Trans Midya’s latest offering, The Trans Actor, features Serena Magiliw and Zoë de Ocampo confronting their lived experiences as trans performers in Philippine film and theater this June 28-29, 2025.

Following successful workshops, masterclasses, and performances for Trans Day of Visibility, Trans Midya equips trans beings through media craft. Moreover, Trans Midya’s new work, The Trans Actor, explores political, economic, and cultural challenges faced by trans performers in Philippine media industries.

The Trans Actor combines a workshop and performance to directly confront the unique nature of auditions and performance-making for trans artists. Specifically, featuring Serena Magiliw and Zoë de Ocampo’s lived experiences, it documents a spectrum of performers’ identities. Ultimately, it aims to create a more humane present and, consequently, a promising future for genuine trans representation in Filipino media.

Trans Midya itself focuses on craft and visibility to equip the trans being of personhood, as a grant project under the “Shift the Narrative Fellowship” of the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Rights, Asia & Pacific (UAF, A&P). The fellowship supports artists in Asia and the Pacific to initiate or sustain projects that critique, recast, and raise awareness on existing narratives that are harmful or invisibilized within their communities, groups, or countries. Intersectionality of themes with gender and rights are the common thread weaving across the works of all fellows.

The Trans Actor follows in the footsteps of Serena Magiliw and Zoë de Ocampo’s 2024  docutheater performance, “i’m allowed to be a fully formed person” – this time supported by Tambay Times, a collective of mostly queer, trans, and non-binary creatives. Carlo Paulo Pacolor mentors the team, with Maia Dapul producing and Carly Avila assisting as the Creative Assistant. Moreover, Neal Roxas leads design, Gio Potes directs technical work, and James Patrick Renn Jumawan handles documentation for the performance project.

The Trans Actor caps Pride Month with a powerful live performance in Quezon City

Trans Midya’s The Trans Actor will close out Pride Month with limited runs on June 28 (Sat) and 29 (Sun), 3PM and 7PM, at Myra Beltran’s Dance Forum in Quezon City. Purchase tickets for just ₱350 here: bit.ly/the-trans-actor

Follow along on this project’s performance-making process by checking out Trans Midya’s Facebook and Instagram: @transmidya.