City Theatre's 18th Summer Shorts Festival to Return to Arsht Center, 6/6-30

Summer fun in Miami kicks off with City Theatre's Summer Shorts Festival 18th Season, co-presented with the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. A hilarious and provocative annual celebration of the best short plays in the country, Summer Shorts is known nationally as America's Short Play Festival, with a lineup of scripts penned by the country's best writers including City Theatre National Short Play Competition winners.

The annual event, produced by South Florida's City Theatre under the artistic direction of John Manzelli, will run June 6-30 at the intimate Carnival Studio Theater located in the Arsht Center's Ziff Ballet Opera House. Over the 18 years of the festival, co-founder Susan Westfall says the company has produced nearly 500 short plays, ranging from outrageous comedies to tender and insightful mini-dramas. After all, it is a short play festival, with lengths of two to 20 minutes.

More than 50,000 theatregoers have been to Summer Shorts over the years. Performing in the intimate Carnival Studio Theater, recently named one of the world's most memorable theatres by Departures magazine, puts audiences up close with a company of chameleon-like actors playing multiple characters in up to a dozen short plays.

From June 6-30, Summer Shorts 2013 performances will be Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 4 p.m. To guarantee your tickets to Summer Shorts 2013 visit arshtcenter.org or call 305.949.6722. Groups of ten or more call 786-468-2326 for special discounts. Tickets are available to members of the Arsht Center beginning January 22 and to the general public beginning January 29.

City Theatre is a not-for-profit professional theatre company that was founded in 1996 and is dedicated to the creation of new plays, family theatre, and growing theatre audiences through programming that entertains and enlightens. Annual programming includes Summer Shorts: America's Short Play Festival; an annual Festival family musical, touring and in-school programing for young audiences, community play readings, the annual CityWrights Conference; and the annual City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting Contest which draws more than a thousand submissions of short plays each season. Visit www.citytheatre.com for more information about City Theatre, Summer Shorts and other programs of the non-profit professional company.

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is one of the world's leading performing arts organizations and venues. Made possible by Miami-Dade County's largest ever public/private-sector partnership, the Center is home to the Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet and New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy. In addition, numerous South Florida arts organizations perform in its theaters regularly. Since opening in 2006, the Center has emerged as a leader in offering and presenting innovative programming that mirrors South Florida's diversity, as a catalyst for development in Miami, and as a host of impactful community outreach and education programs.

Designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the venue is comprised of the 2,400-seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, the 2,200-seat John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall, the black box Carnival Studio Theater, a restored Carnival Tower, the Peacock Foundation, Inc. Studio, the Peacock Foundation, Inc. Education Center and the outdoor Parker and Vann Thomson Plaza for the Arts. Events impresario and restaurateur Barton G. Weiss brought his signature style to the Center in 2009 with PRELUDE BY BARTON G, a full-service upscale restaurant.

Visit www.arshtcenter.org for more information.

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