Bong Cabrera: From corporate man to actor

MANILA, Philippines - Of Pangasinense-Leyteño percentage, young Edralin (Bong) Cabrera spent nine years in Cebu City, studied at UP Cebu, went through a succession of lucrative corporate jobs, and then gave all this up to pursue his dream of becoming an actor in Big Apple Manila and abroad.

In Cebu, Bong worked as an assistant director for an international film school where most of the mentors came from Hollywood, and the clients were American and European actors. He was casting director, and the company did a lot of commercials for TV.

He worked day by day and acted by night in plays written by his friend Crispin Ramos, a Palanca awardee.

And then one fine day he learned that two companies were giving auditions in Manila: one by a firm in Singapore (offering a partial scholarship); the other by Tanghalang Pilipino, the resident drama group of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. He passed both auditions but opted to join Tanghalang Pilipino, and resigned from his job in Cebu.

From then on Bong was hooked full-time on theater. His talents were further honed by TP’s The Actor Company, where young performers are extensively trained in acting, singing and dancing.

His first important role was in Pilipinas Circa 1907, Nicanor G. Tiongson’s successful reworking of the turn-of-the-century zarzuela by Severino Reyes (of the Lola Basyang stories), with music by Lutgardo Labad et al and direction by Dennis Marasigan.

Bong’s character was Andres, a worker who joins the revolution against Spain. When Marasigan informed him that he was going to sing in this musical, Dong became very nervous, being insecure about his singing voice (baritone range). But he worked hard, and acquitted himself musically as well as in acting.

His breakthrough role, however, came the following year, 2008, in Kudeta, a foreign play translated by George de Jesus III and directed by Floy Quintos. Playing a jail guard, the intense Bong gave the role his best shot, holding his own against the formidable Maria O’Hara, who played the beleaguered President.

Bong went on to win Best Supporting Actor from the first-ever PhilStage Gawad awards in 2009.

The actor, with four months of flamenco dancing and two indie films behind him, has just returned from a six-month acting grant from the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) in New York, which was an enriching experience for him.

He interacted with fellow artists from all over the world, attended workshops, watched shows, learned new theater and film techniques (“instinctive, moment-by-moment kind of acting”), the ensemble method, endurance, and vocal technique.

Bong even acted in a short film about a man, bored and unhappy, who has a weird dream in which he is happy by chasing something, and when he wakes up kills himself so that he can attain that kind of dream-like happiness.              

“Sobrang pressure,” declares Bong. “You had to act really good, you had to be on your toes because you were bringing not just your name but the name of the Philippines. So every time I would say ‘hi I’m Bong from the Philippines. . .’.”

The experience not only broadened his horizons but also taught him the value of connections: “This business you are actually in is all about connections. I met people from China, Hongkong, Taiwan, London, Brazil, and the US who wanted to collaborate with me because they got to know me personally.”

He concludes: “Learning is an open space. As an artist you should be open to the things that surround you. There are new avenues, a lot of things to learn wherever you go. I learned so much and I want to impart this to my fellow actors in Tanghalang Pilipino and in the Philippines.”