▼ Culture Keep It Short City Theatre celebrates 25 years of Summer Shorts. BY DAVID ROLLAND I t took a couple of years, but City Theatre is finally celebrating the 25th anniver- sary of its Summer Shorts series the best way it knows how — by presenting a col- lection of short plays. “We wanted to mix in something old with something new,” says Margaret Ledford, City Theatre’s artistic director. “We selected five plays that were among our faves over the last 25 years; then we also included five brand- spanking-new ones.” Deciding what plays would make the cut for the first Summer Shorts since 2019 was a fun, if exhaustive, process for Ledford and the rest of the company. “We sat around and read them all aloud to see what still resonated and what should be stuck in the time capsule. Some plays don’t hold up over the years,” Ledford ex- plains. “Curating a play is like being a DJ. There has to be a flow through the night. We think these ten came out as the best combination.” Among the collection of ten-minute plays are comedies, dramas, and even two musicals, penned by Pulitzer Prize winners, Emmy nominees, and Broadway darling Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Hamilton creator’s musical short, 21 Chump Street, which the company previously staged in 2017, tells the story of an honor student who will do anything for his new crush. Also returning is 2008’s Chroni- cles Simpkins Will Cut Your Ass, a play about a grade-school tetherball champion facing a new challenge. Newer productions include Go Get ‘Em, Tiger! by Steve Yockey, writer of the HBO se- ries The Flight Attendant, in which an en- counter with a tiger complicates a day at the zoo. Then there’s Webster’s Bitch, which finds dictionary writers at the center of a Twitter uprising over gender, obscenity, and the fu- ture of the English language. Ledford says the goal was to present something for everyone. “They’re only ten minutes long, so if you “CURATING A PLAY IS LIKE BEING A DJ. THERE HAS TO BE A FLOW THROUGH THE NIGHT.” don’t like one, you get another in ten min- utes,” she says. “And if you like one, an even better one will be coming up next.” Summer Shorts started back in 1996 as a response to the sea- sonal drought of the- atrical productions in the city. “There was no theater in the sum- mer in Miami back then. Every actor in Miami was out of work,” Ledford says. The idea was to do eight short plays in the afternoon and another eight in the evening with a talented cast of performers playing a multitude of roles. This year’s edition has eight actors playing close to 50 different parts across ten plays. “I had originally cast all of the Summer Shorts actors back in 2020,” Ledford notes. “When it got delayed because of COVID, I was very lucky that they were all able to come back.” The cast includes Jovon Jacobs, who will stretch his acting chops by playing a tiger, a sixth grader, and a witness to a traumatic event. “I’ve worked with Summer Shorts since college. They allow you to play roles you wouldn’t get to play anywhere else,” Jacobs tells New Times, adding that the quick switching from character to character and genre to genre isn’t as challenging as one might think. “The costumes help me get in character. It’s very fast-paced, so you don’t have an opportunity to linger on one charac- ter. It’s a marathon backstage. We’re all run- ning around changing costumes.” While a pandemic might have delayed cel- Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography Daniel Llaca and Diana Garle in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 21 Chump Street. ebrating 25 years of Summer Shorts, the cast and crew seem confident that these perfor- mances will make up for the lost time. Summer Shorts. Through Saturday, July 2, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Perform- ing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-949- 6722; arshtcenter.org. Tickets cost $50 to $75. [email protected] 10 10 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 JUNE 9-JUNE 15, 2022 NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com
