Summer Shorts Returns With All-New Homegrown Edition Featuring Miami's Best Emerging BIPOC Playwrights

City Theatre and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County will present SUMMER SHORTS: HOMEGROWN EDITION, a celebration of Miami's best emerging BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) playwrights featuring eight refreshing and revealing ten-minute plays celebrating Miami's homegrown talent. Set against the backdrop of the Magic City, these provocative and entertaining stories feature a cast of diverse, Miami-based actors under the vision of City Theatre Artistic Director Margaret M. Ledford. SUMMER SHORTS: HOMEGROWN EDITION plays from June 8-25 in the Arsht Center's intimate Carnival Studio Theater.

Tickets to SUMMER SHORTS: HOMEGROWN EDITION are $50.* VIP tickets are also available for $75*, which include up-front, cabaret-style seating and a free drink. Student tickets are available for $15 with valid student ID. Tickets may be purchased at the Adrienne Arsht Center box office by calling (305) 949-6722, or online at arshtcenter.org.

SUMMER SHORTS: HOMEGROWN EDITION is the culmination of City Theatre's inaugural HOMEGROWN playwright development program. HOMEGROWN aims to nurture, elevate, and promote Miami's BIPOC writers by providing the time, tools, and training to create their own body of work to diversify the national theater canon.

"These fresh, funny, and locally sourced plays are every bit as good as previous incarnations of our Summer Shorts program, but with a welcome familiarity of recognizable places and faces of our South Florida region." said City Theatre Artistic Director Margaret M. Ledford. "I am so pleased and proud to amplify the voices of our local talent from page to stage."

A cohort of eight playwrights work with Homegrown Master Playwright Vanessa Garcia (@vanessagarciawriter) to engage in creative instruction, professional development, and creating new works for SUMMER SHORTS: HOMEGROWN EDITION. Garcia is the author of The Amparo Experience, an immersive theater hit that People en Español called "Miami's Hottest Ticket." Other plays include Sweet Goats & Blueberry Senoritas, which she co-wrote with U.S. inaugural poet Richard Blanco and #GRACED, which premieres at the Arsht Center in 2023. She has also written for Sesame Street, Caillou and other shows.

"There is so much talent in Miami -- this program shines a light on that talent and helps launch it beyond the greater Miami area into the world," said Garcia. "These are the voices that need to hit the mainstream and represent what it means to be American today. And they will, so all I can say is get ready!"

The HOMEGROWN playwright development program was launched through the support of The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation. Additional support for this production is provided by Citizens Interested in the Arts. This program is also made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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