» A 20-year effort culminated in October with the grand opening of South Miami-Dade's Cultural Arts Center. The $51-million, two-building complex in Cutler Ridge was designed by a team that included Arquitectonica.

South Miami-Dade's Cultural Arts Center?

The center was built with county funding as part of the Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Council's master plan to bring arts facilities to underserved areas of the county. Its main three-story building includes a 966-seat theater and a 129-seat theater. Already, the center has an impressive lineup of programming including "Hamlet Redux," a contemporary adaptation of William Shakespeare's classic play "Hamlet," produced by Sarasota-based Asolo Repertory Theatre. "We're unique in our size and our mission," says Eric Fliss, general manager. "We're coming in with a high level of programming, but we're not just expecting the community to show up. We're going out there to perform outreach," Fliss says. Rather than Broadway touring shows, Fliss says his center will feature more boutique, local performances.

Fort Lauderdale

» The Broward Center for the Performing Arts has become one of the most active performing arts centers in the nation. Work has started on a $44-million expansion of the 2-decade-old Broward Center. The project will make significant additions and improvements inside and out. It includes new outdoor entertainment spaces, such as a cafe bistro in the courtyard. The internal spaces also will be updated with advanced sound and lighting systems and upgraded seating. The expansion also will include a new education center with its own performance space and classrooms with broadcast and web-based teaching capabilities to allow more public school students to participate in an arts-in-education program, already serving 175,000 students per year.

Miami

» In addition to its Broadway series, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County has introduced a new "Theater Up Close" series in its smaller, 250-seat Carnival Studio Theater. The six-show series runs through mid-2012. Each show will run for three weeks. The theater, which hosts more than 500 performances a year, draws more than 500,000 annual visitors. The lineup for 2012 includes "Come Fly Away" and "Lion King." "Our biggest strength is the diversity of our programming and the diversity of our audiences," says Scott Shiller, executive vice president of the center.

Orlando

» Construction began in June on the $383-million Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts downtown. First envisioned in the 1980s, the performing arts center project has evolved. Its first phase, scheduled for completion by 2014, will feature a 2,700-seat amplified auditorium designed for touring Broadway shows and a smaller 300-seat theater. A third hall, designed for use by the Orlando Philharmonic and Orlando Ballet, is part of a second phase, which has no firm timetable for construction. Meanwhile, the decades-old Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre continues to host a lineup of shows for 2012 that includes "Lion King" and "La Cage Aux Folles."