All the World is a Stage
“With Asian household dreams thrown to the wind, I took up a niche course under the School of Arts, Culture, and Performance called AB Production Design. So niche that Benilde is the only college to offer this course in the country. So niche that my course only has nine graduates here today,” Louisa Ray Cagalingan proudly shares as the first summa cum laude and graduation speaker from the Production Design Program.
During the July 2023 Commencement Rites of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Louisa fondly looks back at her 17-year-old self, a senior high school student in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) academic strand, who followed her heart and pursued art. In Benilde’s School of Arts, Culture, and Performance, she created story worlds for film, television, and theater and learned the trade of creating and filling up spaces to tell stories. She happily shares this in her graduation speech.
The Bachelor of Arts in Production Design is the only program in Asia to offer both Theater and Film Tracks. With faculty comprised of revered practitioners at the top of the field, including Gawad Buhay Philstage Awardees, Felix “Nonon” Padilla and Tuxqs Rutaquio, Life Achievement, and Outstanding Set Design, respectively, students are guided through an in-depth program of study to have a solid foundation to work in today’s theater and film industries. They have access to the Design+Arts Theater, which seats 491 guests and has the latest lighting and sound equipment for performances and productions; and the Scene Shop, a workshop space with all the resources and tools needed to work on their current projects.
Louisa chose to adapt Bram Stoker’s Dracula with a theatrical set and costumes for her thesis to complete the program. Production Design students learn technical skills in various aspects of production through focused practice in the classroom to translate a concept and vision for design into fruition. With coursework in stagecraft, scenic design, costume design, storyboard, drawing, maquette construction, dramaturgy, hair and make-up design, prosthetics, lighting design, and production methods, to name a few, graduates are expected to find their place
in the long line of theater and film production designers before them and inspire the next generation of Production Design professionals.
“I hope we find our own spaces to design. I hope we change canon events and break generational curses. I hope we all get to dress the way we want, look the way we want, and love who we want. Beyond leaving a lasting legacy, I hope we start with ourselves. And craft our stories to create a life with a world we want to live in,” Louisa ends her speech with a call for hope and asks of everyone in the Philippine International Convention Center to follow their dreams too.
For more information on the Bachelor of Arts in Production Design Program, contact us at (63) 2 8230 5100 local 1801 or admissions@benilde.edu.ph. You may also visit our website at www.benilde.edu.ph.
