MANILA, Philippines?At the age of 10, on a family outing up north, Banaue Miclat took in the majestic view of the 2,000-year-old rice terraces carved in the Ifugao mountains and realized the import of her name for the first time.

She understood then the heights she must reach to stay true to the name her parents gave her. ?There was a sense that ?oh, I have to live up to that,?? she said.

?It was humbling. I saw that it (Banaue Rice Terraces) was much, much bigger than me,? the 31-year-old Miclat said.

?My parents (Alma and Mario Miclat) raised me telling me the significance and uniqueness of that name. There was no pressure from them, but I felt it was something I had to live up to.?

The way she has lived her life has been a testament to this impossible challenge, from the soaring notes that leave her lips as she sings, to the twirls and pirouettes she used to do as a student of ballet.

Singer, actress, dancer and teacher, Miclat, like her name, is a wonder of nature, flitting from one talent to the next, constantly pushing herself to do more, strive harder.

Her first performance on a stage was as a 9-year-old ballet dancer in ?Collezioné ?89,? a recital with National Artist for Dance Leonor Orosa-Goquingco?s Ben-LorBallet.

Epiphany

At the time, it had seemed only like an expensive hobby that required money for tuition and costumes.

But three years later, appearing as Sita in the Philippine Educational Theater Association?s workshop production of ?Ramayana? in 1992, Miclat, then 12, had an epiphany of sorts.

?This time, I got a stipend, and I thought, ?hey, I could make a living out of this,?? she said, and decided she wanted to be a performance artist.

Miclat went on to obtain a degree in Theater Arts under the tutelage of theater stalwart and professor emeritus Tony Mabesa at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

On campus, she played memorable characters in various Dulaang UP productions: Desdemona in ?Othello,? Kristin in ?Ms Julia,? Pope Joan in ?Top Girls,? among others.

In 2006, she finished the Master of Fine Arts program in Acting at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. A voice coach told Miclat, a soprano, that she had the potential to be an opera singer.

Quite by providence, a supernumerary position opened up at the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York. Miclat aced her audition and was one of five picked for the position. In opera and other performing arts, a supernumerary plays minor roles like acting or dancing in chorus, (but not singing).

?I was very lucky because the Met doesn?t always do open auditions. There were five of us out of 40,? she said, adding that she was chosen because she was ?quick? at getting directions.

?In ?Salome,? we were told that when Salome enters a room, you needed to have a connection with her,? she said.

Miclat was so good at connecting with the actress who played Salome that they extended her role so she was in the scene from beginning to end.

?Everybody was just coming and going, and I was always there to support Salome. I was the one who put a robe on her in one scene that required her to get naked briefly,? she said.

Miclat also performed in other Met productions like ?La Boheme,? ?La Triviata? and ?Faust,? where she played a bear tamer, a lunatic, and Death all in the same night.

She said her experience at the Met was ?humbling? because it taught her that no role was too small or too big for people who were serious about their craft.

The work ethic of theater artisans in New York and those in Manila is pretty much the same, Miclat said. ?It has the same discipline. It really depends on the individual. Even if your role is small, it doesn?t mean you don?t do research more, or you exert less effort,? she said.

One difference was that in New York, the actors are forced to reveal all their angst and anguish, and to ?rip off the Band-aid? of their worst and innermost demons.

In Miclat?s case, she had to finally come to grips with a family tragedy that she had been hiding from for years. In 2000, her sister Maningning, a shining light in the visual arts and literature, committed suicide.

?I wasn?t able to cry for two years,? said Miclat. ?I had to stay strong for my parents. But when I studied in the US, it came to a point where I realized I had to take care of myself. Up to now, it?s a continuous healing process,? she said.

Fear of death

Miclat said the thing she feared most was ?death. My own death, especially, if (it comes) before my parents.?

?I can?t imagine seeing my parents? agony if they lose another child. That fear of death makes me take care of myself. I have to always make sure I?m safe,? she said.

Performance artists often lead lives where there is drama inside as much as there is outside, Miclat said. ?Definitely when I was younger, I had to feel a lot of things, and this showed in my performances. But after going through a lot of tragedy, I?ve had enough,? she said.

What frustrates Miclat the most about her line of work is the dearth of roles for Asian women in Western productions.

?Since we?re Southeast Asian, it?s harder to place us in a play. We could look Latin American, at the same time, Asian. They say Chinese is the new black. Where they used to put one black man in productions, it?s now one Chinese or Japanese or Korean,? she said.

Which is why in her resumé, Miclat, who lived part of her young life in China with her parents, puts in her ?ethnic versatility?: Hawaiian, Native American, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Spanish, and Latin.

Giving back

These days, Miclat is busy preparing for the upcoming production ?Banaag at Sikat,? a rock musical based on work of novelist Lope K. Santos, to be held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines? Little Theater from Aug. 18-29.

She is also teaching acting classes at the Ateneo de Manila University and UP Diliman.

Miclat said it was actually her stint that prompted her to put off performing at the Met indefinitely. ?I felt it was time for me to give back,? she said.

To the aspiring performance artist, Miclat had a piece of advice: ?If it?s your passion, go for it.?

But life in theater is a hard one and it does not always pay the bills, she said. Artists may have to cross over to popular media like film and television like she did, dabbling in TV as well as acting in indie films.

?Like many others, I wanted to be the best, the most famous. But you reach a point when being part of something that?s been immortalized is enough to make you feel you?ve achieved something great,? Miclat said.