Nicole Henares is a poet, writer, performer, and educator who is interested in how Lorca’s duende is a cross cultural spirit.
Aideed Medina is a poet and spoken word artist who creates and performs poetry in English or Spanish as dictated by the inspiration of each individual piece.
Monique Rose is a local musician, painter, actor, and poet. She received her MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and studies art and dance at MPC. She continuously strives to refine herself, sifting through material of everyday life for possible avenues into the sublime.
The Plays:
Euterpe by David Norum: A short musical cabaret based on an existential concept by Suzy Newman and Kitten Blankenship.
Daylight Savings, by Erik Roycraft: A woman with an alert mind comes to realize she’s unable to communicate with her husband or caretakers.
He Fell In, But I Did Not, by Nina Solomita: Sharon approaches Nadine at a restaurant with in an unconventional remark that could be interpreted as a little crazy. During their unusual interaction, however, common ground is reached.
Bank Street Blues (a monologue) by Nina Solomita: A mentally ill woman speaks to her mother on the phone about wanting to go home for Christmas.
Brick House by Janice Blaze Rocke: A young woman’s subconscious speaks to her in the form of fairy tale characters as she attempts to deflect the “big bad wolf.” A window into the future reveals how she eventually flips the script.
La Petenera and the Flamenco Time Machine by Nicole Henares and Aideed Medina: a dialogue reflective of the connection between Flamenco and historic and present political struggles.
The Cats, by David Norum: a 42 year-old jazz musician calls his mom to give her some good news but she can’t let go of the past.
And Still I Love This City by Nicole Henares: a love letter to a San Francisco seen between the cracks of gentrification.
My Name Is (monologue), by David Norum: an excerpt from a play about a woman who suffered years of abuse from her partner as it was related in court.
Blaze, by Janice Blaze Rocke: a conversation with a demon priest who haunts the main character that ends in triumph.
Conversation by Joe Nance, a conversation with self.

Ekphrastic Poetry: Writing Workshop with Jodie Hollander
2019-10-20 13:00 - 16:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Experience art at a new level and use it to inspire your writing. Internationally-known poet Jodie Hollander teaches this workshop in which participants respond poetically to the Cherry Center’s current exhibit. Study examples of celebrated poems that respond to, or were inspired by, art. You will then be led through a variety of writing activities inspired by the art, ultimately leading to a draft of an original poem. The afternoon will include a discussion of poetic techniques such as the use of vivid imagery, the importance of sonics, how to shape a poetic line as well as techniques for drafting and revision. No experience necessary.
The one-day workshop will be held at the Cherry Center on Sunday, October 20th, from 1:00 – 4:00 pm. Tickets are $60, available on brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 624-7491.
Jodie Hollander was raised in a family of classical musicians. She studied poetry in England, and her work has been published in journals such as The Poetry Review, The Yale Review, PN Review, The Dark Horse, The Rialto, Verse Daily, The New Criterion, Australia’s Best Poems of 2011, and Australia’s Best Poems of 2015. Her debut full-length collection, My Dark Horses, is published with Liverpool University Press in the UK and Oxford University Press in the US. Hollander is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in South Africa, a Hawthornden Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant in Italy, and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. She currently lives in Colorado.

Literary Reading Exploring Gun Violence and its Aftermath
2019-10-18 19:30 - 21:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
A literary reading exploring gun violence and its aftermath will be held Friday, October 18th at 7:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.
Produced in conjunction with the exhibit, Our Thoughts and Prayers Are with You, a multimedia group exhibit organized by the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, the reading examines issues related to gun violence from a range of perspectives. Celebrated novelist Jane Smiley will be joined by poets Jennifer Lagier, George Lober, Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts and Jodie Hollander.
“Our Thoughts and Prayers Are with You” explores a range of perspectives on the image and impact of guns in contemporary culture, though none endorse them as a means to an end. Works by artists and writers from throughout California address an array of issues surrounding access to, and use of, firearms across demographic groups. The programs examines the roles that guns continue to play in our national myths, suicide rates, individual and mass murder, domestic violence, and the militarization of civilian life.

"The sound of water " - The Art of Catching the Moment: A Haiku Writing Workshop
2019-10-12 10:30 - 16:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
“The sound of water”—The Art of Catching the Moment, a haiku workshop with poet Elliot Ruchowitz Roberts, will be held at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts on October 12th, 2019, from 10:30 AM – 4:00 PM. The program is open to readers and writers of all levels of experience with haiku. Price for the one-day event is $60. Scholarships are available. For more information or to reserve a ticket, please call (831) 624-7491 or (831) 920-0383.
The workshop will begin with brief accounts of the history of haiku, of its form, and of some of its practitioners (from Basho and Chiyo-ni to Richard Wright and Mitsu Suzuki). It will then focus on writing haiku using various writing exercises that provide starting points for exploring the art of catching the moment.

Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, To Mary (after eight and The Sweet Taste; co-editor of the college text Bridges; co-editor/co-translator of two works from the Telugu, Sudha (Nectar) by Chalam and The Selected Verses of Vemana, both of which have been accepted into UNESCO’s Collection of Representative works: Indian Series; and co-author of Bowing to Receive the Mountain: Essays by Lin Jensen and Poetry by Elliot Roberts. His poetry has appeared in various journals and anthologies. White Fire, a collection of his poems, was published in May 2017 by The Ping-Pong Free Press of the Henry Miller Memorial Library.
Poet-in-the-Schools for the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Ruchowitz-Roberts presents poetry writing workshops in high schools throughout Monterey County and coordinates the annual Monterey County High School Poetry Awards.
Professor Emeritus at Monterey Peninsula College where he taught composition, literature, public speaking and humanities for 32 years, Ruchowitz-Roberts serves as Vice President of the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation in Carmel, California. He also coordinates the Foundation’s annual Prize for Poetry and its annual reading series, and serves as a tour docent. He coordinated the National Endowment for the Arts “The Big Read: The Poetry of Robinson Jeffers,” during which he read and performed Jeffers’s poetry at venues throughout Monterey County, including local libraries, high schools and colleges.

Our Thoughts and Prayers Are with You
2019-10-04 17:00 - 2019-11-16 16:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
“Stick Up” – Cate White

Our Thoughts and Prayers Are with You, a multimedia group exhibit exploring gun violence, continues through Saturday, November 16th. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Sponsored, in part, by the Monterey Bay Zen Center, the Quakers and the Arts Council for Monterey County, the exhibit includes Bren Ahearn, Adrian Burrell, Enrique Chagoya, Marc D’Estout, Al Farrow, Mildred Howard, Diana Krevsky, John Moore, Jennie Ottinger, Maria Porges, Juan Carlos Quintana, Cate White and Jan Wurm, among others.

“Gun Control” Marc D’Estout

Literary Programs at The Cherry
2019-10-01 - 2019-10-31 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts

Smart Shorts Celebration of Film
2019-09-14 12:00 - 15:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
The Carl Cherry Center for the Arts will be screening the Smart Shorts Celebration of Film on Saturday, September 14th, from noon to 3:00 p.m. in the center’s theater in Carmel. The afternoon will feature thirteen original short films submitted from around the globe for entry in the event.
Smart Shorts was developed to encourage filmmakers ages 12 and older to create, express and share their lives and perspectives through films shot exclusively on smartphones and tablets.
Sponsored, in part, through donations from MCGives and the Arts Council for Monterey County, Smart Shorts desires to excite and promote filmmakers from Monterey County, the United States and around the world to produce a groundbreaking short film — 1 to 5 minutes in length — on this easily accessible digital medium.
The event is sold out. For more information, please call (831) 624-7491.

Celebration '69
2019-09-13 19:30 - 2019-09-15 14:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Celebration ’69, a multimedia experience featuring live music, images, video and storytelling, will play one last time this year at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel. Proceeds from the performances will go to All Things New Church in Monterey. Friday and Saturday, September 13 and 14 at 7:30 pm; Sunday, September 15th at 2 pm. Donations are $20.
The show focuses on stories about six of the year’s most iconic historical events including, among others, Woodstock, the Apollo 11 moonwalk and the Manson family murders. As transitional links, a live band plays medleys of songs released that year including hits from Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream, Santana and more. All the while, historical and musical visual images and video bring the era back to life.
The show’s creator Mark Shilstone-Laurent says of the show, “Although Celebration ’69 plays right into the wheelhouse of the Boomers who lived it, it’s a show for anyone who may be curious as to why the 60’s and its music are considered such a big deal – or for history buffs that understand just how crazy unique 1969 was and want to relive it both musically and historically.”
Tickets are available on brownpapertickets.com. For more information, please call (831) 676-0148.

