South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
‘Summer Shorts’ marks 25 years
Miami’s City Theatre was preparing to produce and party in 2020 with a splashy 25th-anniversary edition of Summer Shorts, its annual festival of short-form comedies, dramas and musicals.
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard that March, those plans were put on indefinite hold. The company did plenty of virtual programming, but returning to a full-fledged, in-person indoor event still looked risky in June 2021, so that festival was scratched too.
But cofounder/literary director Susan Westfall and artistic director Margaret M. Ledford are as tenacious as they are creative. And so, 27 years after Westfall, Stephanie Heller and Elena Wohl created City Theatre, the postponed 25th festival is finally here, running through July 2, 2022, in the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts — on the Susan Westfall Playwrights Stage, no less.
Ledford, who is directing the Lin-Manuel Miranda musica, “21 Chump Street,” (first presented in the 2017 festival) and the world premiere of “Tango, The Musical!” by Westfall and composer Joe Illick, is also overseeing the festival. This year’s Summer Shorts goes big with eight additional plays, four more directors, eight actors, a musical director and a choreographer.
“Being back started feeling normal around Day 2 of rehearsals,” says Ledford. “There’s been such anticipation about this. We’re ready and excited, but at the same time it’s a little unfamiliar, which allows it to be new, in a way.”
Playwright Steve Yockey, whose “Go Get ’em, Tiger!” will have its world premiere at this year’s festival, has been commissioned
by City Theatre more than any other playwright. (Among his resume highlights, he was a producer on “Supernatural” in 20172018, is executive producer and showrunner for “The Flight Attendant” on HBO Max, and has a pilot called “Dead Boy Detectives” filming.) He made his Summer Shorts debut with “Serendipity” in 2013. “Go Get ‘em, Tiger!” will be his ninth City-produced script.
“I don’t think you can overstate how important City is at a national level in finding new talent,” he says. “They bring thoughtfulness and care to how they select a slate of plays, how they bring playwrights in, how they do so many bookstore readings.”
This year’s acting company, hired for the canceled 2020 festival, consists of Summer Shorts veterans and newbies. Of the eight actors, Tom Wahl holds the record for most Summer Shorts appearances — this is his 11th, plus two editions of “Winter Shorts.” Margot Moreland, Alex Alvarez, Lindsey Corey, Diana Garle and Jovon Jacobs have all done the festival before, while Stephon Duncan and Daniel Llaca (both of whom have appeared in other City Theatre productions) are Summer Shorts newcomers.
“I’m in five [pieces], including Susi’s musical. I don’t sing, but I do a little dancing,” says Wahl. “I like being in a room when all that creativity is happening — it’s miraculous.”
Fellow veteran Moreland cites varied roles as part of the appeal for an actor.
“You’re so easily pigeonholed in this business, but not in Summer Shorts,” says Moreland, who will also appear in five of the 10 plays. “This gets you back to your soul of being an actor. It’s electrifying, and the directors are great … It’s an extraordinary experience.”
Jacobs agrees. The St. Croix native appreciates the chances he gets to stretch in Summer Shorts — “different things you might not do in any other theater… and it brings together actors who otherwise might not work together. It’s a melting pot of different things, refreshing.”
Though theater itself went through a period of deep self-examination in terms of equity, diversity and inclusion during the pandemic, Jacobs thinks inclusive companies like City Theatre are still more the exception than the rule.
“I wish I would be seen for more things, but I don’t think things will change so fast. I do see more Black plays inserted in seasons, and I have played non-traditional roles. But I’m usually seen for Black roles,” he says.
Four of the five festival directors have been at the helm of Summer
Shorts productions before, including City Theatre’s founding artistic director Gail S. Garrisan, who’s directing the late Staci Swedeen’s “A Little Bit of Culture” and David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Misdial,” and Michael Yawney, who’s directing the world premiere of Yockey’s “Go Get ‘em, Tiger!” and Jacqueline Bircher’s “Webster’s Bitch.”
“The plays are so short that you can really be bold,” says Yawney, who teaches theater at Florida International University. “And if the audience hates it, don’t worry — there’s another 10-minute play coming up ... It’s exciting. Like jumping out of a plane and hoping the ground will be there.”
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IF YOU GO
What: City Theatre’s 25th annual Summer Shorts Festival
When: Regular performances 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays, through July 2
Where: Carnival Studio Theater in the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
Tickets: $50 and $60 for general admission; $65 and
$75 for VIP
Information: 305-9496722; ArshtCenter.org