If you ask multidisciplinary artist Ashley Naomi, “the internet is mainstream and real life is underground.” The evocative declaration captures the ethos behind Naomi’s new play digitrans // analogirl (DT // AG), which explores the edges of identity, connection, and digital embodiment. Blending the hyperreal pace of online culture with the soft ache of real-world vulnerability, Naomi’s latest work receives a second staged reading this August at the 2025 SummerWorks Performance Festival.
Co-produced by Stardust Space and Dead Name Theatre, digitrans // analogirl follows the story of Kat (a.k.a. C-Angel), an introverted trans girl who finds gender euphoria online through her animated Vtube persona. When she encounters her favourite streamer, Twila—who is the laid-back indie musician Luna off-camera —the two begin a relationship that flickers across digital and physical realities. What unfolds is a bittersweet snapshot of transition, connection, and discovery, as these two young protagonists explore femininity, parasocial relationships, and the shifting masks of online life.
Naomi, who plays Kat in the reading, drew deeply from personal experience and the cultural moment in crafting this play. “I was using the internet from a really young age, and a lot of my own queer upbringing/awakening happened thanks to people I met online or in spaces like Tumblr, Discord, etc. When Vtubers emerged in 2020, I realized the ability to create an anonymous 3D alter ego was ripe with potential for gender exploration,” she explains. And “with Vtubing, there is a pressure and a drive to know more about someone…. You can’t stay fully anonymous forever on today’s internet.”
Set against the isolating backdrop of the COVID lockdowns – which Naomi describes as “one of the most emotionally sensitive times of my life” – the play reflects the simultaneous bereavement and emergence she experienced during the early stages of her transition: “There was a lot of mourning for lives I once had and lives I possibly might never have –and wondering if I would ever have the chance for a close relationship with another person again.”
Reclaiming “lost girlhood” and trans joy
Central to digitrans // analogirl is the relationship between Kat and Luna, who hold mirrored but contrasting relationships with femininity. “Kat (she/her) finds femininity aspirational, while Luna (she/they, later they/them) feels constrained by it,” shares Naomi. And “they both admire and envy different parts of each other that they perceive as freedom… Ultimately, there’s a theme of ‘lost girlhood,’ and a melancholy around that which they seek to reclaim on their respective terms.”
Yet, for all its nuance and emotional weight, the play is anything but grim. “Amid all this, I wanted to centre trans joy and gender euphoria rather than reproduce harm or trauma,” Naomi says. “Both characters have lots of quirks. Their relationship has a lot of moments that are very playful and mischievous. And they’re both immature, impulsive, and reckless in a way that’s hopefully equal parts frank and endearing.”
Naomi cultivated with care this balance of joy and longing, and comedy and introspection. “To me, the cycle of life is naturally bittersweet. And every moment is naturally transient,” she reflects. “Some healing does come from sacrifice… but that process of refinement is what allows us to be our best selves, and that’s the journey Kat and Luna are on.” And the silly has an important place: “A lot of the play’s quirkier moments happened because I was trying to amuse myself while I wrote it… I promise there are at least 10 even more surreal/bizarre/inexplicable things that I rejected for being TOO out there.”
Dramatizing digital space and relationship
Perhaps the most novel element of the play is the way it dramatizes digital space. “Both characters’ online identities are essentially separate characters,” explains Naomi. “Their appearance, mannerisms, and voices are subtly, yet distinctly different.” Even Twitch Chat makes an appearance: “They have more or less become the play’s Greek Chorus.”
So scenes shift between the hypermaximalist world of online streaming and the gentle intimacy of bedrooms and quiet conversations, giving the piece a layered structure and emotional rhythm. “Real world [scenes] tend to be much more personal, introspective, and contemplative, but still with a dreamlike feeling of transient, nostalgic haze. Like capturing a moment on film that we know won’t last forever.”
At its heart, digitrans // analogirl is firmly a love story, but one that is complexified by its refraction through digital space. “Parasocial relationships are kind of like crushes, because they’re about the idea we have of someone from afar,” observes Naomi. “There’s a very real, very theatrical grappling with the fact that we are ‘always on’ and performing at all times.” Both characters are “craving freedom and emotional connection… but they’re both scared, and don’t know how” to achieve these goals.
In the play, Naomi deliberately leaves the resolution of Kat and Luna’s relationship open-ended. “I personally like that it’s up to you to have your own answer,” she says. “But the important thing is that the feelings they have are real, authentic—and, I think, relatable – in a way that will hit people close to home.”
Reading, collaborating … and breaking the dam
The SummerWorks reading is just the second time Naomi has shared digitrans // analogirl (DT // AG) with an audience, and the process of hearing the play aloud has already shaped the play’s trajectory. Of the first reading, she marvels, “I was amazed by how clearly those in attendance identified and resonated with the main themes of the piece. I got a wonderful letter from a local comic artist I admire named Jade Armstrong, who gushed, gushed, GUSHED about how much they loved it …. That letter is one of the things that reignited my drive to continue pursuing this project.”
Of her co-star Stephanie Fung, who plays Luna. Naomi says, “Steph is legitimately the absolute most lightning-in-a-bottle possible person I could have ever hoped to co-star with,” she enthuses. “They bring a rich perspective as a fellow theatre creator, but also as a countercultural critic. Many of the offers they provided refined and enriched the details behind Luna as a character.” In fact, the entire creative team is instrumental to Naomi’s process: “To me, I think everything comes down to trust. Trust in my team, trust in audiences, and in turn everyone placing trust in me. Everything comes naturally from there.” Additional collaborators on the project include Amanda Lin (Outside Eye), Rosalind Goodwin (Dramaturge), Lee Stone (Producer), Za Hughes (Lighting Designer), and Aidan Hammond (Stage Manager).
Looking ahead, Naomi has ambitious plans for the play. “I’m really hoping to bring DT // AG to the level of a full production, and am actively working towards this goal as doggedly as I can,” she says. She encourages audiences to support the project—by attending SummerWorks, contributing to the GoFundMe, or simply spreading the word. “Tell artistic directors and community members. Tell people in other disciplines … how much this work means to you, and how much you want them to see it!” For ultimately, Naomi wants the play to make a difference: “I want this work to have a place in history, and to be discussed 1000 years from now. …I don’t want it to be the be-all end-all of trans theatre in Toronto: I want it to be the blueprint that breaks the dam!”
A singular and deeply personal work from a rising voice in contemporary theatre, digitrans // analogirl insists on joy, authenticity, and the right to imagine new futures, and challenges us to respond in kind: “I’m telling a story that’s true to me and that I want to see on stage. Now I want to see you tell a story that’s true to you, and what you want to see onstage.”
See the second staged reading of digitrans // analogirl, A Stardust Space co-production with Dead Name Theatre, at the 2025 SummerWorks Performance Festival on August 10 at 2:30 pm. A brief post-show Q&A will follow the performance, which is sponsored by the generous support of the Community One Foundation’s Rainbow Grant. For updates, follow ashleynaomi.squarespace.com and contribute to the project’s future via GoFundMe. Tickets are available on summerworks.ca.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
