When the Summer Shorts Festival first moved to the Arsht Center what, four, years ago now, the crowds were sparse. Shorts, which celebrates its fifteenth anniversary this year, needed time to build an audience in the new space. This season, it’s not always possible to get ticket on Friday or Saturday nights. The secret is out.

With more than one thousand short plays submitted for consideration each year, there was plenty to choose from in narrowing the slate down to the 14. Yet festival co-founder and literary director Susi Westfall felt there was something missing as she surveyed this year’s entries: what the playwright calls a “sexy, adult, married play.”

At least that’s what she called it when Knight Arts asked her to explain what motivated her to write “Look at Me,” her entry in the festival this year. When she wrote the piece about a married couple’s first night together after the husband returns from war, Westfall said she kept seeing the action of the wife trying to seduce her her husband in her mind. After 31 years of marriage, Westfall wanted to explore what happens when a couple reunites after a separation or a big change.

Conveying that kind of psychological depth in a short piece (this year’s offerings run from 6 to 18 minutes each) can be a challenge. That’s why, Westfall says, “it’s sometimes a lot harder to write a short play than a long play. You want to deliver The Cherry Orchard [in a fraction of the time].” If a production falls short of Chekovian achievement, the audience just has to wait a few minutes for something else to come along.

Westfall wrote “Look at Me” specifically for Summer Shorts’ more “adult” Undershorts program, yet her fellow festival organizers artistic director Stephanie Norman and festival consultant Gail Garrisan opted for toning the piece down a bit to include it in the Signature Shorts program. Which cleared up for me the difference in these two programs: Undershorts is a bit bawdier; Signature Shorts a bit more thoughtful. Although both boast plenty of laughs.

“City Theatre puts on a season of plays in 5 weeks,” Westfall points out. “They’re making choices the same way a producer of a season would make choices [for variety and balance].” She feels good about her contribution: “It’s nice to give sexy, young actors a sexy play.”

The 15th Annual Summer Shorts Festival, presented by City Theatre and the Adrienne Arsht Center, runs through June27 in the Carnival Studio Theater in the Ziff Ballet Opera House of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts; 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-755-9401 x12; www.arshtcenter.org.