Event coverage

The Moth Mainstage at the Majestic

Our photos from The Moth Mainstage at the Majestic Theatre, presented by the San Antonio Book Festival around the theme All These Wonders. Host David Crabb welcomed storytellers Julissa Arce, Barbara Collins Bowie, Liel Leibovitz, David Litt and Martha Ruiz-Perilla, and the coverage follows the night from the empty house and rehearsal to the dressing room, the microphone and the crowd in the lobby.

View from the stage of a lone microphone stand in a spotlight, with a crowded orchestra floor and a full balcony beyond.

A single microphone stands in a pool of light at the edge of the stage, facing a packed Majestic Theatre.

Setting the scene

Wide view from the stage of an empty ornate theater with Spanish-style facades, balconies and a deep blue ceiling, a microphone stand at the left edge of the stage.

A lone microphone waits at the edge of the stage, facing the Majestic Theatre’s empty seats.

Close-up of a black microphone on a stand, angled toward a dark theater filled with soft dots of warm light.

The storytellers’ microphone stands angled toward the dark theater, its balcony lights blurred behind it.

Rows of empty seats in a dim theater whose side walls are built like Spanish village facades, under a deep blue ceiling.

Towers, balconies and a blue sky ceiling surround the empty seats of the Majestic Theatre.

Two women blur past a tall purple banner reading The Moth Mainstage, True Stories Told Live, beneath an ornate painted arch while ushers wait by a doorway.

Guests walk past The Moth Mainstage banner under the lobby’s painted arches.

Rehearsal

A woman seen from behind in silhouette stands at a microphone in a bright circle of light on a dark stage, her shadow stretching toward the camera.

Julissa Arce stands alone in the spotlight at rehearsal, facing the dark house.

An older woman with short platinum hair, glasses, a ruffled black blouse and gold brocade pants stands beside a microphone on a dim stage, with ornate balconies behind her.

Storyteller Barbara Collins Bowie stands by the microphone during rehearsal, with the theater’s carved balconies behind her.

A woman with a blond bob, a long pearl necklace and a long black dress stands smiling at a microphone in a spotlight, her shadow falling across the stage floor.

Martha Ruiz-Perilla, in a long black dress, smiles at the microphone as she rehearses.

Floor-level close-up of legs in shiny gold brocade pants and black flat shoes next to the round base of a microphone stand on a black stage.

Barbara Collins Bowie stands in gold brocade pants and black flats beside the base of the microphone stand.

Floor-level close-up of cream shoes stitched with dark swirls under the hem of a long black pleated skirt, next to the base of a microphone stand.

Martha Ruiz-Perilla’s embroidered shoes peek out from under her long pleated skirt at the foot of the microphone.

Backstage

A woman with long dark hair applies lipstick, leaning toward a dressing room mirror framed with glowing round bulbs, her reflection visible at right.

Julissa Arce touches up her lipstick at a dressing room mirror ringed with bulbs.

A bearded man in a gray blazer over a Spurs T-shirt smiles and gestures with one hand while talking to someone just out of frame.

Storyteller Liel Leibovitz, in a Spurs T-shirt and blazer, talks with his hands in the dressing room.

An older woman with short platinum hair, glasses and pearl earrings looks upward, seated beside dressing room mirrors lined with bulbs.

Barbara Collins Bowie looks up from her seat beside the dressing room’s rows of mirror lights.

A woman with a blond bob, a black sleeveless dress and a long pearl necklace sits sideways on a chair, smiling up at a person whose arm reaches in from the right.

Martha Ruiz-Perilla, in black and pearls, smiles up at someone beside her at the dressing room counter.

A man in a red cardigan and a woman in glasses and a black leather jacket look over stacks of white paper, with other people chatting by the mirrors behind them.

Two people page through stacks of printed sheets in the busy dressing room.

At the microphone

Side view of a dark theater: a man stands at a microphone on the stage at left with a violinist seated behind him, while the crowd below holds up glowing phones.

Phone lights glow across the house as host David Crabb stands at the microphone, the violinist seated nearby.

A man in a blue blazer and patterned shirt stands in a spotlight with a hand on his hip, smiling beside a microphone against a black background.

Host David Crabb, in a blue blazer, grins at the microphone, one hand on his hip.

A young man in a dark suit, seen in profile, speaks into a microphone with both hands raised in front of him, against black.

Storyteller David Litt, in a dark suit, talks with both hands at the microphone.

A woman with long dark hair in a black floral sleeveless dress stands at a microphone, smiling, one hand on her hip, against a black background.

Julissa Arce, in a floral dress, smiles out toward the seats from the microphone.

An older woman with short platinum hair and glasses, in a ruffled black satin blouse, smiles at a microphone in a spotlight against black.

Storyteller Barbara Collins Bowie, in a ruffled black blouse, smiles at the microphone.

On a dark stage, a bearded man in a blazer, jeans and white sneakers gestures at a microphone while a woman in a teal cardigan sits holding a violin behind him to the left.

Liel Leibovitz gestures at the microphone while the violinist sits in the light behind him.

A woman in a teal cardigan and polka-dot top plays the violin with a furrowed brow, a microphone at left, against black.

The violinist furrows her brow as she plays beside a microphone.

Meeting the crowd

View from a balcony of a packed, ornate two-level lobby with carved wooden railings, a staircase and a large chandelier set with colored glass.

Guests crowd the Majestic Theatre’s two-level lobby under its jeweled chandelier.

Overhead view of a merchandise table with blue, red and white T-shirts and canvas totes printed with I, a red moth and Stories, as people in orange shirts and guests gather around.

T-shirts and tote bags printed with a red moth and the word “Stories” hang over a busy merchandise table.

From above, guests crowd around a table stacked with dark blue hardcover books with a gold moth on the cover, one woman holding a copy and others looking at their phones.

Guests gather at a table stacked with copies of The Moth’s book “All These Wonders.”

A bearded man in a blazer and Spurs T-shirt, holding a drink, grins at a phone screen while posing with a smiling man in glasses and a ball cap who gives a thumbs-up.

Liel Leibovitz, in a Spurs T-shirt, grins for a selfie with a guest in the theater.

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