The Language of Walls
2019-08-23 17:00 - 2019-09-20 17:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
“False Awakenings” – VIktor Klinger

The Language of Walls, a photography exhibit exploring an array of approaches to walls, opens Friday, August 23rd with an artists reception from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel. The reception is free and the public is invited.
Tree and Wall, West Pinnacles, 1985 – Edna Bullock
Complex, challenging, and immersive, the exhibit is a historical look at civilization’s relationship with barriers, both real and imagined. For centuries, across diverse civilizations, walls have been central to human history. This exhibit explores the various aspects of walls – artistic, social, political, and historical. These categories overlap and change meaning according to context, much like the walls themselves: erected for one reason, their appearance and use is then altered and modified over centuries, reflecting the civilizations that have grown and changed around them. Featuring over 15 photographers from the Monterey Bay Area, The Language of Walls invites the viewer to contemplate how these structures – from the decorative to the divine – affect the human psyche and why we keep building them.
Wedding Wall, Naoli, Madhya Pradesh, India 2008 – Jeffrey Becom
The work will include a range of methods and attitudes to walls, including exterior walls, interior walls, social walls, walls that heal, walls that divide, graffiti walls, walls as art and psychological walls. In other words, all the innumerable ways walls are imagined, photographed and understood.

Photography will include work by Jeffrey Becom, Edna Bullock, Susan Hyde Green, Viktor Klinger, Dixie Dixon, William Giles, Bert Ihlenfeld, Juan Mancheno, Kenneth Parker, Jacqui Turner, Robin Winfield, and Steve Zmak, among others.

The exhibit will run through September 20th, 2019.

Lucky Lindy: A Conversation With Charles Lindbergh
2019-08-02 - 2019-08-11 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
It’s 1974 and Charles Lindbergh is in the spotlight after 35 years of silence. From the world’s flying hero to a hero’s welcome in an evil dictatorship, to a leader of American isolationists and, finally, to a committed naturalist and environmentalist, he is always controversial. Now Lindbergh is read to talk…about everything.
Lucky Lindy: A Conversation with Charles Lindbergh is an original play written and directed by Tom Parks, with Keith Decker as Charles Lindbergh and Lynette Winter. The play opens its extended run on Friday, August 2nd, through Sunday, August 11th, 2019. Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel.
Tickets are $25. Friday and Saturday performances begin at 7:30pm; and Sunday matinees at 2:00pm. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit ticketguys.com or call (831) 717-7373.

Kenny Stahl Trio - Jazz At The Cherry
2019-07-20 15:00 - 17:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Jazz At The Cherry is proud to present an exciting afternoon of music with The Kenny Stahl Trio on Saturday, July 20th, at 3:00 p.m.
One of the hottest jazz flute performers today, Kenny Stahl has worked with Stevie Wonder, Jaco Pastorius, Ira Sullivan, Cal Tjader, Richie Cole, Herb Jeffries, Paul Horn, and many others. He has received the “Best Jazz Soloist” award from the International Flute Association and has opened for Diana Krall. Jazz Now magazine describes Kenny as “a masterful soloist producing a whole range of timbers, tones, colors and moods.” Joining Kenny will be bassist, Zach Westfall and drummer, Leon Joyce, Jr.
Bass guitarist, Zach Westfall, was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas and has combined his southern roots with the rich artistic tradition of the Monterey Peninsula jazz scene. Upon graduation from high school, Zach went to Berklee School of Music where he majored in jazz bass.
Drummer, Leon Joyce Jr., has worked with a wide variety of top artists including Ramsey Lewis, Nancy Wilson, Smokey Robinson, James Carter, Clark Terry, Larry Coryell, Patti LaBelle and Mary Wilson. The San Jose Mercury News describes Leon as “an antidote to power drummers and the hybrid-genre bands with their brainy arrangements.”
This special engagement at The Cherry is an opportunity to enjoy this outstanding jazz trio prior to their scheduled performance at this year’s Monterey Jazz Festival! Tickets are $25.00, available on brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 624-7491. Wine and light fare are included in the ticket price. Doors open at 2:00 p.m., and the performance begins at 3:00 p.m.

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Bohemian Summer: The Artwork and Life of Jeanne d'Orge
2019-07-19 - 2019-08-03 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Photograph: Picnic in Robinson Canyon, circa 1923. L to R: Alfred Burton, painter William Silva, Jeanne d’Orge, Robinson Jeffers, twins Donnan and Garth Jeffers.

Bohemian Summer: The Artwork and Life of Jeanne d’Orge, an exhibition featuring historical photographs, letters, poems, and artwork by the founder of the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, opens Friday, July 19th, and will run through August 3rd, 2019. The exhibit will also include works by Jo Mora and Ephraim Doner.

About Jeanne d’Orge (Mrs. Carl Cherry)
Born in 1887 in England, Jeanne d’Orge spent her childhood in Edinburgh, London, and Paris. Her book of verse, Voice in the Circle, published in 1955, focuses on her childhood in Europe.
After moving to New York in 1906, d’Orge became associated with “The Others,” a group of iconoclastic poets that included Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, and Wallace Stevens. Her poetry was included in the anthology The Others and The Poetry Journal. In 1923 Scribner’s Magazine published her award-winning “Lobos” poems.
Jeanne d’Orge died on May 1, 1964, at the age of 87. Although her painting was recognized in her lifetime for its forcefulness and spirit with exhibits at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Park Avenue Galley in New York City, and the De Young Museum in San Francisco, d’Orge insisted that her paintings never be sold, saying only, “I’m just a paintbrush for God.”

