The Playshop kids in full battle gear

In the war for children’s time, parents have lost to television, playstation, the internet, and texting. Unfortunately, all these activities aren’t really activities. They make kids sluggish, non-active, and stare at some kind of screen the whole day. That’s why we in Trumpets set up Playshop. The biggest performing arts workshop for the young generation.

I remember developing the business strategy for Playshop almost seven years ago with Audie Gemora and Freddie Santos. We wanted to provide kids with a summer workshop that was fun, that’s why we called it PLAYshop and not a WORKshop. We also wanted to give kids the best possible training and their parents the comfort that their children would be in good hands. We therefore fused excellent instruction with Christian values. And while other performing arts schools just focused on one subject, we diversified ours.

Today, God has allowed Playshop to reach the top. We have the highest enrollment for any theater workshop with over 2,000 students, while holding classes in various venues and provinces. Soon, Playshop goes international with classes in Hong Kong and possibly Singapore.

Summer is the most exciting time of the year. But statistics show that summer is also the season where the highest rate of juvenile delinquency occurs. They say, "the devil’s playground is an idle mind." No wonder summer is when most kids are prone to meeting the wrong crowd, trying new things, engaging in new tricks, and passing through adolescent rites of passage.

Unfortunately, television, the net, and videogames reinforce this attitude. To top it all off, kids turn into couch potatoes. So if you’re a parent, your goal this summer should be to peel your kids away from that box and into an activity they can learn from, interact, have fun, and hopefully develop strong values. That’s Playshop!

We’ve got classes in children’s and advanced musical theater, basic and advanced acting, voice lessons, classical guitar and piano. Playshop also caters to the dance aficionados through street dancing, jazz, ballet, and hip-hop classes. In the realm of technical skills, Playshop offers TV newscasting, modeling, photography, stage management, TV production, and set design.

But classes are only as good as the teachers, and Playshop’s roster is just as impressive. The list includes theater stars, Audie Gemora, Jaime Del Mundo and Menchu Lauchengco. Metropop Star Champion, Jonard Yanson. Heartthrob Jonjon Supan of the Manoeuvres, ace photographer Toch Arellano, model Tweety De Leon, singer Sweet Plantado of The CompanY, and many more.

But what really sets Playshop apart is that we try our best to take care of your kids. For years, parents have trusted us to share not only performing arts skills but also values that lasts a lifetime. We also try and develop a strong sense of camaraderie between the students that build lasting friendships. This year, we plan to incorporate a follow-up program that will allow us to provide continuing education even after Playshop closes for summer.

There’s a war this summer. A war for your child’s time. You can let your child stare at a screen the whole day or make your child join a workshop… or better yet, PLAYshop.