Susi Westfall, City Theatre co-founder and literary director, created CityWrights Weekend, a four-day intensive program that focuses on practical, professional development and creative hands-on participation. The Weekend is packed with a full schedule of workshops and readings by master playwrights (Lisa Kron and Israel Horovitz) and panels with producers, publishers, editors and agents. The conference is open to established and emerging playwrights from South Florida and throughout the nation and will feature master artists and industry professionals. Note, there is special pricing for local writers.

Composed of master classes, workshops, mentoring, public readings and forums, CityWrights programming is a collaboration of the Dramatists Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild Fund, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the American Voices New Play Institute and the Theatre League of South Florida. The stated goal of the conference is to encourage playwrights to create new work through professional education and relationship building with other writers, whose plays will ultimately be performed at City Theatre and other stages in South Florida and beyond.

CityWrights is scheduled to take place this summer as part of the 2011 Summer Shorts Theatre Festival, June 23 through 26. Westfall says she wants as many local professional writers to participate in the conference and has set a special price for local playwrights: one day: $30 and two days: $50 for June 24 and 25.

Highlight of CityWrights Weekend: Saturday, June 25 (Peacock Room at the Arsht Center) for The Artistic Director Round Table from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (Decision-making in season programming and development of new plays, including Horovitz (Gloucester Stage Company, Gloucester, Mass., Play Lab NYC, N.Y.); David Loehr (Riverrun Theatre Co., Madison, Ind.), Ricky Martinez (New Theatre, Miami), Deb Sherman (Promethean Theatre, Davie), Jeff Revels (Orlando Repertory, Orlando), Henry Fonte (chairman, UM Theatre Department, Miami), Stephanie Norman and John Manzelli (City Theatre, Miami).

Immediately following from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. will be a free performance by playwright/actor Kron. Titled “What Will Happen Next?” and performed by Kron, she shares stories spanning the journey from her start improvising funny anecdotes in scrappy East Village clubs in the ‘80s through the thrill of debuting her play “Well” on Broadway. Along the way, she shares some of what she learned about the nature of dramatic action — why plays are so hard to do well —and why we keep trying.

For the full CityWrights schedule and registration information, contact Westfall, City Theatre literary director, Andie Arthur, CityWrights coordinator, or Elizabeth Price, literary associate, at [email protected]; 305-755-9401 ext. 10;  www.citytheatre.com.