The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County (@arshtcenter) is proud to announce its lineup for the 2024-2025 THEATER UP CLOSE season, created in collaboration with local theater companies Zoetic Stage (@ZoeticStageMIA) and City Theatre (@CityTheatreMIA). This season’s Theater Up Close series returns to the Carnival Studio Theater with five extraordinary productions that put audiences in the middle of the action, including three regional premieres and a beloved Tony Award-winning musical.
“We welcome Miami theatergoers to another exciting season of our award-winning Theater Up Close series,” said Liz Wallace, vice president of programming at the Arsht Center. “We are proud to partner once again with two of Miami’s premier theater companies – Zoetic Stage and City Theatre – to bring audiences a 2024-25 season featuring insightful, relevant works that are sure to stay with them long after they leave the theater.”
“Zoetic Stage celebrates our 15th Anniversary season and I cannot think of a better way to ‘pop champagne bottles’ than presenting a season of truly compelling, often hilarious, bravely reimagined and of-the-moment programming that promises to bring our community together for poignant storytelling, shared conversations and a guffaw or two,” said Stuart Meltzer, Zoetic Stage Artistic Director.
“City Theatre is thrilled to present the southeastern premiere of Aaron Mays’ Black Santa to our South Florida audiences. This play offers timely relevance and profound insight, wrapped in delightful humor, making it a perfect choice for the holiday season. We are proud to present this thought-provoking and entertaining work, which we will be a memorable experience for our community,” said Margaret M. Ledford, City Theatre Artistic Director.
The THEATER UP CLOSE series gratefully acknowledges the founding support of Adrianne and Jerry L. Cohen.
TICKETS: Five-show subscription packages are available now starting at the early bird rate of $195* until May 14. Starting May 15, packages start at $220*. Subscriptions can be purchased now through the Adrienne Arsht Center box office by calling (305) 949-6722, or online at arshtcenter.org. Tickets for individual performances will be announced at a later date.
The lineup for the 2024-2025 THEATER UP CLOSE series includes the following:
Zoetic Stage and Adrienne Arsht Center present
THE PILLOWMAN
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Stuart Meltzer
October 24-November 10, 2024
“If theater can make you feel titillated, mesmerized and intense at once, as ‘The Pillowman’ is doing… I say, bring it on.” – The Denver Post
After wildly successful productions of Frankenstein and Dracula, Zoetic Stage returns to the horror genre with THE PILLOWMAN, a haunting play by Martin McDonagh (writer-director of The Banshees of Inisherin, In Bruges and other films).
With echoes of Stoppard, Kafka and the Brothers Grimm, this modern classic centers on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a series of child murders. The result is an urgent work of theatrical bravura and an unflinching examination of the very nature and purpose of art. It’s a terrifyingly perfect way to celebrate the Halloween season.
City Theatre and Adrienne Arsht Center present
BLACK SANTA – Southeastern Premiere!
By Aaron Mays
Directed by Margaret M. Ledford
December 5-22, 2024
Before Abbott Elementary, there was Patrice Patterson at Dartmouth Day School. Shortly before Christmas break, a third grader named Sharifa stands in front of her class and says, “Santa Claus is a Black man from Detroit,” sending the school into an uproar. To quell the storm, Patrice, the school’s only Black teacher, is asked to create an ad campaign within the school to make Santa white again. As events unfold, Sharifa’s enrollment is placed in jeopardy, and Patrice must decide how to protect Sharifa and ultimately herself. This absurdist comedy examines how race and racial bias can have a foothold on one of the most benign figures — Santa Claus.
Zoetic Stage and Adrienne Arsht Center present
POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive – Miami Premiere!
By Selina Fillinger
Directed by Stuart Meltzer
January 9-26, 2025
“If you’ve ever wondered how much of a farce working in the executive branch could be — well, this is the evening for you.” – The Washington Post
POTUS is a comedy about the women in charge of the man in charge of the free world! When the president unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, the seven brilliant and beleaguered women he relies upon most risk life, liberty and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander in chief out of trouble. Selina Fillinger’s brilliant, all-female farce took Broadway by storm in a star-studded production that earned three 2022 Tony Award nominations. Its Miami premiere at Zoetic Stage will feature a cast of South Florida’s finest and funniest female actors.
Zoetic Stage and Adrienne Arsht Center present
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Book by Joseph Stein
Directed by Stuart Meltzer
March 13 – April 6, 2025
Artistic director Stuart Meltzer has a history of presenting fresh, bold interpretations of classics of the musical theater canon, focusing on the intimacy of performance and storytelling. In that tradition, Zoetic Stage will present FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, the brainchild of Broadway legends Jerome Robbins and Harold Prince, songwriters Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick and book writer Joseph Stein.
Set in the village of Anatevka, the story centers on Tevye, a poor milkman, and his five daughters as he tries to protect them and instill them with traditional values in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’s universal theme of tradition cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion. With iconic and beloved songs such as “Sunrise, Sunset,” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” FIDDLER ON THE ROOF is a story of humor, heart and honesty.
Zoetic Stage and Adrienne Arsht Center present
THE COMEUPPANCE – Florida Premiere!
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Stuart Meltzer
May 8-25, 2025
In THE COMEUPPANCE, an off-Broadway hit by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (“one of this country’s most original and illuminating writers” according to The New York Times), a self-proclaimed “Multi-Ethnic Reject Group” reconvenes for their 20th high school reunion. Over alcohol and other substances, they try to reconnect who they once were with whom they’ve become as they reminisce about their teenage selves and reveal how their lives have unfolded since graduation.
Brilliantly witty, theatrical and moving, THE COMEUPPANCE focuses on millennials and their reckoning with the world they will soon inherit. A New York Times Critic’s Pick.
*All programs, artists, ticket prices, availability, dates and times are subject to change without notice. Additional fees may apply. Visit arshtcenter.org for up-to-date information.
The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is made possible by the public support of the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council and the City of Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, as well as the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. The Adrienne Arsht Center also receives generous support from individuals, corporations and local, state and national foundations.