Roger Book - "Life is Love" Concert
2019-07-14 14:00 - 16:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Roger Book returns to the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts following his sold-out “Journey Through Love” concert this past February. Hearts were softened and lives were changed.
This “Life is Love” event will feature another collection of his original songs and enlightening life stories. If you wake up in the morning and see light you should be thankful. That is life and life is love. Come experience how this love can help you overcome whatever life throws at you and make your personal journey a rewarding experience.
One performance only: Sunday, July 14th, at 2PM. Tickets are $25, available on brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 624-7491, Light appetizers and beverages are included in the ticket price. All concert proceeds and related donations will go to the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts.

Feleboga
2019-07-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Feleboga will perform a concert of Norwegian and old-time music and dance on Friday, July 12th, at 7:00 pm, Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel.
Feleboga (fiddle bows) is a band from Norway, composed of family members Mattias Thedens (fiddle, banjo, vocals), Elizabeth Gaver (fiddle, vocals), and Hans-Hinrich Thedens (guitar, banjo, vocals). Tickets are $15.00, available through brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 624-7491.
.For more information about Feleboga, please follow us in Facebook and see our website, feleboga.com.

Celebrating the Cherry - Annual Summer Fundraiser
2019-06-22 16:00 - 19:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Celebrating the Cherry, our annual summer fundraiser, will be held at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts on June 22nd, 2019, from 4:00 to 7:00pm. This year we are honoring Katie Clare Mazzeo and Brian Taylor for their ongoing contributions to the arts.
The evening will feature wine and lite fare, music and entertainment, plus an exhibit in the gallery highlighting the Cherry Center’s history in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Along with reasonable priced art for sale by local artists, a silent auction, and a raffle showcasing a collection of fine wines. Monies raised will help provide quality artistic, educational and cultural programs for the residents of Monterey County. Tickets for the event are $45, available through brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 624-7491. To make a donation to The Cherry, please use this link.
Meet our Honorees:
Katie Clare Mazzeo has performed in solo and chamber music recitals in Europe and the U.S., including a tour of Iceland in a series of concerts with members of the Boston symphony. She has performed and lectured at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester as part of an international symposium on the Biology of Music, and has taught piano at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Longy School of Music. Katie Clare was a featured performer on fortepiano at the Schubert Festival at San Francisco State University and has given numerous concerts on both fortepiano and harpsichord with the ensemble Zeitgeist 1800, as well as performances at MusicSources in Berkeley, the Old First Church in San Francisco, and the Colton Hall Candlelight Series in Monterey.
Brian Taylor is known for his innovative explorations of alternative photographic processes including historic 19th Century printing techniques, mixed media, and handmade books. His work has been exhibited nationally and abroad in numerous solo and group shows. Taylor is currently the Executive Director of the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California. He received his B.A. Degree in Visual Arts from the University of California at San Diego, an M.A. from Stanford University, and his M.F.A. from the University of New Mexico and served as a professor of Photography for over 30 years, and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at San Jose State University.

