Cast the female lead in drama (4)
I believe the answer is:
shed
'cast' is the definition.
(shedding is a kind of casting)
'the female lead in drama' is the wordplay.
'the female' becomes 'she' (I've seen this before).
'lead in' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'drama' is 'd'.
'she'+'d'='SHED'
(Other definitions for shed that I've seen before include "Remove clothes in small hut" , "Shack" , "Take off in hut?" , "Throw off; building" , "lost" .)