PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY:
ERNEST RAYE HAWKINS ABUBA was born in Aiea, Heights, Honolulu, Hawaii on August 25, 1947. His father, whose origin is Malaysian, Indonesian and of Moro stock from the Philippines came to this country as a stowaway in 1911, landing in Seattle, Washington at the age of eleven years old. For several years his father had traveled throughout the country until the outbreak of World War II, in which he then enlisted in the U.S. Army to obtain citizenship. His father had avoided immigration authorities by working as a migrant worker, on the West Coast cannery docks, and as a House-Boy, Butler, Cook, and Gambler, as far as Las Vegas, Kansas City, and Texas. Ernest’s mother, Della Marie DeFrance, who is of French-Dutch-Cherokee-Balkan heritage is a descendent of French Huguenots, from Flanders, France of the John Henry DeFrance, (ca 1728-1795), a private, lst. New York Regiment in the Revolutionary War, and Abram Boone DeFrance line who had settled in the Dauphin County, Pennsylvania prior to 1740. Della Marie was born in Fairfield, Texas.
Abuba’s first professional job as an actor was in 1967 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California in the role of Aly in Eh?, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. From 1967-70 he continued his studies in the theater at Actor’s Stage Studio in Washington, D.C., founded by Ms. Louise Brandwen who was a member of the famed Group Theater, and had been previously under contract with MGM. Ms. Brandwen, a Russian-Jewish immigrant had also studied at the Moscow Art Theatre, and subsequently during the McCarthy Hearings was blacklisted. At Actor’s Stage Studio intensive study of “The Method”, the Stella Adler Technique, as well as the theories of Jerzey Grotowski, Antonin Artaud, and Vsevolod Meyerhold were extolled.
Having arrived in New York City in the ‘70’s, Mr. Abuba in two weeks time landed his first role in a SAG film as a bit-player at an open call, as a Puerto Rican gang member in LITTLE MURDERS. Having become a member of an Off-Off Broadway group (now no longer in existence), Theatre Unlimited, he performed the title role of the Young Man in William Saroyan’s HELLO OUT THERE at the (Old) American Place Theatre located at St. Clements Church. Shortly afterwards, Ernest was to be performing at the Jean Cocteau Theatre in OPRHEE, by Jean Cocteau, and HE, WHO GETS SLAPPED, by Leonid Andreyev.
Mr. Abuba is the recipient of a 1983 Obie for his performance in YELLOW FEVER, by Rick Shiomi, produced Off-Broadway by Pan Asian Rep. He is recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship, CAPS Grant, and five New York State Council On The Arts Grants, Best Actor Focus Press Award 1971, Buffalo Studio Arena, and a Nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Old Globe, California in 1967. Abuba, authored the text for Chen and Dancers Company’s modern dance titled LEMON MOON. He is the author of DOJOJI: THE MAN INSIDE THE BELL, EAT A BOWL OF TEA (Adaptation of Louis A Chui’s Novel for the stage), AN AMERICAN STORY, THE DOWAGER, EMPRESS OF CHINA, PAPA-BOY, NIGHTSTALKERS (Adaptation of Beowulf), LIER REX (Adaptation of Shakespeare King Lear), Co-writer and Butoh performer in BAUDELAIRE: La Mort, and SPLEEN (Adaptations of Baudelaire’s, “Flur de Mal”, and semi-Opera CAMBODIA AGONISTES. His play KWATZ!:The Sound of a Hammer Hitting The Head: The Tibetan Project for Pan Asian Repertory-Off Broadway garnished rave reviews from the NY Times, and NYTheatre.Com.
He has performed in several shows on Broadway and Off-Broadway with Ben Gazzara, Estelle Parsons, Ellen Burnstyn, Mako, Robert Joy, Kevin Kline, and Patricia Richardson, and has starred on television in THE BILL COSBY SHOW, COUNTERSTRIKE, with Robert Ito, ADDERLY, NEW YORK UNDERCOVER, VESTIGE OF HONOR, with Jason Scott Lee and Gerald McCraney, NEW YORK NEWS with Mary Tyler Moore, Madeline Khan, and several daytime soaps. He co-starred in 12 MONKEYS, with Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, Brad Pitt, and Christopher Plummer, Directed by Terry Gilliam. Other films are KING OF NEW YORK, with Chris Walken, Steve Buscemi, and Larry Fishburne, GHOSTLGHT, (Tri-Beca Film Festival) as Isamu Noguichi, with Richard Move as Martha Graham, Mark Morris, Anne Magnunson, and Mondonna, KUNG-FU, THE LEGEND CONTINUES with David Carradine, ARTICLE 99, with Keither Sutherland, INTIMATE STRANGERS, with Stacy Keach, and Teri Garr, CALL ME, with Patricia Charboneau, Alec Baldwin and Steve Buscemi, as Claudius in HAMLET and APOSTASY as Abdiel, produced by Braidwood Films. He is best known on stage for his interpretation of Macbeth in SHOGUN MACBETH, and in the title role of the Reciter of Stephen Sondheim's PACIFIC OVERTURES and in the title role as The Oldest Boy, by Sara Ruhl. His film career began as a “background and bit role actor” having worked on films with Donald Sutherland, Sean Connery, Jules Feifer, Woody Allen, Jane Fonda, George C. Scott, Brooke Shields, Eric Roberts, Eli Wallach and Dustin Hoffman.
Abuba, authored the text for Chen and Dancers Company’s modern dance titled LEMON MOON. He is the author of DOJOJI: THE MAN INSIDE THE BELL, EAT A BOWL OF TEA (Adaptation of Louis A Chui’s Novel for the stage), AN AMERICAN STORY, THE DOWAGER, EMPRESS OF CHINA, PAPA-BOY, NIGHTSTALKERS (Adaptation of Beowulf), LIER REX (Adaptation of Shakespeare King Lear), Co-writer and Butoh performer in BAUDELAIRE: La Mort, and SPLEEN (Adaptations of Baudelaire’s, “Flur de Mal”, and semi-Opera CAMBODIA AGONISTES. His play KWATZ!: The Sound of a Hammer Hitting The Head: The Tibetan Project for Pan Asian Repertory-Off Broadway garnished rave reviews from the NY Times, and NYTheatre.Com.
Mr. Abuba has been a Theater Faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College, 1995-2019. He is a proud father of his son, Auric. He can be heard as the voice of his Holiness The Dalai Lama on the Audio-Book, Vol. 1- THE ART OF HAPPINESS, produced by Simon&Shuster, and the voice of Attila, ( Hachette Audio-Book) LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF ATTILA THE HUN.