Our Dear Drug Lord was performed by the Ensemble Company at Imagine Entertainment Art Center (1220 Oviedo Mall Boulevard, Oviedo Florida) from arch 6 to March 15, 2026. The show was directed by Matthew Macdermid. The show mostly featured 4 young female students in their school uniforms. These teens seemed sweet enough as they met in an abandoned tree house, but the sweet setting was home to their dark secret society. These private school girls used this tree house to worship the ghost of the dead Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
The opening scene involved initiating Kit, (Louise Ortiz-Hernandez) to the group. She had to prove she was worthy to join the group by murdering a stray cat. Squeeze (Sarah Barthelemy) was allergic to cats, so she wanted the ceremony performed immediately, while Pipe, (Ana Gomes-Lugo) insisted the ceremony happen with all due pomp and circumstance. Zoo, (Maddy Poston) was the only girl with a conscience who felt the ceremony might be too much making them look like absolute psychopaths. I felt rather uneasy that the girls might perform the murderous deed in front of a live audience.
The play delves into the depths of teen angst. The new kid on the block, Kit was raised by her Colombian mother, and the other girls suspect that maybe she had ties to the infamous Pablo Escobar. Kits father died shortly after she was born and that further cemented the suspicions that she might have ties to the drug lord.
What tarted as an innocent Ouija board game soon spiraled into a truly haunting experience. Each of the girls has had to deal with painful deaths in their families and they have yet to fully process their grief. The ghost of Pablo Escsobar, (Luis Molina) made an appearance late in the play and he interacted with Pipe’s little sister, (Zoey Natal). That entire scene was in Spanish which I appreciate, but my comprehension is so limited. I know that Pipe was begging Pablo Escobar to bring her dead sister back. Pablo would aske her what else she wanted and each time she would ask to have her sister back. When Pablo insisted, she finally admitted that she wanted the part of her that died with her sister. Later Pipes’ little sister appeared and said that there was monster under her bed. She and Pipe soon realize that they are the monsters. Pipes little sister made a deal with the devil to not be good. Good is to quiet and small, she wanted to be loud, loud, loud and to take what is hers.
All of the girls who were living through the pain of adolescence were going through the same process of wanting to live loudly. They created monstrous rites of passage as they grew towards a strange and violent world.
The set for this production, which was designed and constructed by Bonnie Sprung, looked amazing. Any time I get to sketch the creative process of a production before it hits the stage, I am excited.