Here is a guide to theater in South Florida:
Miami-Dade
• Actors' Playhouse: This multifaceted, 20-year-old company is the big dog of local theater in Miami-Dade County. Headed by founder/executive producing director Barbara Stein and artistic director David Arisco, Actors' Playhouse has three performance spaces -- a 600-seat auditorium, a 300-seat balcony theater and a 100-seat black box -- within its home at the beautifully restored Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables. Winner of more than 50 Carbonell Awards, Actors' Playhouse has built its reputation with productions of lavish mainstream musicals, musical revues and an extensive children's theater program. Past shows: Aida, Little Shop of Horrors, Floyd Collins, Tomfoolery. 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. 305-444-9293 or actorsplayhouse.org
• City Theatre: A company unlike any other in South Florida, City Theatre has devoted itself to one thing for the past 11 years: short plays (and the odd brief musical). Hundreds of them. City's popular Summer Shorts Festival, which presents two programs of seven or eight shorts each in June and July, now calls both Miami's Carnival Center for the Performing Arts and Fort Lauderdale's Broward Center home. Since its founding by playwright Susan Westfall, actress Elena Wohl and current executive director Stephanie Norman, City has premiered dozens of plays, given work to a host of the region's best actors and directors, joined with the Tony Award-winning Actors Theatre of Louisville in culling new short plays and become a summertime ritual for its avid audiences. Past shows: Time Flies, Bake-Off, Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach, I Am Not Batman. 305-365-5400 or citytheatre.com
• GableStage: Artistic director Joseph Adler lives to make audiences think and squirm. He often does both at this 150-seat theater, which is tucked away at one end of the historic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Adler's preference is for powerful, sometimes sexy or violent fare, such as recent-vintage plays by Neil LaBute, Martin McDonagh and Tracy Letts. The combination has won GableStage 17 regional Carbonell Awards in just the past three seasons, including best play and best director each year. Past shows: Bug, Killer Joe, Frozen, Side Man, The Shape of Things. 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables. 305-445-1119 or gablestage.org
• Mad Cat Theatre Company: Cost-conscious Mad Cat doesn't have much money, but the edgy 8-year-old company has an abundance of everything else: talent, originality, daring. Founder and frequent director Paul Tei does both original work (some of the best by company member Ivonne Azurdia) and out-there scripts like Betty's Summer Vacation or Mr. Marmalade. With plays that reflect South Florida and the challenges of living in the 21st Century, Mad Cat draws a much younger than usual crowd to the 50 or so seats it sets up in varying configurations at Miami Light Project's Light Box. Past shows: Tin Box Boomerang, Fell in Love With a Girl, Waiting for Godot. 3000 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. 305-576-6377 or madcattheatre.com
• M Ensemble: South Florida's premier black theater company is also one of the region's oldest. Founded in 1971, M Ensemble is run by Shirley Richardson and Pat Williams, women who have built the company's 66-seat space in North Miami into a place where the great plays of August Wilson coexist with small musicals. The welcome-home vibe includes opening night parties with after-show eats and live music. M Ensemble has nurtured many acting careers, and the work keeps getting better. Past shows: The Piano Lesson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, The Colored Museum. M Ensemble Actors Studio, 12320 W. Dixie Hwy., North Miami. 305-895-0335 or themensemble.com
• New Theatre: Founded in 1986 by Rafael de Acha and his actress-wife Kimberly Daniel, this 100-seat theater holds a distinction that no other company in South Florida can claim: It commissioned and premiered a play that went on to win the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics. Through the years, the multicultural Coral Gables company has tackled world and American classics, Shakespeare's plays (De Acha and his successor as artistic director, Ricky J. Martinez, committed to working their way through the entire canon), ambitious scripts (both parts of Angels in America) and, increasingly, new works. Past shows: Hedda Gabler, Long Day's Journey into Night, Blind Date, Beauty of the Father. 4120 Laguna St., Coral Gables. 305-443-5909 or new-theatre.org
Broward
• Mosaic Theatre: In just six years, founder Richard Jay Simon has built a small black-box theater inside his alma mater, Plantation's American Heritage School, into the consistently best company in Broward County. Giving his audiences recent-vintage, sometimes challenging or risky plays (though, under pressure, he dropped plans to produce the controversial My Name Is Rachel Corrie) Simon's work with some of the region's best actors and designers has helped Mosaic follow in GableStage's influential footsteps. Though his audience is largely an older one, Simon continues to challenge it -- and himself. Past shows: Topdog/Underdog, The Elephant Man, Dealer's Choice, Red Light Winter, Rabbit Hole. 12200 W. Broward Blvd., Plantation. 954-577-8243 or mosaictheatre.com
• The Promethean Theatre: Founders Deborah L. Sherman and Beth McIntosh have enriched Broward's professional theater scene by moving their 3-year-old company to a theater space on the campus of Nova Southeastern University in Davie. Mixing new versions of classics (a contemporary Cyrano, for example) with topical/political plays (such as A Number, Caryl Churchill's play about cloning) and two world premieres by resident playwright Juan Sanchez, Promethean attracts top talent and audiences of all ages. Past shows: Two Rooms, Blue/Orange, Buck Fever, Desdemona. 3301 College Ave., Davie. 786-317-7580 or theprometheantheatre.org
• Sol Theatre Project: Broward's artsy, funky Sol calls a warehouse space near the railroad tracks off Fort Lauderdale's Sunrise Boulevard home. Founders Robert Hooker (the producing artistic director) and Tony Priddy (producing executive director) have tackled straight shows, gay (and lesbian) shows, wild farces and edgy plays. The work is uneven but often engaging, and the company has built a loyal audience, particularly through its emerging identity as a theater focused on gay and lesbian plays. Past shows: Proof, Waiting for Godot, The Road to Mecca, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Trafficking in Broken Hearts, Stop Kiss. 1140 N. Flagler Dr., Fort Lauderdale; 954-801-9207 or soltheatre.com.
CHRISTINE DOLEN
