By Kristine Anjela Pablo, John Vincent Cruz, and Brit Charles Quevedo

The stars will shine even brighter as the brightest stars of the Communication community will grace the stage with COMMikinang 2023, an event featuring homegrown Tamaraw talents produced by fourth-year Communication students from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM today, March 31 in Science Building (SB) 201.  

This is the first year in which the Special Projects class is set to conduct a face-to-face event after a two-year halt brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The event boasts this year's theme, “Talento ng Comm, Tunghayan sa Entablado.” 

With Event Management as the focus of the program, various and refined performances are expected as it will also tackle the Special Projects syllabus honing students' skills, teaching them the importance of research and different  production forms. 

Bringing the brightest stage in the University possible, the program is co-presented by the Far Eastern Department of Communication (FEU DepComm) and FEU Communication Society (FEU CommSoc). 

For Trisha Mae Salen, a fourth-year Bachelor of Arts in Communication student (BA Communication) and one of COMMikinang’s project managers, the event is a great avenue to exhibit skills of students coming from different fields of performing arts given that the University had taken a two-year online class. 

Salen also walked through on their ups and downs that they were able to surpass through dividing tasks equally. 

"The process is always challenging – from the planning, screening of talents, and gradually creating the vision into a tangible outcome – creating a system to function properly. There will always be challenges in every step that the production team will take," she shared.

The fourth-year student also took pride in the guests and sponsors that the Tamaraws should look forward to bringing the brightest stage alive. 

"I am excited to finally see the communication students freely express themselves on stage and for the audience to feel included and encouraged to showcase and unleash what they are capable of and to make everyone's effort pay off as we give a show that will connect people with different backgrounds in one event,” she expressed.

Cluster Head for Convenient Media and professor Nikko Visperas believe that the project also allowed Communication students to use other mediums when making such events.

"We always think it's all about production, it's all about writing… but we are also ready to do action in front of the camera and in front of a lot of people," he highlighted.

Rocking the spotlight, COMMikinang 2023 stars will flaunt their artistry such as singing, dancing, rap, and even special performances of the warrior diva of Bulacan and FEU alumna, Maria Cristina, one of brightest names in the drag industry. 

It only shows that Communication students are not only for the reel and the spotlight. They can also take you by wonder with their amazing craft.

Driven, striking, and dynamic — three words left for us to live up to. Though stage lights make you shine brighter, you make yourself shine the brightest. 

Let this be a simple reminder saying that all we need is some brightening to shed off a little bit of darkness. As we witness another set of greatness, maybe the stage spotlights of COMMikinang 2023 might help—they are dazzling and 'kumikinang' after all!