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 2017-2018, 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…
Read More: After pandemic pause, Summer Shorts festival returns with 25th anniversary