How to Train Your Drag Mom 2027 Preview
Kho-Lab Productions is already looking at what comes next.
After closing its first production for the 2026 season, Kho-Lab Productions gave audiences a preview of How to Train Your Drag Mom, a new Filipino theatre piece planned for its 2027 season.
I saw the showcase on June 20 after Double Take, and the smart thing to say first is this: this is not yet a full review because this is not yet the full production. It was a preview. A developmental glimpse. A first look at a show still finding its final shape.
But first looks matter.
They tell us what a company wants to build, what stories it wants to put in the room, and which lives it thinks deserve stage space. In this case, Kho-Lab Productions is looking toward drag, queer Filipino storytelling, chosen family, acceptance, and the very complicated business of becoming yourself in front of people who may or may not know how to receive you.
In short, this is drag with baggage. Good. That is usually where the better stories are hiding.
What to Know About How to Train Your Drag Mom
- Production: How to Train Your Drag Mom
- Company: Kho-Lab Productions
- Writer and director: JP Lopez
- Assistant director: Rena Lazaro
- Preview date seen by Unsaulicited: June 20, 2026
- Preview cast: OJ Arci as Anya/Lady Titania, Jayvee Natagoc as Jennie, Matt Gregorio as Andre, Fidel Redado as Paul, and Grace Schuke as Donna
- Planned staging: April 2027, as part of Kho-Lab Productions' 2027 season
- Auditions: Further casting audition details are expected to be announced soon
How to Train Your Drag Mom follows Anya, also known as Lady Titania, an old-fashioned drag queen on a journey of acceptance and self-discovery across one eventful night. That premise already has the makings of something theatrical: a performer, a persona, a past, and the possibility of change.
The new play is written and directed by JP Lopez, with Rena Lazaro as assistant director. For the June 20 preview showcase, the cast featured OJ Arci as Anya/Lady Titania, Jayvee Natagoc as Jennie, Matt Gregorio as Andre, Fidel Redado as Paul, and Grace Schuke as Donna.
That lineup matters because this kind of material needs more than a catchy title. It needs performers who can make camp feel lived-in, comedy feel personal, and family tension feel sharper than a simple hug-it-out moment. Drag may know how to enter with a spotlight, but the story still has to survive when the glitter settles.
Because this is still a developmental glimpse, it should not be treated as a finished production. That would be unfair to the work and to the artists still shaping it. A showcase is not a final verdict. It is a signal.
And as a signal, this one had sparkle.
What makes this project promising is that it does not seem interested in drag only as surface. Yes, there is spectacle. There should be. A title like How to Train Your Drag Mom cannot arrive quietly and ask to be treated like a spreadsheet.
But the stronger possibility is underneath the glitter.
Drag, when written with care, can be performance, armor, memory, rebellion, comedy, survival, and confession all at once. The preview suggests that How to Train Your Drag Mom may be interested in that full range. Not just the look. Not just the punchline. Not just the big entrance. The life behind the entrance.
That is where this could become more than a campy title with a good hook.
The strongest version of this play will likely be the one that allows the fun and the ache to sit beside each other. The comedy should not erase the feeling. The feeling should not flatten the comedy. A story about drag, identity, acceptance, and chosen family needs both.
It needs the laugh that knows it is covering something. It needs the sparkle that understands why it had to become bright in the first place.
This is also where the announcement becomes more interesting than a simple calendar item.
The Philippine theatre scene has room for more queer stories that are not treated as side notes, punchlines, or decoration. A piece like How to Train Your Drag Mom has the chance to be entertaining while still asking sharper questions. What does it mean to mother someone outside the usual definitions? What does it mean to mentor someone when you are still surviving your own past? What does it mean to be seen after years of learning how to become larger than life just to be noticed?
Those are the questions that could make the play land harder than the title suggests.
Kho-Lab Productions describes itself as a creative platform dedicated to developing and producing theatre, music, and interdisciplinary experiences that amplify Filipino stories. With How to Train Your Drag Mom, the company appears to be planting its next flag in a space where Filipino theatre can be funny, queer, theatrical, messy, and emotionally specific.
That is a good place to plant something.
For now, How to Train Your Drag Mom remains in development. Details may still change before the full production arrives, and that is exactly why this first look should be read as a beginning, not a verdict.
Still, beginnings matter.
They show intent. They show taste. They show where a company wants to go next.
Based on this June 20 preview, Kho-Lab Productions' 2027 season already has one title worth keeping on the radar. How to Train Your Drag Mom is expected to take the stage in April 2027, with further details on casting auditions to be announced soon.
And if the show keeps digging beneath the wig, the glitter, and the joke in its title, it may grow into something with real bite.
For more independent and Manila stage coverage, browse Unsaulicited’s Manila theater guide and coverage hub.
Drag knows how to make an entrance. The better question is whether the full play will know how to stay after the applause.