Jannelys Santos as Rhonda Sanchez, the hostess for the coming Summer Shorts
By Bill Hirschman
Throughout South Florida, throughout the country, arts organizations are struggling to survive slashes in government funding and grants. They imaginatively reconfigure ways to fulfill their vision, hoping their cutting does not affect the quality or scope of what their public has come to expect.
A prime example is how City Theatre in Miami is scaling back with a good-natured thumb-your-nose attitude that acknowledges, even embraces the sparing steps that have been taken in their 29th annual Summer Shorts festival to deal with the withheld state and local funds.
Among other cuts to income, City Theatre lost about $50,000 as part of the $32 million that Gov. Ron DeSantis zeroed out in arts and culture grants, asserting that the projects are “too much into the DEI, into the woke stuff.”
“When Florida cut arts funding, we got creative. This year’s festival is the loudest, fastest, and funniest way for us to say we’re defunded, not defeated,” said Gladys Ramirez, its executive director.
Among the alterations: a change to one weekend with four shows; moving from their longtime home at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts; a slightly briefer run time each night; a collaboration with another company and their emcee; actors with a shorter rehearsal period acting from scripts in hand.
Productions of 20 relatively new plays and premieres, each about 10-minutes long are slated for June 26-29 at the Sandrell Rivers Theatre in Miami.
“After losing all the funding from the state of Florida, and then on top, additional funding from the county, it just made it so that a three-week run of eight fully produced plays was no longer feasible,” Ramirez said.
“And at that point, (Artistic Director Margaret Ledford) and I were like, ‘Well, we’re artists. Let’s get creative. What else can we do? ….Well, if we can’t beat them, let’s mock them. Let’s have an over-the-top host…wearing white boots like the governor famously did. We’re just going to say our piece.”
As always, the production which is part of City Theatre’s regular season (still at the Arsht) is engrained with humor.
“This year’s Summer Shorts is our loudest, funniest response to getting defunded by the State of Florida. Our ‘Defunded Not Defeated’ campaign makes it clear: we’re not going anywhere. Thanks to our community, we’re still here, still hilarious, and still sharing our shorts with Miami, Ramirez said.
In an interview and in its publicity, Shorts’ staff unabashedly tweaks the nose of those who cut funding to all of the arts.
Shorts has often danced along an envelope-nudging boundary, but in what sounds like ripping the envelope open, the news release proudly announced, “Get your tickets now before we sell out, or get banned!”
But there is little funny about the funding situation. A year ago, the annual budget for all of City Theatre’s numerous programs was $777,475. This current season, the annual budget is $604,094. Miamj-Dade County cut $10,000 from this season’s budget and the company is anticipating a further cut for the 2025-2026 season. The National Endowment for the Arts, under attack by the Trump Administration, cut $20,000 supporting a tour of short plays through schools.
Reportedly, the governor is considering restoring the state money for the next fiscal year, but only if he could control assigning funds to “family-friendly content.” The Florida Legislature has returned to an extra session since no budget has passed.
This season, four of the 20 Shorts plays are written by “homegrown” playwrights. The rest are chosen, as they have each year, from varied sources including National New Play Network, City Theatre’s National Award for Short Playwriting.
While still comedy-focused, some share a topical base. “It’s more like plays that celebrate two gay men who are arguing about who’s going to die first. ‘We’re so in love, we don’t want to live without each other.’ And just exploring how is joy, resilience? Is joy a way for us to combat what’s going on in our world?”
Another difference is switching the show from the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts where it has been since 2007. While the rest of City Theatre’s UpClose season will continue to be housed at the Arsht, Shorts will be at the Sandrell Rivers Theater, a state-of-the-art venue just one block off I-95/
One incentive for the free garage parking for all; it cost about City Theatre $15,000 just to park Shorts’ cast for its extended run.
Another twist – and added help — is collaborating with Villain Theater, a 10-year-old Miami company that specializes in improv, short form comedy, sketch comedy – a precise match to what Shorts does.
Among Villain’s contribution is having each night emceed by “Rhonda Sanchez,” (played by Jannelys Santos) the show’s fictional over0the-top hostess unlikely to be invited to a session of Congress.
With a written straight face, the news release acknowledges she “is a parody character protected under the First Amendment’s Fair Use Clause (despite the United States Constitution becoming more of a loose guideline than a legally binding document).”
The debuting works by local writers are:
You. by Cristina Marie Pla-Guzman Amid grief and a new Autism diagnosis, a mother is visited by the spirit of Celia Cruz and reminded, through the sacred language of family, what it means to believe, love, and listen without words.
Burn Book by JC Gutierrez In a world where reading is forbidden, a former professor and an illiterate rebel uncover the sacred texts of lost civilizations. As they confront the power of knowledge, they must choose: ignite the past or illuminate the future.
Tabú/Taboo by Bianca Utset When a Miami couple hosts game night with friends, things go off the rails fast. Tensions flare and truths slip out in this sharp comedy about identity, pride, and what happens when playing nice stops being fun and games.
How Did We Get Here? by Nick Valdes In the space between last words shared by two best friends, time bends and secrets surface. Brent must confront what it means to withhold the deepest parts of himself in this quiet meditation on friendship, memory, and the moments that change everything.
Bowing in 1995, Shorts grew and grew from two full weekends on the Ring Theater at the University of Miami campus, complete with chicken dinner served between the matinee and evening performance.
Looking ahead, “Next season’s our 30th year anniversary. So this is the time that we really want to think, looking forward, what do we want to be known for? Who do we want to be? And we really want to lead our community with hope, I think, which is what, looking around, seeing that we’re all missing hope. And it’s hard, but this is our way of saying, We’re going to just keep laughing and keep rolling and keep figuring it out…. We’re resilient. You can’t stop us.”
Summer Shorts from City Theatre plays 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday June 26-28, 3 p.m. Sunday. June 29 at the Sandrell Rivers Theatre at 6103 NW 7th Ave., Miami. Tickets $25 for one show, $80 for all four. VIP tickets called Rhonda’s Inner Circle are $40 per show with up-front, cabaret-style seating and a complimentary glass of Rhonda’s favorite cocktail: Red, White, and Boozy.
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