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.