Art used to be based in the U.S. On theatre in New York City, he won the prestigious Obie Award for Lonnie Carter’s “The Romance of Magno Rubio”. Other plays he did there are “The Pigeon Tree”, “Fan Tan King”, “Spring Awakening”, “Bike Wreck”, “Dog Eaters”, “Empress of China” as a female impersonator and “Santos & Santos” as a Mexican drug trafficker.
In Hollywood, he’s a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has appeared in TV shows like “Law and Order”, “One Life to Live”, “Criminal Intent”, “As the World Turns” and “Comedy Central”. Buthe is more active now in local TV and movies after his last U.S. appearance in Duncan Sheik’s “Whisper House” at the Old Globe Theatre in San Franciso.
He started as a theatre actor in the 80s when he did plays like “Something Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “Woman of the Year” for Repertory Philippines. He then left for New York and it was there that Director Lav Diaz saw him acting on stage and got him to co-star with Gloria Diaz and Yul Servo in the movie “Batang Westside”. Eventually, he returned to Manila and did TV work with ABS-CBN, like the soaps “Rosalka” and “Maria la del Barrio”. He also did other films like “Amigo” and “Rigodon”, both with Joel Torre.
Last year, he played an important role as Harry Shaw in the Singaporean TV show, “The Kitchen Musical”, with Christian Bautista and Karylle. For his performance there, he is now nominated as best actor in the 52nd Monte Carlo TV Festival, along with Karylle as best actress.
In June, he’ll start rehearsing for the play “God of Carnage” for Atlantis Productions where he’ll co-star with Lea Salonga and Menchu Lauchengco Yulo. This is slated to be staged in Singapore in October.
He has just completed a Cinemalaya entry, “Posas” with Bangs Garcia, Wendy Valdez and Nico Antonio where he plays a police investigator, under the direction of Lawrence Fajardo. He’s all set to start shooting this month the Ilocano epic, “Biag ni Lam-ang”, as villain to Rocco Nacino, directed by Anna Agabin.
