Seven students from the College of Performing and Visual Arts (COPVA) graduated from e-Turo Dula, a nationwide online program for theater artists and practitioners all over the Philippines last April 11.
e-Turo Dula was a project for the National Arts Month by the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts – National Committee on Dramatic Arts. It was a 6-week long online program that offered 5 different theater courses intending to harness the ‘rich and vibrant praxis of theater-makers from various networks in the archipelago.’
A combination of synchronous (via Zoom) and asynchronous sessions, each class was scheduled for a one-day per week 3-hour online class meeting.
Artista Sillimaniana President and Sophomore Speech and Theater student, Mayumi Maghuyop, who enrolled in the Theater for Development/Teatro para sa Pagpapaunlad course, mentioned that joining the course was a great opportunity. She, and the other students, were able to learn from professionals who put so much more into the field that can inspire one to do things in the future.
“To learn from a professional who is doing so well in a field that is grabe ka competitive, is incredibly motivating because it gives you hope,” Maghuyop said.
Maghuyop explained that the course taught them topics that ‘you don’t get in school’ because of the depth of the discussions they had with the online course.
“What we are doing is we are learning from actual professionals in the field, we are learning from people who have done it, we are learning from people who continue to do it even [if] there is pandemic. It is not just overwhelming in that sense but also exciting,” Maghuyop explained.
Other Sillimanians who also completed the program were Fionabelle Marie Cabe, Mary Denice Callora, Gillian Margarette Innocente, Andrea Therese Nazareno, Angel Noime Pantaleon, and Jean Claudine Villondo.