Oceans, Flamenco en Vivo Carmel
2019-06-19 20:00 - 21:30 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Join us for an evening of Spanish Flamenco music and dance featuring dancer Savannah Fuentes, guitarist Pedro Cortes, and singer/percussionist Jose Moreno on Wednesday, June 19th, at 8:00 p.m.
Tickets are $25.00 general admission, $15 for students, available on brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 624-7491.
About Savannah Fuentes
Savannah Fuentes, born in Seattle to parents of Puerto Rican and Irish ancestry, is one of the only touring artists in the Pacific Northwest region with strong links to Flamenco culture. She studies both baile (flamenco dance) and cante (flamenco singing) and has toured throughout the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Montana, Idaho and Arizona. She has independently produced over 250 performances and workshops featuring internationally recognized Spanish Flamenco Artists such as Jose Anillo, Saray Munoz, Jesus Montoya, and Juanarito. She has studied with artists such as Guadiana, Joaquin Grilo, Eva Yerbabuena, El Farru, and Isabel Bayon. She attributes her formation as an artist to her most significant mentor, Maestra Sara de Luis. She continues to evolve as an innovator and performance artist. www.savannahf.com
About Pedro Cortes
Pedro Cortes, Comes from a family of Spanish Gypsy guitarists and began his studies with his father and the esteemed Flamenco guitarist Sabicas. Having toured professionally since the age of 17, he is gaining international recognition as a soloist and composer. He has premiered his work En la oscuridad de las minas at the Teatro Albeniz in Madrid, he had works premiered by the Carlota Santana Spanish Dance Company at the Joyce Theater in New York. He has two books on Flamenco, El Dron del Faraon and Cruzando el Charco, published by the American Institute of Guitar. Mr. Cortes, was commissioned by the Cohen Brothers to compose music for the film Paris Je TAime .He also wrote music for a childrens program on H B O called Fairy tale for Every Child. He has toured with Jose Greco and Maria Benitez, La Conja and has performed with such artists as Farrucita, La Tati, Merche Esmeralda, Manolete and the late Lola Flores. He has been guest artist with the St. Louis Opera and the New York Grand Opera, and has been commissioned by and performed as Musical Director with the Guthrie Theater In Garcia Lorcas BODAS DE SANGRE. Mr. Cortes is artistic director of his own Flamenco group, and also Musical Director of Palo Seco. Cortes is a third generation Flamenco guitarists and uses the experience passed down to him by his family to maintain the purity of Flamenco while creating new compositions. www.pedrocortes.com
About Jose Moreno
Born into a family of famous flamenco artists Estrella Morena (dancer) and Pepe de Málaga (singer), Jose began his flamenco career during his childhood years. His debut was at the famous Tablao flamenco Costa Vasca. Jose continued his studies with the Great Manolete, Farruquito, and Andres Marin and Cajon Percussion with Manuel Soler. Jose has been invited to perform in various companies around the world, and with distinguished artists such as: The Great Manolete, Joaquin Ruiz, Pastora Galvan, Jose Cortes Pansequito, Jose de Luna, Jose Luis Rodriquez, Roberto Castellon, Pedro Cortes, Jose Valle Chuscales, Basilio Garcia, Paco Heredia, Elena Andujar, Carmen Ledesma, Jesus Montoya, Zorongo Flamenco Dance, La Tania, Miguel Vargas, Nelida Tirado, Antonio Hidalgo, Curro Cueto, Gonzalo Grau, Edwin Aparicio, Amparo Heredia, Antonio Granjero, Angel Muñoz, Charo Espino, Omayra Amaya and many other outstanding performers
In 2001, Jose choreographed and performed a collaborative work with his mother Estrella Morena, and with renowned flamenco singer Carmen Linares with the New World Symphony Orquestra at Lincoln Theater. In 2004 choreographed works and performed with the Boston Flamenco Ballet, In 2007, Jose performed with the internationally known Isabel Pantoja, and with David Bisbal in Premios lo Nuestro. In 2010 performed in the 7th annual Panama Jazz Festival, also that same year at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City, in 2013 in Zorro The Musical at the Alliance Theatre, the BAM theatre in New York City with Flamenco Vivo Dance Company , and most recently in the 2014-2015 season of Carmen at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City and the 2015-2016 season of Carmen at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. for the Washington National Opera. www.josemorenoflamenco.com

The Way We Fell Out of Touch
2019-05-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
An Invitation to see a New Play in Development!
Award-winning screenwriter and author Toni Ann Johnson will perform her new play THE WAY WE FELL OUT OF TOUCH, based on the true story of the relationship between Johnson’s African-American mother and their family’s white maid during the 1970s in Upstate New York. The play is an adaptation of her award-winning short story (Lodestone Fiction Award ~ 2017). This play reading is developed in collaboration with Director, Robin McKee. This is a unique opportunity to enjoy the birthing of a new play. Please come and enjoy and give us feedback in an informal after performance discussion.
Thursday, May 30th at 7:00 p.m. The performance is FREE but seating is limited, so please be sure to RSVP to (831) 236-7825 to be on our guest list. We hope you will stay and give feedback after the reading.

About the Playwright/Actor:
This is Johnson and McKee’s second collaboration Ms. McKee directed and served as dramaturg on Johnson’s play Gramercy Park is Closed to the Public, which went on to receive productions in Los Angeles by the Fountainhead Theatre Company and in New York, by The New York Stage and Film Company. The play also earned Johnson a fellowship to the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab.
Johnson has won two Humanitas Prizes and a Christopher Award for her TV Movies which include Ruby Bridges (ABC), Crown Heights (Showtime) and The Courage to Love (Lifetime.) Johnson has written numerous YA dance related television and film projects including Step Up 2: The Streets, the second installment in the internationally popular Step Up Franchise. Johnson’s novel Remedy For A Broken Angel earned her an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author in 2015. She won an International Latino Book Award for the novel, as well as a Beverly Hills Book Award, and she was a finalist for the 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year. Johnson’s short fiction and essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Emerson Review, Hunger Mountain, Xavier Review and elsewhere. She teaches screenwriting at The University of Southern California.

