PETA’s ‘Walang Aray’: A first for trans woman Lance Reblando

Possibly for the first time in Philippine Theater, a trans woman is portraying the lead female character in a musical that’s both romantic and satirical. It’s a heterosexual love story, not gay, and has a gay (as in “happy”) ending.

That trans woman is actor Lance Reblando, and the musical is Walang Aray, which the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) will stage anew on the last weekend of this month, all the way to October. It’s also Reblando’s first-ever casting as a female lead character. 

“It’s a dream come true!” Reblando blurts out every time she is predictably and tritely asked about how she feels about her fine luck.

The fact that the company has been running the musical on its third wave since 2023 could be the reason they decided to pull off this time around a thing called “inclusive casting.” (But, no, they don’t put it that way. They will, perhaps, never say that “inclusive casting” is also a marketing ploy).

In Walang Aray 2025, “inclusive casting” specifically means the inclusion of trans woman Reblando as one of the actors portraying the lead female character Julia, who is head-over-heels in love with a male revolutionist. Fortunately, the man is also deeply in love with her. 

The two other female actors portraying Julia are Marynor Madamesila and Shaira Opsimar. Both are “veterans” at it. They were among those who variously rendered Julia in the two long waves of Walang Aray in 2023. The first weekends of the first wave in March-May had TV-film actor Alexa Ilacad playing Julia, with her on-screen sweetheart KD Estrada doing the lover’s role.

At the July media conference for the show, a showbiz journo had the nerve to ask why PETA did not get a trans man to portray the revolutionist lover, though not exclusively teamed up with the trans woman all the time. The production’s associate director, Norbs Portales, curtly replied that they did not consider it. The journo did not pursue his seeming advocacy for trans inclusion in theater, films and television.

But a trans man is actually in the cast of Walang Aray (2025): Ice Seguerra as Lucas, a close friend of Tenyong, the male lead character. Lucas has a love interest in the story: Monika. 

It will also be the first time in the three waves of Walang Aray staging that Lucas will be portrayed by a transman. In the first two, it was played by Carlon Matobato, who is also known as an effective choreographer. Matobato is still the main man as Lucas in the musical’s third wave.

J-mee Katanyag, PETA’s new artistic director who took over from theater veteran Maribel Legarda, has a justification for casting trans persons in Walang Aray (2025).

“When we did the rewrite, we had the chance to review the text and think of how it is relevant to the times. We discussed with Rody Vera (the play’s writer) that the Philippines was nonbinary until the Spanish colonized us,” Katanyag revealed.

“We cast these people because they fit the role. They were great when they auditioned.”

One of the male lead actors admitted to being gay during the July media conference: Gio Gahol, who has been playing Tenyong in the musical’s first wave, aside from being the show’s choreographer.

Gahol initially said PETA opened the various roles in the play to auditions from actors of different genders and identities. And then proceeded to reveal: 

“As a gay professional, I will always advocate for my community in any space. We didn’t feel the need to announce it (the ‘inclusive’ audition) as a marketing stunt. We just went and did it.”

There’s another very notable first-timer in theater in Walang Aray: TV-film actor Jolina Magdangal, who alternates with seasoned thespians Neomi Gonzales and Gold Villar-Lim as Dona Juana, Julia’s mother.

Jon Abella alternates with Gahol as Tenyong, as in the previous waves.

Walang Aray is a reimagining of the zarzuela Walang Sugat by Severino Reyes, which is set in 1896, the year the revolution against Spain began. Remember that their conquest and reign in the Philippines lasted more than 300 years since the 16th century. Along with the military, the friars were the harsh rulers in the Philippine archipelago. Walang Aray has a trio of ridiculously ruthless characters portrayed by fabulous PETA actors 

The musical is produced by PETA in partnership with Indie Go Media and Metrobank at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City. Stage direction is by Ian Segarra with Norbert Lim as musical director. Tickets are available via Ticket2Me.

The country’s leading daily entertainer is a trans woman, although she never refers to herself as one: Vice Ganda of It’s Showtime. Her entries in the yearly Metro Manila Film Festival have been top grossers for various years. (The fact that she does not bother to label herself “transwoman” explains why many persist in applying male pronouns to refer to her).

Transwomen have it in this largely Christian archipelago. Are you ready to scream “Mabuhay ang Pinoy transwomen!”?

Should we look forward to having trans women leading ladies in hetero love stories on film and TV?