Fuse Theatre Ensemble opens the world premiere of Mikki Gillette's Trans Femme on Friday, Oct. 9, at the Back Door Theater on SE Hawthorne Boulevard. Gillette drew on her own experience transitioning and attending a trans femme support group at Portland's Q Center to write the play.

The production, according to BroadwayWorld, is the third Gillette play Fuse has debuted in a year, following Magnetic Electric in October 2025 and Riot Queens in March 2026. Asae Dean directs. It is Gillette and Dean's seventh collaboration as writer and director.

Set in 2011, the play follows members of a trans femme support group whose bonds fray under the weight of jealousy, class difference and internalized stigma. Group leaders Sloan and Astrid see their relationship tested by a fiery newcomer, Leela, while Kat pins her hopes on the older Sunny's promise to leave her cisgender wife, Fran.

The production features five trans women in its cast, which Oregon ArtsWatch called a first for Portland theater. Among them is Naomi Mcusic, making her stage debut as Sloan, one of the support group's leaders. In a KBOO Transpositive PDX preview, the show's host noted that Mcusic was drawn to playing a complicated, sometimes difficult character and wanted to see trans and queer characters allowed to be messy, contradictory and imperfect rather than idealized.

Gillette, whose American Girl won the BroadwayWorld Portland Best Play award after its 2023 production, said the play grew from a turbulent chapter in her life.

"That was such a turbulent time in my life, and in the lives of the people I encountered there," Gillette said in a September press release. "Writing this play was a way to process some of the experiences I went through then and understand them a little better."

Fuse Artistic Director Rusty Tennant said the company is centering original, local work that tells the stories of trans and gender-nonconforming communities authentically.

Performances run Oct. 9–25 at the Back Door Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Evening shows begin at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday matinees start at 3 p.m. Ticket information is available at fusetheatreensemble.com.

Listeners can hear Gillette and Mcusic discuss the show on KBOO's Transpositive PDX at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, on 90.7 FM or at kboo.fm.