Lucky Lindy: A Conversation With Charles Lindbergh
2019-05-17 19:30 - 2019-06-02 14:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
It’s 1974 and Charles Lindbergh is in the spotlight after 35 years of silence. From the world’s flying hero to a hero’s welcome in an evil dictatorship, to a leader of American isolationists and, finally, to a committed naturalist and environmentalist, he is always controversial. Now Lindbergh is read to talk…about everything.
Lucky Lindy: A Conversation with Charles Lindbergh is an original play written and directed by Tom Parks, with Keith Decker as Charles Lindbergh and Lynette Winter. The play opens Friday, May 17th, and runs through Sunday, June 2nd, 2019. Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel.
Tickets are $25. Friday and Saturday performances begin at 7:30pm; and Sunday matinees at 2:00pm. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit ticketguys.com or call (831) 717-7373.

Color Theory: The Art of Color at the Cherry Center
2019-05-17 16:00 - 2019-06-15 16:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Color Theory, an exhibit exploring the application of color in paintings by Lucas Blok and Mel Prest, opens Friday, May 17th at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts. A reception for the artists will be held at the center from 4 to 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
The exhibition examines the use of color from two separate, but related, perspectives: the large vibrant color fields of Monterey’s Lucas Blok and Mel Prest, a non-objective San Francisco painter whose work focuses on color and perceptual visual relationships.
Color Theory can be seen Wednesday through Friday from 11 to 4 p.m. and Saturdays noon to 4 p.m. or by appointment through June 15th, 2019.
Pictured, top: “Untitled” – Lucas Blok

Lucas Blok has an established interest in color. His paintings are absorbing experiments in visual perception as he works with vibrant and intensely saturated hues that become a uniquely involved experience for each individual spectator. Mr. Blok was awarded the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant for 2011-2012, which recognizes and generously supports his artistic merit as a professional artist over a significant period of time.

“17 Seconds” – Mel Prest
Mel Prest is an artist, curator and educator living in San Francisco. She received her BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design and MFA from Mills College in Oakland.
Her work is focused on color and perceptual visual relationships and synaesthetic response. Her work is held in collections at Apple; The Crocker Museum of Art; Kaiser Permanente; The Mills College Art Museum, among others.

Robert Campbell Monterey County High School Poetry Awards
2019-05-04 14:00 - 16:00
A reading and awards ceremony honoring the student poets will be held 2:00PM on Saturday, May 4th, 2019 at the Monterey Public Library, 625 Pacific Street, Monterey. During the event, student poets will receive an anthology featuring their award-winning works; certificate of merit; cash prize; and book of poetry. Family members, teachers, fellow students, and the public are welcome to attend.

The Robert Campbell Monterey County High School Poetry Awards are held each year in conjunction with the Carl Cherry Center’s high school art exhibition, Thinking Out Loud.

Dick Whittington and Friends
2019-04-27 15:00 - 17:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Celebrated jazz pianist Dick Whittington will be performing on Saturday, April 27th, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. as part of our ongoing Jazz At The Cherry series. Dick will be joined by Jim Payne on drums and Kenoa Mendenhall on bass.
Tickets are $25, available through brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 624-7491. Savory fare, champagne and wine are included in the ticket price. Doors open at 2:00pm.

About Dick Whittington:
Whittington, a long-time Big Sur resident, began his career in Los Angeles in the 1950s, playing with such jazz notables as Dexter Gordon, Bobby Hutcherson, and Sonny Criss. After relocating to Berkeley in the 1960s, he performed with Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Art Pepper, James Moody, Anita O’Day, Mel Torme, Bobby McFerrin and many others. He was co-founder of the Berkeley School District Jazz Program which fostered the careers of Joshua Redman, Benny Green and dozens of others.
Over the last five decades, DIck has performed with many jazz greats, including Stan Getz, James Moody, Lee Konitz, Art Pepper, Eddie Harris, and Chet Baker. In 1987, Dick and his wife Marilyn Ross founded the Maybeck Recital Hall, where, for ten years, they lived and produced over five hundred jazz and classical concerts, including the internationally-acclaimed “Live at Maybeck” solo piano series on Concord Records, which features over forty-five of the top pianists in jazz. Since moving to Big Sur, Dick played four years at Bernardus Lodge and has been at Carmel’s Cypress Inn since 2005.

