City Theatre (@CityTheatreMIA) and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County (@arshtcenter) are proud to 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.

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!”

Summer Shorts: Homegrown Edition features works by local playwrights Joel Castillo, Ariel Cipolla (@arielonset), Chris Anthony Ferrer (@chris_anthony_ferrer), Sefanja Richard Galon (@zeph.void), Luis Roberto Herrera (@fullsizedluis), Ivan R. López (@ilopez265), Phanésia Pharel (@phanesiapharel) and Lolita Stewart-White (@lolitastewartwhite). The cohort was led by Homegrown Master Playwright Vanessa Garcia.