QUEZON CITY, Philippines – The Philippine Educational Theater Association (Peta) leading educational theater company in the Philippines since 1967, opens fifteen intensive theater arts classes for its annual summer workshop starting April 7-May 20.

Peta’s seven theater courses which range from basic to advanced, taps into the limitless creative potential of each participant, allowing students to fully express themselves and shine under the limelight of a legitimate stage.

Taught by some of the country’s most outstanding thespians and theater practitioners, Peta attracts a lot of applicants every year because of its unique, comprehensive and student-centered programs.

Integrated Theater Arts

Following the Basic Integrated Theater Arts Workshop (Bitaw) process, Peta’s highly experienced artist-teachers combine group dynamics, creative dance and movement, creative sound and music, visual arts and creative writing in all of its theater workshops.

Throughout Peta’s 47 years of experience in educational theater and cultural work, Bitaw has been the company’s main foundation in all of its trainings including those conducted in the provinces of the Philippines, regional coverage in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Children’s Theater and Teen Theater Courses

Peta’s intensive theater courses are open for children as young as six. Peta believes that performing for a live audience builds confidence, inspires creativity, and encourages teamwork no matter one’s age, and for youngsters it can plant a seed that will grow into a lifelong passion.

Its Children’s Theater courses, for ages 6-8 and 9-12, enable children to explore and experience music, movement and dance, visual arts, storytelling, drama improvisation, poetry and short story writing. Coupled with lots of fun and games, Peta’s creative processes aim to develop and enrich the child’s creativity, imagination and self-confidence.

Peta’s Teen Theater course, for ages 13-16, hopes to challenge the experimental and adventurous nature of the youth. The course mixes creative drama, creative sounds and music, creative writing, creative body movements and dance, visual arts as well as improvisational theater and new media wherein teens get to express their talents and articulate youth power as they mount their own original piece on relevant youth concerns as part of their recital.

Acting for Adults

Young aspiring actors, from 17 years old and up, can also plunge into a unique artistic experience by acquiring fundamental knowledge, skills and attitudes in improvisational theater

production, theater history, theater appreciation, aesthetics and criticism in the Theater Arts course.

The course is focused on building a background for theater newbies; teaching them to learn and appreciate the art of theater production and history.

For those who have basic theater experience, Peta offers a foundation course on acting. Peta’s Basic Acting course allows participants to have a series of dialogues with seasoned theater artists coupled with motivated acting exercises that can turn anyone into a budding stage actor. The course provides its students the chance to apply the elements of the arts and composition in executing a good performance through their body, voice, and imagination in acting while also tackling techniques on improvisation and text analysis.

Advanced Acting with Nonon Padilla

The Advanced Acting course offers a tougher challenge as it is about the mastery of different acting techniques. This course is designed for students with strong backgrounds in performance that wish to pursue a career as professional actors. In this course, participants will study a variety of acting materials ranging from contemporary to classic texts.

The Advanced Acting course will be taught by no less than Nonon Padilla, a celebrated theater director known for his many contributions in the theater and art industry.

Musical Theater Course

The Creative Musical Theater course provides students the chance to study the principles of composition and organization in performing for musical theater that is geared towards developing the enrollees’ musical theater skills. The course has sessions on voice, composition, performance and various music explorations.

Workshop Venues

The Peta Summer Program will be held at the Peta Theater Center in New Manila, Quezon City and in the Meridian International College (MINT) in Taguig City. The MINT College, just like Peta, is a cultural and creative hub situated at the heart of a thriving city. Its environment encourages its students to think outside the box and produce ingenious ideas for art and music.

How to enroll

Interested enrollees may drop by the Peta Theater Center at No. 5 Eymard Drive, New Manila, Quezon City between Tuesdays to Saturdays or contact Peta at (02) 725 6244 or 0905-3696003. Peta also accepts online inquiries at [email protected] or www.petatheater.com.