City Theatre's Summer Shorts Festival 18th Season Begins 6/6

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.

Summer Shorts is 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, Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson, PA Carnival Foundation, Knight Foundation, Wille Family Foundation, EPIC Hotel, IBM Corporation, Sabadell United Bank, WLRN, Aventura Limousine, Citizens Interested in Arts and the Dramatists Guild Fund.

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 made possible by the public support of the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council and the City of Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, as well as the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. The Adrienne Arsht Center also receives generous support from local, state and national foundations, as well as private contributions to the Adrienne Arsht Center Foundation through corporate and individual giving, Visionary Society membership and the Encore Circle major gifts programs.