About Kanoa Mendenhall:
Born in Yokohama to a Japanese mother and American father, Kanoa was raised in Monterey, California and grew up listening to jazz, enka, classical, and the music of Brazil. She started playing the cello at age 10 after being introduced to Oscar Pettiford’s music by her father, a jazz pianist. At the age of 12, Kanoa began playing the upright bass, and by age 13 she was regularly performing in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay areas

Kanoa has worked on the faculty of Jazz Camp West and Stanford Jazz Workshop for the past three years. She has performed at venues throughout the United States and Japan, such as the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Davies Symphony Hall, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Akasaka B Flat, the Jazz Gallery, and the Monterey Jazz Festival.

About Jim Payne:

Labeled the “Buddy Rich or Billy Cobham of funk drumming” by Jazz Times Magazine, Jim Payne has a long career as a drummer, educator, producer, and collaborator with the best musicians in jazz and funk.
Jim has performed with Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Slickaphonics, the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, and The Jim Payne Band, among many others. His performance venues have included major European and U.S. jazz and blues festivals, including Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, and Paris Jazz Festival.

Hot House: An Exhibit of Botanicals
2019-04-05 17:00 - 2019-05-04 16:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Hot House, an exhibit of botanicals celebrating the abundance of spring, opens April 5th at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts. A reception for the artists will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. The event is free and the public is invited.
“Flora 24” – Stacy Frank
This exhibit is a euphoric visual landscape of flora and fauna, featuring a range of media—works strong in color, eccentric in design, and loaded with enthralling details. Media used to create botanical paintings include watercolor, colored pencil, pen and ink, oil, and graphite. Botanical art is a centuries old art form that has a long and colorful history dating back to the 1400s BCE. With the advent of photography, botanical art was dormant for nearly a century but saw a rebirth in the latter part of the 1900s.
Artists include Kamille Corry, Stacy Frank, Frank Galuszka, Ken Hale, Andrea Johnson, Nancy Lawton, Claire Lerner, Susan Manchester, Stephanie Martin, Michel Medinger, and others.
“Fall Chrysanthemum” – Stephanie Martin

A marriage of art and science, botanical art immortalizes the plant world. After closely observing a plant, the artist discovers amazing details. The subject is carefully measured, drawn, and painted to capture its graceful movement and intriguing personality.
“Floral 21” – Claire Lerner
The most skilled botanical artists are those who understand plants scientifically, but also see and describe their subject with the eye and hand of an artist. Artists for the current exhibit also see botanicals through the lens of expressionism.
While plant paintings can be delicate and painstakingly exact and larger landscape canvases boldly imaginative, both are evidence of an extraordinary life in which sensuous love and religious conviction intertwine with scientific discovery.
Hot House: An Exhibit of Botanicals can be seen through May 4th during regular gallery hours: Wednesday through Friday from 11 to 4 p.m., Saturday noon to 4 p.m., or by appointment.
Pictured above: “Cascade” – Kenneth Hale

Thinking Out Loud - Monterey County High School Student Art Exhibition
2019-03-02 15:00 - 2019-03-23 16:00
Thinking Out Loud, our annual Monterey County high school student art exhibition, opens Saturday, March 2nd, with an artist reception from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. in the Cherry Center’s gallery on Fourth and Guadalupe, Carmel. The event is free and open to the public. The exhibit can be seen through March 23rd, 2019, during regular gallery hours: Wednesday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday noon to 4:00 p.m., or by appointment.
This program is made possible in part through grants from the Arts Council for Monterey County, and funding from the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, Community Foundation for Monterey County, Pebble Beach Company Foundation, Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation, Carmel-by-the-Sea Rotary, Volunteer Services for Monterey County, and Yellow Brick Road Benefit Store.
Photo above: Laura Flores Romero

One hundred area students participated in last year’s exhibit, displaying works across a wide variety of media.
“Well Lived” Raven Cook, Youth Arts Collective
“Til DEATH” Martin Aguirre, Everett Alvarez HIgh School
“Panther Grouper”Matthew Brady, Monterey High School
“Bloom” Jaia Linden Engel, Carmel High School

Roger Book - Journey Through Love
2019-02-23 14:00 - 15:30 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Local guitarist, pianist, poet, story-teller and singer-songwriter Roger Book will perform a special concert, Journey Through Love, Saturday, February 23, at 2:00pm, at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel. Reception will start at 1:15 with light appetizers and wine.
During the performance, Roger will take you through the many sides of love, while sharing personal stories from his life and those around him.
All proceeds benefit the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts and Carmel’s WW1 Memorial Arch restoration project. Tickets are $25, available by calling (831) 624-7491.

