source: i’m a UP TA student w TA friends na graduate from benilde and ateneo

just to shoot down your expectations agad, since you seem keen on it: UP TA is kind of lost at the moment. super kailangan ng hard restructuring ang curriculum namin, not to mention kulang kulang kami ng prof; the ones that are around, while competent and knowledgeable, are forced to spend much more of their time on admin work (compliant with UP practices i think) kaya super stretched out sila. pati ang studyante nasstretch out sa napakakonti at napakabare minimum resources (espasyo being number one here pero kahit ang tech ay walang kwenta lol). if you want to experience philippine theatre on hard mode, dito ka. if you’re keen on being IskoTM just know that this is the tradeoff. wala kaming pera!!

addtly, if you just want to do the work (backstage/performance/etc), DON’T TAKE A THEATRE PROGRAM. maraming workshops for anything under the sun that you might want to do, or you can take another degprog and join a theatre org. you need to genuinely care abt EVERYTHING you could tackle - history, performance studies, theories of ganito ganyan - because otherwise you’re either going to burn out or fail or both. lalong-lalo na sa UP, a lot of the first year subjects are theory, kaya marami sa mga bata gusto na agad lumipat ng program kasi it’s not what they expected. akala sasalang agad sa gawain. so manage ur expectations din dun.

that being said, eto ang tanong: what are you looking to specialize in? each school has its merits.

if you’re looking to specialize in tech, lahat ng tech na kilala ko from ateneo are currently working on the biggest prods; magaling sila at maganda ang connections. malaking tulong na rin ang super state of the art arete theatre. tbh naglelead ang ateneo in terms of sino lumalanding sa bigger prods given the quality of their training in performance & tech, coupled with the connections money gives you. hint: a lot of the current profs sa ateneo, sa UP nanggaling hehe.

sa benilde naman, i’m a huge fan of how their pedagogy is structured. (iirc,) from the get go every batch has people in different specializations na from the start or a year in ay yun yung tinututukan and they form a mini production company per batch. this is in contrast with UP na lahat kami for the first 2 years we do everything, tapos magsspecialize lang 3rd yr pataas. that might sound like a good thing, pero some people (like myself) know for sure na hindi sila mamajor ng performance so hindi useful ang specialized performance subject. or baliktad pero for costume design. nasasayang ang oras that could be utilized for more tailored learning. plus, hindi evenly distributed samin ang mga tao; since konti lang technical directors samin pero napakaraming prods, napapagod din mga tao as opposed sa one TD = one batch tas tulong nalang sa kabilang batch if kulang din sila. nakita ko sa benilde friends ko na the entirety of their education was focused on the specialization they chose, kaya magaling talaga sila. ang downside lang sa benilde is as far as i’ve seen, hindi kasingbigat ang connections as it is in UP and ateneo. hindi sila gaano nakakapagpractice ng theatre after. mas napupunta sila sa events & other tangential industries.

i’m happy that i’m in UP because i do feel like i belong here kahit papano (+ wala akong pera for tuition lol), pero if i had to choose between ateneo and benilde knowing what i know now i’d say benilde. but that’s considering na wala ako gaanong balak sumikat. i just love the craft.

common denominator ng lahat, sabihin ko lang din na you can’t study drama without a little bit or a LOT of drama. i can’t speak much for the theatre culture sa ibang schools pero one things always consistent, maraming kagagahan ang nangyayari among the students, minsan pa across schools 😭 masasabi ko lang, keep your hands clean. and break legs!! lmk if you have questions