City Theatre

Summer shorts, Hispanic fest make awaited returns

Both of South Florida's mainstay theater festivals are making big moves in the weeks ahead, switching venues and merging -- in part -- at the Carnival Center's 250-seat Studio Theatre in downtown Miami.

City Theatre's 12th annual Summer Shorts festival kicks off next week with 15 plays in two rotating programs through mid-July. The 22nd annual Hispanic Theatre Festival, delayed a month, launches at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables July 6, then moves into the Carnival's Studio after Summer Shorts transfers to the Broward Center's Amaturo Theater.

The immediate reason for the Summer Shorts move is renovation work at UM's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre in Coral Gables, but the long-term answer is an invite from the Carnival Center and an opportunity to, as cofounder-producer Stephanie Norman has put it, take "America's Short Play Festival" to the next level.

The Hispanic Theatre Festival lost several host theaters in recent seasons, the latest being the Tower in Little Havana.

"In January, we found all our options closed, so we had to move again and move the festival back a month," founder/producer Mario Ernesto Sanchez said.

The Miracle, home of the Actors' Playhouse company, hosts the Hispanic festival's debut weekend in its main, 600-seat theater. Summer Shorts exits the more intimate Studio on July 8, allowing the Hispanic fest to transfer for the remainder of the series. The Hispanic fest's complete lineup will be announced shortly, Sanchez said.

Summer Shorts, 15 plays spanning comedy, drama and fantasy, will run six weeks, Thursday through July 8, at the Carnival Studio, then move to the Broward Center's 595-seat Amaturo for a final week July 7-12. It's the seventh year for the Broward excursion, including a winter series in February 2001.

The move to the Carnival brings with it a whole new range of technical, logistical and financial challenges, as was the case for the addition of the Broward Center. But Norman and current artistic coordinator J. Barry Lewis were striving the past year to try to maintain the flavor of the experience, especially for weekend doubleheader fans who will see all 15 playlets back-to-back with an optional, highly popular picnic dinner in between.

The urban setting of the Carnival is different from both the Ring's parklike campus, and the Broward Center's picturesque courtyard. But the City Theatre folks see the Carnival's central plaza as a great spot for a weeknight barbeque, weekend "tapas fiesta."

Eight directors are shepherding nine actors through the 15 shorts, most directors handling two and all the actors in several of the plays, ranging from three to a maximum of 15 minutes. The cast has evolved into a resident repertory ensemble in recent years, most of them Carbonell Award nominees and winners.

The actors are Irene Adjan, Antonio Amadeo, Elizabeth Dimon, Ceci Fernandez, Kameshia Duncan, Brandon Morris, Bechir Sylvain, Stephen Trovillion and Tom Wahl. The directors are Lewis and Norman, plus Desmond Gallant, Margaret Ledford, Stuart Meltzer, James Samuel Randolph, Kim St. Leon and Paul Tei.

The shows include seven world premieres and eight southeastern premieres. Writers range from a young, emerging local writer (Marco Ramirez) to veteran South Florida authors (Michael McKeever, Susan Westfall) to nationally and internationally known playwrights such as Craig Wright. Titles are as teasing as What I Learned From Grizzly Bears and I Am Not Batman, plus Angle of Attack, Reveille and Splat!

Program A is presented solo Thursdays and Program B on Fridays. Performances are 7:30 p.m., with an optional pre-show dinner package at 6. Weekends are doubleheaders: Saturdays include Program A at 6 p.m., optional dinner at 7:30 p.m., Program B at 8:30 p.m.; Sunday's schedule includes Program A at 3 p.m., optional dinner at 4:30 p.m., Program B at 5:30 p.m. Weekend patrons may select either program or both.

Tickets are $35 for each program. Theatre "Fare" tickets for the optional picnic-style meals are $15; the Carnival's June 9 doubleheader with special "Movable Feast" dinner package is $120, a similar gala July 14 at the Broward Center is $90.

For tickets and information, contact the Carnival Center (305-949-6722, carnivalcenter.org); Broward Center (954-462-0222, browardcenter.org); or City Theatre (305-365-5400, citytheatre.com).

Jack Zink can be reached at jzink@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4706.