Summer Shorts

America’s Short Play Festival, SUMMER SHORTS 2022, returns to the Arsht Center for a fun and lively celebration of City Theatre’s milestone 25th anniversary!

Audiences will delight in an exciting lineup of new short comedies, dramas and mini-musicals and fresh revivals of festival favorites written by the country’s best playwrights and performed by a talented ensemble of South Florida all-stars!

Don’t miss the fun of City Theatre’s Silver Anniversary of SUMMER SHORTS. It’s a festival of theater unlike any other.

Enjoy even more festival fun! A limited number of premium tickets are available! Premium tickets include up-front, reserved seating and a free drink ticket for every ticket buyer.

Lineup:
21 Chump Street
Book, Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda (2016 Pulitzer Prize winner, Hamilton)

Festival favorite from 2017! A cautionary tale about an honor student who will do anything for his new crush.

A Little Bit of Culture
by Staci Swedeen

Festival favorite from 1999! For one man the concert promises a nap, until the music sweeps him away.

A Small Breach in Protocol at Big Rick’s Rockin’ Skydive Academy
By Daniel Hirsch

Southeastern premiere! When a routine skydive jump seems to go awry, Rae, Alicia, Chad and Tina face big existential questions about meaning, mortality and maybe a mistake as they plummet 200 miles per hour to Earth.

Chronicle Simpkins Will Cut Your Ass
By Rolin Jones (2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist; previous credits include Weeds, United States of Tara, Boardwalk Empire)

Festival Favorite from 2008! Fourth-grader Chronicles Simpkins is the Undisputed Unified Tetherball Champion of Recess, Lunch, and After School. She rules the tetherball court of Woodlake Avenue Elementary with an iron fist -- but what happens when a new challenger dares to enter her ten-foot circle of pain?

Go Get’Em, Tiger!
By Steve Yockey (2021 Primetime Emmy nominee; showrunner, The Flight Attendant)

World premiere! An encounter with a tiger complicates a day at the zoo for John and Linda.

Misdial
By David Lindsay-Abaire (2007 Pulitzer Prize winner, Rabbit Hole)

Southeastern premiere! Fran answers a wrong number and finds herself unable to be understood in a hilarious mess of miscommunication!

Night Vision
by Dominique Morriseau (Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations, Skeleton Crew)

Southeastern premiere! Ayanna and Ezra witness an assault on the street. When they return to their apartment to call the police, they discover danger in how their accounts of the attacker differ and question the truth of what they saw.

Tango, the Musical!
Music & Lyrics by Joe Illick
Book & Lyrics by Susan Westfall

World premiere! Joe and Sandy are out for their usual dull Friday date night when the evening becomes decidedly unusual.

Webster’s Bitch
By Jacqueline Bircher

Miami premiere! The employees of Webster's dictionary find themselves at the center of a Twitter uprising over gender, obscenity and the future of the English language itself.

Winner
By Amy Berryman

Tori Walker's won a prestigious playwriting award, Charlie Harvard hasn’t, and he's not used to losing. A timely play about privilege and claiming space.

READ THIS: HEALTH AND SAFETY
Given the intimate nature of performances in the Carnival Studio Theater, and by request of the performers, guests are required to wear masks (over the nose and mouth) while seated in the theater for Summer Shorts. Masks are welcome and encouraged in the lobby and other Arsht Center spaces. The Arsht Center continues to maintain enhanced cleaning and air-filtration procedures for the well-being of audiences, artists and staff. Any policy changes will be sent directly to ticket holders and updated regularly at arshtcenter.org/covid-19.