Alexis Scheer’s Our Dear Dead Drug Lord explores the world of Pipe, Squeeze, Zoom and Kit, four teenage girls who climb into a treehouse once a month to try to summon the spirit of Pablo Escobar, the notorious Columbian drug lord.
Running June 14 – July 1 at Bryant Hall on Kalita Humphrey’s campus in Dallas, the second show of Second Thought Theatre’s 2023 season is about the messiness of being a high school girl.
Ruben Carrazana, the show’s director, discusses why teenage girls revere a dead drug lord, America’s cult of celebrity and the power dynamics between the show’s characters, plus cast members chime in with who these teenagers would want to contact through a Ouija board today.
NBC DFW: The show is set in 2008. What does the show reveal about that period of time?
Ruben Carrazana: I was in high school at the same time that these characters are in high school. Obama’s “HOPE” image was everywhere: on t-shirts, posters, bumper stickers. For a generation that grew up seeing images of war and planes flying into towers on TV, there was suddenly this air of optimism, a sense that things were about to change for the better somehow. I think these characters exist in that space right near the end of childhood where they’re beginning to shape their own identities and point of view around politics and social issues, and 2008 was a turning point for many people my age.
NBC DFW: Why do these four teenage girls idolize Pablo Escobar?
RC: The characters in this play are not only kids, but they’re also young women, and that means that they’ve been taught that their voices don’t matter. They’ve been asked to be good, and be quiet, and to smile, and to not take up too much space. So, it makes sense that they would look up to some of the most powerful men in history. Men like Pablo, they can get what they want, they’re confident, powerful, they don’t need to apologize for who they are. One of the questions this play asks is, “What happens when young women are allowed to become the very thing we fear most, the very thing we ask them not to be?”
NBC DFW: What does the girls' fascination with Escobar say about America's cult of celebrity?
RC: There’s this strange phenomenon that often happens whenever serial killers or otherwise violent criminals with some fame are put behind bars. They start receiving love letters and fan mail from complete strangers all across the world. They get movies and Netflix miniseries and award-winning podcasts made about them. There is this fascination many of us have with power and fame and the macabre, and we sometimes forget about the very real consequences and victims behind these pseudo-celebrities. What this play explores is the effect that kind of obsession can have on young people, albeit with lots of humor.
NBC DFW: What do these girls' friendships say about female relationships and the power dynamics within those relationships?
I’m not qualified to answer any questions about “female relationships” in general or in the abstract, but I think I can speak to the power dynamics within the relationships of these four specific characters. These are kids who have created a safe haven away from their brothers and fathers, away from the outside world that judges them and asks them to be small. In this safe place, they are able to reveal truths about themselves, fears and insecurities that they would never dare share with their parents or teachers. But because they are young, and because they are fallible human beings, they are also capable of taking those secrets that were shared in confidence and hurling them back at each other as ammunition and venom. They know how to hurt each other, and so when their safety or reputation is threatened, they are unafraid to be petty and impatient and mean and cruel. The beauty of the play, however, is that even when they are at their most brutal and violent, these characters never take joy in their cruelty. It always comes from a place of pain, fear, and wanting to be heard and seen for who they are in all their messiness.
NBC DFW: If these four teenage girls were gathering today, who would they try to summon via Ouija board?
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RC: What a fun question! The characters in the play have formed a club called the Dead Leaders Club, so I reached out to the cast and asked them to send in their suggestions for other possible leaders they could try to summon. Below are their responses.
Alexis Farrell (plays Zoom): I think they’d maybe try to summon Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth II, Julius Caesar, Queen Mary I (aka Bloody Mary), Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (aka the Blood Countess), and I know he’s not a dead leader but Heath Ledger just for fun. If I were to name a few, lol!
Alysha Gonzalez (plays Kit): I’d say the girls would probably choose Al Capone (he’s a bada*s) OR Richard Ramirez (he’s hot igz) …. OR Ted Bundy (I think Zoom would like Ted Bundy…)
Farrell, again: Okay I have one more — late-night thoughts took over. He’s technically not a “leader” but he is a “king” of the music industry and it is Prince.
Alicia Antwine (plays Squeeze): I feel like they would summon Griselda Blanco because she was such a high-powered woman part of the cartel. And I think her being known as the “godmother” of cocaine would have the girls so invested in her life lol! Also, I just feel like Squeeze’s first instinct would be to check Google so I think they would summon Al Capone just cause his name is probably the first one to pop up after you put in “dead famous gangster” in Google.
Learn more: Second Thought Theatre
