Four actresses gather around a cardboard box. As they bicker, one of them reaches into the box, pretending to strangle a cat for an initiation ritual into the Dead Leaders Club. In the background, members of the crew meow, imitating the cries of a dying cat before suddenly stopping with a final, violent meow.
This is a typical rehearsal night for Barnstorm Theater Company members as they prepare for their winter production, “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord.” Barnstorm is a student-run production at UC Santa Cruz that has existed for over 20 years. Established in 2004 by the UCSC theater arts department, Barnstorm aims to provide opportunities for undergraduates to ease their transition from academia to the professional theater world.
Production cast and crew are currently in the early stages of preparation and allowed City on a Hill Press reporters to get a sneak peek of their rehearsals. 
[Left to right] Zoom (Ivy Dubiner-Swing), Squeeze (Aaliyah Kelley) and Pipe (Sophia Dague) burst onto stage carrying various props to prepare their treehouse for an initiation ritual into the Dead Leaders Club for their newest member, Kit.
“Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” follows four teenage girls who gather at an abandoned treehouse to attempt a dangerous ritual to speak to Pablo Escobar, prompting an unsettling chain of events. It covers different political themes while engaging with the experiences of BIPOC youth through poignant comedic quips and heartfelt dialogue. The play amplifies voices that are often sidelined in mainstream theater.
“Barnstorm is a space where those who usually don’t have the platform for their voices are granted that space,” said UCSC theater arts graduate student, and director of Barnstorm’s upcoming production, Angela Rangel. 
Director Angela Rangel leads the rehearsal’s warm-up activity with a game where members of the cast and crew practiced talking over each other to help the cast get into character.
Naturally, the organization’s leadership has changed over time. This is especially the case this past year after David Lee Cuthbert, Barnstorm’s primary supervisor since 2004, passed away in February 2025.
“It’s just a new era,” Rangel said. “It’s kind of like we’re getting into our shoes again of how we run things.”
Characters in the production watch in horror as Kit (Kai Arambula) finishes their initiation ritual by strangling a cat to death. Offstage, director Angela Rangel and stage manager Bennie Shean meow, as the production is still searching for a sound technician.
Rangel has been a part of Barnstorm since her sophomore year of undergrad in 2023. For her, Barnstorm was a way to pursue a career in theater with a community that values students, unorthodox stories and underrepresented voices. The same rings true for all members of the cast and crew this season.
“Barnstorm, especially in these shows with the smaller casts, really feels like a very safe space. We’re all kind of weird, a little quirky,” said UCSC student and stage manager for ‘Our Dear Dead Drug Lord,’ Bennie Shean. “I guess that’s what keeps me coming back.”
During the rehearsal City on a Hill Press attended, Barnstorm performers began their first run-through of the second act. Starting with direct read-throughs of the script, the actresses and director moved onto experimenting with blocking and delivery.
Shean is just one cog of the well-oiled machine that is Barnstorm. While Shean manages the backstage aspects of the production, other roles like light technicians, makeup artists, costume designers and set designers piece together all other aspects of their collective work. Everything comes together in a final, perfected “hurrah” on opening night.
“There’s not one piece that you can really go without,” Shean said. “You can perform on an empty stage, but you want to feel like you’re actually — in the case of ‘Our Dear Dead Drug Lord’ — in the treehouse with the girls.”
As the cast rehearses on stage, stage manager Bennie Shean speaks with assistant stage manager Danny Fincher, planning his future role as a set designer.
Prior to finalizing their crew, Barnstorm experienced difficulties with solidifying their cast and were in search of an actor who identifies as a non-male Black/Afro-Latine individual. The company has struggled with hiring BIPOC actors within the UCSC arts community in previous seasons as well, not for lack of interest, but more so a lack of representation on campus. 
Throughout the rehearsal, cast members wrote notes in the margins of their scripts, leaving reminders for themselves about blocking and delivery.
“The things that we’ve dealt with as far as the audition process and getting actors this quarter has spoken to the lack of diversity,” Shean said. “There’s just so few BIPOC folks that feel comfortable coming into this theater space where it is predominantly white.”
Just under 5 percent of UCSC’s undergraduate population identifies as Black. The underrepresentation of BIPOC communities is seen in many areas on campus — including the theater arts space. Barnstorm, an organization that values diverse storytelling and representation, consistently strives to cultivate a space that empowers marginalized experiences.
Various moments from Barnstorm’s rehearsal of “Our Dead Dead Drug Lord.”
As the opening night of “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” approaches this Feb. 27, Barnstorm remains dedicated to their mission: creating a space where all student voices can be heard and connected through the magic of live performance.
“It has changed my life,” said actress Kai Arambula, who will be playing the character Kit in this Barnstorm’s production. “I was able to find a community and be able to be part of the community and help other people through it. Just the thought of potentially helping someone else do the same — this is what we’re here for.”
Barnstorm plans for the opening show of “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” to be on Feb. 27 in studio B100 of the Theater Arts Department.
Additional Reporting by Eryn Gandotra.
