Alexis Scheer Talks Mixing Magic and Politics in ‘Our Dear Dead Drug Lord’ Play: ‘If People Are Offended, That’s Fine’
Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor A few years ago, Alexis Scheer wrote a play and, by her own admission, figured “it was a little too crazy and weird and nobody would do it.” So she had her own theater company, Off the Grid, mount it in her hometown of Boston in 2018. Called “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord,” the story is set in Miami on the eve of the 2008 election and focuses on four high school girls holding occult rituals to communicate with spirits – specifically that of the late drug lord Pablo Escobar. As it turned out, plenty of others were interested in Scheer’s strange, comic, often magical play.