Steep Theatre to Present OUR DEAR DEAD DRUG LORD This Fall

This fall, Steep Theatre will return to the stage with the Midwest Premiere of Alexis Scheer's Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, opening October 28. This production will mark Steep's first from award-winning playwright Scheer and Sophiyaa Nayar's Steep directorial debut.

In June, Steep returned to the stage with the sold-out run of Eboni Booth's Paris after a nearly two-year hiatus. This production was the first to be performed at Steep's new Edgewater home at 1044 West Berwyn Avenue. In July, Steep opened Tony-Awarding Simon Stephens' Light Falls at Theater Wit while completing the run of Paris. As the theatre prepares to begin renovations on the former Christian Science Reading Room in the coming year, they will utilize the recently acquired space to perform Our Dear Dead Drug Lord.

"Alexis's writing is magical on so many levels. It's fast, funny, gut-wrenching, and ultimately revelatory," said Steep Artistic Director Peter Moore. "I'm excited for the opportunity to share it with our audiences and to share Sophiyaa and her team's production, which promises to match and embrace the magic and boldness of the writing."

Our Dear Dead Drug Lord will feature Isabel Rivera, Elena Victoria Feliz, Lauren Smith, Isabella Maria Valdes, and Liliana Renteria making their Steep debuts, and Adriel Irizarry, who last joined Steep as an understudy on The Leopard Play, or sad songs for lost boys.

About the Playwright

Alexis Scheer's plays include Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theater/Second Stage, NYT Critic's Pick, John Gassner Award, Kilroy's List, LTC Carnaval of New Latinx Work, Relentless Award semifinalist), Laughs in Spanish (Kennedy Center's Harold & Mimi Steinberg Award, NNPN Showcase), and Christina (O''Neill Finalist, Roe Green Award). Her work has been developed at the Kennedy Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre Center, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, San Diego REP, and more. Alexis' favorite acting credits include the Boston premiere of Blasted, a storefront Equus, and a regional production of Fiddler on the Roof she did when she was 13 instead of getting Bat Mitzvah'ed (true story). Alexis is a proud New World School of the Arts alum, and holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory and MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. She is currently under commission by Second Stage, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Miami New Drama. In television, Alexis is a writer on Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, and is developing a project with HBO Max + Salma Hayek's Ventanarosa.

About the Director

Having lived in New Delhi, India until she was 12 and then traveling through various communities and exploring performance practices from all over the world for the rest of her upbringing, Sophiyaa understands theatre and film as hybrids. She is interested in creating interdisciplinary and genre-bending work that challenges existing narratives surrounding (im)migration.

Sophiyaa is a 3Arts Make a Wave Grantee, 1497 Screenwriters Lab semifinalist, member of the Women's Project 2020-22 Lab, an ensemble member with Definition Theatre, a member of Chicago Director's Lab 2017, and a finalist for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Her production of EthiopianAmerica won a Jeff for Best Fight Choreography and Black Theatre Alliance awards for Best Play, Featured Actor and Actress. She was awarded the SDCF Observership with Soft Power by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, directed by Leigh Silverman at The Public (Off Broadway). Theatre companies she has worked with include The Goodman, The Shed, Steppenwolf, Steep Theatre, American Players Theatre, Writers Theatre, Jackalope, Milwaukee Rep and MCC Theatre.

About Steep Theatre

Founded in 2000 by three actors, Steep has grown into a dynamic ensemble of forty-five theatre artists, supported by a dedicated and inspired team of arts administrators and community members.  Described by Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune as "the most fearless theater in town," Steep creates powerful productions of plays by today's most exciting writers and features the work of Chicago's hottest theatre artists in an intimate, accessible space. Steep is known as a home for hard-hitting, finely tuned ensemble work. With each production, the company has shepherded a growing community of audiences and artists into bold new territories of story and performance. Steep Theatre is committed to creating an inclusive and anti-racist environment for making and watching theatre. To learn more, please visit https://steeptheatre.com/antiracism.

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