Miami Playwright Brings ‘Our Dear Dead Drug Lord’ to the Arsht Center

For as long as Alexis Sheer can remember, the theater has been a large part of her life.

Affectionally referred to as a “chatterbox” by her family when she was a child, her parents enrolled her in classes at the Actors’ Playhouse in Coral Gables. From there she attended high school at the New World School of the Arts in Miami before attending Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she studied musical theater, and then went on to Boston University, where she focused on playwriting.

One of the most in-demand young playwrights around today, Sheer has come full circle as she anticipates her work being performed by the Zoetic Stage company at the Adrienne Center for the Performing Arts, premiering May 5.

“Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” revolves around four young women, all members of their school’s now defunct Dead Leader’s Society, which was originally founded in 1964 to study a plethora of historical figures, including John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

However, the society evolved into studying Hitler, which got the club into trouble, and now focuses on Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord who – before he died Dec. 2, 1993 – maintained a lavish home in Miami from which he ran his cartel.

Fascinated by power and magic, the group members’ nicknames were chosen by using a Ouija board with which they hoped to raise Escobar’s spirit. They fantasize that its newest member is Escobar’s daughter, who died as a baby.

Breaking into the theater world isn’t necessarily an easy one, Sheer said, especially if “your parents don’t already perform there.”

Her parents owned a button store in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, which was known as the garment district before it evolved into the eclectic arts scene it’s known for today.

From a young age, Sheer said she was determined to go into musical theater, but one of the most important life lessons she learned while in high school was to become self-sufficient in the theater world and learn as much as she could about all its different aspects.

She began writing plays here and there and wrote “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” while in graduate school.

“It’s about girls coming of age in Miami and It takes place in 2008 during the election,” explains the 30-year-old Sheer.

After writing her first draft, she began submitting it, hoping someone would pick it up and bring it to a local festival. It didn’t take long for people to show interest in her work.

She was invited to a reading in Chicago, and it was there that she was approached by an artistic director and got an agent.

“It really was my breakout play. It wasn’t the first one I’d ever written, but the first one that gained traction,” she said. “It finally made me feel like I tapped into my voice and the type of theater I want to write.”

Having her play performed in her hometown was something she never thought would happen.

“It’s very cool to have it in Miami. It’s what I remember, theater at the Arsht Center. I remember when they opened,” she said.

While the play already had a very successful run off-Broadway, she said she has no plans of comparing that to its Miami run.

Instead, she noted, she’s more interested in the impact this has on future thespians, especially young Latina women.

“I try not to have any expectations. The stakes are different,” she said Sheer. “For me, it’s about the success of the future of theater and other young women who have a love for their communities and identities but are underrepresented in the theater community. I want them to see there is a play for them.”

Stuart Meltzer, the play’s director, said when he first read Sheer’s script, he was hooked.

“I knew Alexis was really doing a lot of incredible work as a writer and I had been following along a little with her journey. I knew she had a play in Boston that premiered with a lot of success,” he recalled. “It was at that point I decided I needed to look at her play. When I read it, I was floored. It was a perfect opportunity for us to celebrate the work of Alexis and bring her work to South Florida.”

Meltzer has been involved in theater all his life, having received his Bachelor of Arts degree in acting at the New World School of Arts and his masters in directing in New York. He eventually came back to South Florida and got started as a director.

What makes this production even more special, he explained, is that three of the female cast members are his former students.

“I know these young women. I know the characters,” he said. “One is making her professional debut and one is making her debut in this company. It really becomes a celebration to see the success of former students.”

Meltzer also said the production deals with many difficult subjects.

“There’s moments of potential teenage pregnancy, there’s a queer moment that could potentially flourish even more,” he said. “There’s young people going through their paths of discovery and understanding and acceptance. It’s nothing that is unusual for young people, but they find themselves in adult situations.”

Meltzer is co-directing the production with Elena Maria Garcia. It is the theater’s fourth and final production this season.

“We’re really bringing a special group of people together to tell this story, who are unafraid and are passionate about bringing Alexis’ words to life,” he said, while noting that the play could not have been written 10 or 20 years ago.

“Even if it was, I don’t think it would have had the same effect. It really celebrates the multitude of cultures that exist not only in South Florida but the world beyond,” he said. “I think that’s why audiences from all over are really going to connect with these young women.

“They bring their cultures and they bring their stories, and they bring their traditions into the scene work. That’s exciting for me.”