Monterey Comedy Improv
2019-02-09 19:30 - 21:30 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Tragedy, comedy, or contemporary culture? It makes no difference to the Monterey Comedy Improv, who perform 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 9th, at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel.
The troupe will take suggestions from the audience on a wide range of subjects to create a series of scenes and skits using whatever props are at hand. Scenes might include star-crossed lovers, sword fights, turkeys, politicians, rhyming couplets, disguises, and asides from the audience.
Monterey Comedy Improv have gained quite a bit of notoriety as the only troupe on the Central Coast to perform short form improvisational theater. The show typically features plenty of audience participation, so be sure to leave your inhibitions at the door!
Tickets are $15, available through brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 624-7491.

Monterey County High School Poetry Contest - Accepting Submissions
2019-02-01 - 2019-03-27 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts

The Eclectic Collective Presents: Winter Euphoria Series
2019-01-18 19:30 - 2019-02-16 19:30 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Imagine and Denuded Reflections
Tales told through the POV of the looking glass. Performances include adult subject matter, strong language:. February 15th and 16th, 7:30PM, $25 General Admission – Purchase tickets here, or by calling (831) 521-0375 or (831) 756-5266. Parts 1 and 2 will be performed each evening. Adult subject matter.
Part 1: Imagine, an original play adapted from a story by Janice Blaze Rocke from her novel consisting of 13 sequential stories. Peek inside the dressing room of The Mitchell Bros Theatre circa 1989 as a disillusioned and drunk stripper contemplates the idea of performing to Imagine by John Lennon for an all-male audience disinterested in world peace.
Written by Janice Rocke and co-directed by Nina Capriola.

Part 2: Denuded Reflections, in which Stephan Sams and Frances Sparks alternately portray a dual-personality talking mirror inside a strippers’ dressing room hell bent on revealing the secrets of the dancers. The mirror is brought to life with CGI effects by Kaya Tominigas and videography by Sam Danielson.
Written by Janice Rocke, Clark Coleman, Nicole Henares, and Eboni Harris.
Other performers include Zoey Kriegmont, Carri Newhouse, Emily McMath, Genevieve Marie, Suzy Nichols, and Jana Jo Williams.

Purchase Janice Blaze Rocke’s book, “Bachelor Party.” Built around the event of a bachelor party, the story is the first of 13 stories in a novel loosely based on the young adult life of its author.
Read an article about Janice Blaze Rocke in The Weekly.

Paper: Pressed, Printed, Sliced and Creased
2019-01-11 17:00 - 2019-02-16 17:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Paper: Pressed, Printed, Sliced and Creased, an exhibit exploring the range and diversity of artwork on paper, opens Friday, January 11th, with an artists reception from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

This exhibition focuses on works on paper, including prints, illustrated books, and selected drawings that explore and manipulate the materiality of paper itself. Paper is almost always the place where art begins and is the substance that receives the hint of an idea and finds its first outward realization. Yet paper can also support the most complex and layered of processes—watercolor, lithography and print—and be the foundation of the most refined and finished of artistic constructions.

The exhibit can be seen Wednesday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 4:00 p.m., or by appointment, through February 16th. For more information, please call (831) 624-7491.

Featured artists include Tracey Adams, Steven Assael, Martha Alf, Gale Antokal, Ann Artz, Fletcher Benton, Squeak Carnwath, Fred Dalkey, Lisa Esherick, Christian Fagerlund, Deanna Forbes, Nancy Gannon, Nancy Genn, Ken Hale, David Hines, David Ligare, Susan Manchester, Robert Natkin, Jane Rosen, Brian Taylor, Masami Teraoka, James Weeks, and others.

Pictured top: “FOLDED, August 17, 2014” – Tracey Adams

Partita Time! - The Cherry Trio
2019-01-01 15:00 - 17:00 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
PARTITA TIME!

The Cherry Trio — Elizabeth Gaver (violin), Penny Hanna (viola da gamba) and Michael Peterson (harpsichord) offers a toast to the new year with “Partita Time” on January 1st, 2019, at 3:00 p.m.
After the fireworks, but before the wine! Featuring some of the finest composers of the Baroque era, this year’s concert also highlights some lesser-knowns, including fire-y Vivaces and Arisoso variations by Buxtehude, a sparkling assortment of French dances by Senaillé, a sizzling sonata by Krieger, The Grape-pickers of Monguichet and the mysterious Le Dalican by Caix d’Herevois, along with the incomparable J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 2
Tickets are $25.00, and can be purchased through brownpapertickets.com or by calling (831) 624-7491. Be sure to reserve in advance, as this popular event sells out each year.

A Broadway Songbook with Tom Parks
2018-12-21 19:30 - 2018-12-22 19:30 | Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Tom Parks returns to the Cherry stage with A Broadway Songbook on December 21st and 22nd, at 7:30 p.m. Join us for a joyful evening of song and remembrance featuring the music of Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and many more. Musical direction by George Peterson.
Tickets for the evening are $25.00, available by calling (831) 717-7373.
