In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) recently opened its doors with the Festival of Windows, a weeklong advocacy theater gathering at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City.
PETA brought together artists and practitioners to discuss ideas, practices and emerging trends in theater that are developing within the socio-political and cultural environment.
Magdalena de Leon, Chairperson of Theaters Arts and Production Design at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB), led a dialogue on social development through the arts in cooperation with schools and communities.
In her talk, De Leon focused on the series of workshops that the College offers for the community theater program at the De La Salle-Andres Soriano Memorial College (DLS-ASMC) in Toledo City in the island of Cebu. Under this scheme, selected faculty, alumni and students visited underprivileged schools to teach modules in dance, scriptwriting, directing, acting, and set and costume design.
“We planned how we can engage affiliate schools within the De La Salle Philippines (DLSP) to help them in terms of performing arts,” she said.
After the workshops, the DLS-ASMC students created their own performances and successfully mounted productions. They have likewise formed a dance troupe for the school.
De Leon said DLS-ASMC is ready to launch a Toledo Arts Festival, with the pupils utilizing what they have gained from the modules Benilde offered. “What they hopefully learned from us, they will be able to share it to the rest of their community.”
The De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde also held similar sessions on theater with the wards of Asrama Butitin, a hostel complex in Nabawan, Sabah, for the underprivileged boys and girls assisted by Lasallian brothers in Malaysia. The facility offers lodgings for 70 youths to enable them to study away from their original remote villages.
“Our students will be encouraged to apply their knowledge to help the less fortunate, and our other brothers and sisters to pursue their dreams,” she ended.