“Transduction” – A Solo Performance by Sam Charney
Premiering at the 2025 Denver Fringe Festival
We all “know” Transgender people are being indoctrinated into being trans, but what would the indoctrination actually look like? “Transduction” is a look inside what that indoctrination ceremony might look like. The Transgender Alien guides the audience through the experience of being trans until the FBI finds them, and then it all goes astray.
In their new solo performance piece “Transduction,” queer, transgender non-binary artist-activist Sam Charney invites audiences to experience the world as a transgender person, to celebrate the joys and understand the perils.
Blending multimedia experiences with live performance rooted in acting, Charney uses personal testimony, news footage, and darkly playful audience interaction to create a genre-defying experience. Building upon their 2024 Denver Fringe solo work “The Cult of Gender,” this new piece deepens the conversation — inviting audiences to question everything they think they “know” about gender.
A Denver local and current student at NYU Tisch School of the Arts (BFA in Collaborative Arts), Sam Charney (They/Sam) works in the intersection of activism and art. From testifying on LGBTQ+ civil rights legislation to speaking nationally on queer and trans issues, Sam’s work aims to inform, transform, and incite change which informs their artistic practice.
“I will always create art that sparks a revolution” – Sam Charney
