onSTAGE PITTSBURGH
Teenage girls are told to behave. These girls summon a dead drug lord instead.
So begins the description of Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, the “ferocious, darkly funny” play opening this weekend at barebones productions.
The Alexis Scheer drama at the Braddock Black Box theater, June 12-June 28, 2026 is set in a treehouse, where a quartet of teens tries to summon the ghost of Pablo Escobar.
“Our Dear Dead Drug Lord isn’t for the faint of heart, but neither is coming of age,” says Time Out New York.
Barebones has gathered a cast of newcomers, under the direction of Daina Michelle Griffith, as the teenage quartet: Carnegie Mellon students Aurora Martinez (Kit) and Ava Benson (Squeeze), recent Boston University graduate Lila Grace English (Zoom), and Point Park University sophomore Gianna Gutierrez (Pipe).
“This play is a wild ride but, at its core, it reminds us all what it means to be human as we navigate our personal growth and friendships and relationships in a culture embedded in the ‘cult of personality’,” says barebones artistic director, Patrick Jordan.
Noting that this play is by a woman playwright, directed by a woman and features four woman performers, Jordan added, “This season, these deep-dive works are speaking to our artistic team and to our audiences — especially those told through a woman’s perspective. Yes, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord is a coming-of-age story, and it’s funny and it’s brutal at times, but at its core, it taps into feminist rage and body autonomy and reclamation. In between the shock and awe and the very dark humor, my hope is that it has the audience feeling strong and connected when they leave the black box … and maybe even chanting on their way home.”
onStage Pittsburgh posed questions via email to cast members about the opportunity to go from school to stage, and about the production.
oSP: In a sentence, tell us the name of your character and something about them.
AVA BENSON: Squeeze is a melodramatic 17-year-old thespian who, while often silly and intense, is deeply passionate about her morals and beliefs, and is not afraid to call out herself or her friends when in the wrong.
LILA ROSE ENGLISH: I play Zoom, the youngest in the club, who yearns to soak up the power she sees pouring from the other girls, by any means necessary.
AURORA MARTINEZ: Kit is the sharp, witty daughter at the center of the storm who has found a power in herself that the whole play orbits around.
GIANNA GUTIERREZ: I am playing the ambitious Pipe.
oSP: How meaningful is it as a student to have a pipeline to local productions, working with theater professionals?
AVA BENSON: As I enter my final year as a Music Theatre major at CMU Drama, every opportunity I’ve had to work with industry professionals has been incredibly valuable. This is the first professional production I have been a part of, and I learned about the audition through a connection with one of my professors. This experience has been valuable in allowing me a supportive space to learn the ropes of what it is to work in a professional environment, while also having the opportunity to learn more about myself as an individual working in an artistic space with new collaborators.
AURORA MARTINEZ: Having a direct pipeline to local productions as a student is honestly invaluable in a way that’s hard to overstate. You can learn so much in a classroom, but the moment you’re in a room with working theater professionals, the whole thing becomes three-dimensional. It accelerates you. You stop asking, “Am I ready for this?,” and start just doing the work.
GIANNA GUTIERREZ: As a rising sophomore, I was so excited to not only use the skills I have been learning over the past year, but also to set foot in the theater world of Pittsburgh. This experience has taught me so much, and I’m grateful for the learning experience. Every day I am excited to get to the theatre because there is just so much opportunity for growth, challenges, and collaboration.
oSP: Is it unexpected, and how important is it, to find yourself in a play by a woman, directed by a woman, surrounded by women in your age group?
AVA BENSON: It is somewhat unexpected, and I am incredibly grateful to be surrounded by a talented group of women on my first professional production. Collaborating with artists close to my own age has been especially rewarding. The cast and creative teams come from a vast variety of life experiences. It has been exciting bringing parts of my own identity and experiences into the process, while also being inspired by the other women around me. Some of my favorite conversations in the rehearsal room have been on our own adolescent experiences, and being able to pull from them has been helpful in this process.
LILA ROSE ENGLISH: As a young actor, my professional career up to this point has been entirely in the hands of women, so it’s not unexpected for me, which is such a gift. But it remains SO important! It’s a very specific joy to be working on material written by a woman, directed by a woman, and with a group of powerhouse young women in theatre, because there is a level of common understanding and safety that exists in this space that cannot be replicated in other spaces. And I think this play is an example of what type of power and enlightenment can be summoned when women put their heads together.
AURORA MARTINEZ: I wouldn’t say unexpected, exactly, but I will say it’s something I felt immediately when I walked into the room. There’s a particular kind of ease that comes with this configuration — everyone moves efficiently, communication is direct, and it genuinely feels like a safe space to be messy and specific and vulnerable in the way this play demands. That’s not always guaranteed, and I don’t take it for granted. Working with a woman director on a play written by a woman, surrounded by women my age who are all bringing that same energy — it clarifies something about who the story belongs to and why it matters that we’re the ones telling it.
GIANNA GUTIERREZ: As my first professional project, I consider myself very lucky to be surrounded by women. There is an unexplainable connection there; we just get each other. This play is about how powerful women are, and to experience this with others my age and a female director, that to me is so profound. This show would not have been the same without this element.
oSP: I’ve seen descriptions of the play as funny, weird, dark, disturbing, provocative, an “unapologetic exploration of feminist rage.” Do you agree? What has it been like leaning into all of those things, plus the play’s supernatural elements?
AVA BENSON: Alexis Scheer does an excellent job capturing the awkward, funny, unpredictable, close knit, loving and messy, ups and downs found in female friendships. I personally see this play as a story about young women finding the freedom to release themselves from expectation and reclaim power over who they are. As an actor, it has been an adventure exploring the contrast between the play’s comedic and very realistic disturbing elements. I see the supernatural element of this play less literal, and more as a beacon of hope these young girls use to cope with the losses they’ve experienced. I hope young women leave this show embracing who they are at their core and not allow their past or present circumstances to define who they are.
LILA ROSE ENGLISH: I agree! Because women are funny, weird, dark, disturbing and full of rage! It feels like a relief to be able to harness those superpowers because our humor, our weirdness, our darkness, and our rage are elemental when we give into them.
AURORA MARTINEZ: All of those descriptors are accurate and I love that they seem contradictory, because so does the play. It is funny — genuinely, uncomfortably funny — and then it turns around and it’s disturbing, and the supernatural elements don’t soften that at all, they amplify it. Leaning into feminist rage has felt less like a creative choice and more like permission. The play isn’t asking you to make the rage palatable or explained. It just lives there, and your job is to live in it too.
GIANNA GUTIERREZ: This play explores the complicated internal and external complexity of teenage girls who are trying to navigate the world and how they fit in it, while also discovering the power that they hold. I find myself seeing a younger version of me in these girls, with the dynamics that they have and their friendships. It can absolutely be funny and weird, and at times uncomfortable, and things get taken a step too far, but there is honesty there. It really is just leaning into 15-year-old Gianna and how difficult, awkward, and confusing the world was during that time. Everything is so heightened and intense, but that was the truth of it. For me, it’s about understanding why it is so important for these girls to be in these circumstances, to validate, and not judge.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
barebones productions presents Our Dear Dead Drug Lord at barebones Black Box, Bingo O’Malley Stage, 1211 Braddock Avenue, Braddock, June 12-28, 2026.
Braddock Public House by BG Brewing, located inside the theater building, will be open during the run of the show. Tickets: barebonesproductions.com.
Categories: Our Posts, Show Previews
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