Photos: First Look at the Cast of OUR DEAR DEAD DRUG LORD at Center Theatre Group

Our Dear Dead Drug Lord by playwright Alexis Scheer, directed by Center Theatre Group Associate Artistic Director Lindsay Allbaugh, and produced in association with IAMA Theatre Company, comes to the Kirk Douglas Theatre from August 20 to September 17, 2023.

See photos of the cast below!

 For its 2019 Off-Broadway WP Theater/Second Stage production, it was cited with the John Gassner Award, Kilroy’s List, LTC Carnaval of New Latinx Work, and was a Relentless Award semifinalist.

The cast is Ashley Brooke as Zoom, Samantha Wynette Miller as Squeeze, Coral Peña as Kit, and Lilian Rebelo as Pipe, with additional roles played by Aliyah Camacho and Juan Francisco Villa.

The creative team features Jordan Bass (Casting Director); Veronica Sofia Burt (Movement/Intimacy Coordinator); Marcedés Clanton (Production Stage Manager); François-Pierre Couture (Set Designer); Elena Flores (Costume Designer); Azra King-Abadi (Lighting Designer); Margaux Susi (Associate Director); Veronika Vorel (Sound Designer)

In this fierce and feverish comedy, a gang of teenage girls gather in an abandoned treehouse to summon the ghost of Pablo Escobar. Are they messing with the actual spirit of the infamous cartel kingpin? Or are they really just messing with each other?

Intimate in nature yet universal in its ability to explore the need to connect, the play is an unflinching and powerful reminder of what it means to be human. As it races to its startling conclusion, audiences will be left catching their breath. A rollercoaster ride through the danger and damage of girlhood — the teenage wasteland has never been so much twisted fun. This group ends up being a pivotal way for these young women to cope with the grief and lack of control in their lives.

“Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” is a play about many things, but, first and foremost, it is a play rooted in the struggles and experiences of adolescence. The protagonists of the play spend equal time talking about the ups and downs of life and their own shared traumas and fears. From unplanned pregnancies to domestic abuse to repressed sexuality, the four girls at the heart of our story hold back no punches.

But time is also dedicated to more trivial obsessions of the early 2000s teenage girl, such as hipsters, dial-up Internet, and the ubiquitous shopping mall store, Hot Topic. Set in the early 2000s, political and cultural moments also get their due; be it conversations surrounding 9/11, the London Bombings, or the impending 2008 presidential showdown between Barack Obama and John McCain. Scheer transports the audience vividly back to this time and showcases what it means to be an angsty teen coming of age smack dab in the middle of it all.

Tickets for “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” are currently on sale and start at $30. They are available through CenterTheatreGroup.org, Audience Services at (213) 628-2772 or in person at the Center Theatre Group Box Offices (at the Ahmanson Theatre) at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012 or at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (open 2 hours prior to curtain) at 9820 Washington Blvd. in Culver City 90232.

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