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THE PLAY
Filipinos love love. Filipinos love beauty. Filipinos love pageants. Charot — actually, we are obsessed.
Former Beauty Queen Doña Carmelita returns to Queens, New York, to launch a beauty pageant circuit in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of Filipino Independence Day. Her daughter Jesca wants to shut it down. So Carmelita, visionary that she is, coerces her seven-year-old grandson into competing… because you can never girl boss too close to the sun. Part unhinged teleserye, part beauty pageant, part historical reckoning, Mercury Makes the Skin Glow asks the questions on everyone's lips: Is the pursuit of “whiteness” more than skin deep?
Former Beauty Queen Doña Carmelita returns to Queens, New York, to launch a beauty pageant circuit in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of Filipino Independence Day. Her daughter Jesca wants to shut it down. So Carmelita, visionary that she is, coerces her seven-year-old grandson into competing… because you can never girl boss too close to the sun. Part unhinged teleserye, part beauty pageant, part historical reckoning, Mercury Makes the Skin Glow asks the questions on everyone's lips: Is the pursuit of “whiteness” more than skin deep?
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Internal Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab, New York, NY 2025
Public Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab (Ariel Estrada), Manila House, & Nacho Tambunting, Manila, PH 2026
Public Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab (Ariel Estrada), Nacho Tambunting, New York, NY 2026
Public Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab (Ariel Estrada), Manila House, & Nacho Tambunting, Manila, PH 2026
Public Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab (Ariel Estrada), Nacho Tambunting, New York, NY 2026
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
Semi-Finalist - 2025 Irons in the Fire
New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grant 2025
Finalist - 2025 O'Neill Playwrights Conference
Finalist - 2025 Bay Area Playwrights Festival
New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grant 2025
Finalist - 2025 O'Neill Playwrights Conference
Finalist - 2025 Bay Area Playwrights Festival
PRESS
"Mercury Makes The Skin Glow: A Play-In-Development By Gaven Trinidad," Pilar Gonzales, Lifestyle Asia, March 2026 | READ HERE