Atlanta
In 1973 she married the painter Santo Bruno who taught at the Atlanta College of Art. Bruno envisioned forming an artist colony similar to Black Mountain. The DIY philosophy inspired them to found Artist in Residence, an art school for children and to form The Atlanta Art Workers Coalition (AAWC) with 8 other visual artists. Their apartment on West 17th Street and West Peachtree served as the office for the non-profit's first year and a half.
AAWC took old spaces in downtown Atlanta and converted them to museum like spaces for artists to exhibit their work. The OMNI show was groundbreaking in its size and scope. The organization grew to over 100 artists and provided a gallery, health insurance, networking, and a newspaper that morphed in Art Papers.
Bugbee taught art classes at Paidea School and also ran Le Pavillion Hotel and apartments - a funky New Orleans style complex in downtown Atlanta. She rented an adjoining apartment for her art studio that had been Margaret Mitchell apartment where she finished "Gone With the Wind." Mitchell also rented a small room in Le Pavillion to hide out from her fans after the novel was published.
For her one woman show at the Javo Gallery, Bugbee exhibited 30 works on paper about the hotel. But she felt that the people were missing so she recreated the hotel in the gallery windows and staged a performance based on David Lee's short story "Murder." The audience stood on the street. In one window there was a murder, in another lovers foght and seduced eachother. On the street was the hotel office with Lynne Garrett portraying Bugbee. Lynne had been the manager of Le Pavillion before Bugbee took over.
The actors did not talk. Off-stage, Bugbee read a monologue or voice over of what transpired during her tenure at Le Pavillion. She was joined by fellow artists George Warren, Santo Bruno, Gene Alcott, and Elaine Falone. Bart Aranoff and Linda Macaluso rounded out the ensemble.
The soundtrack was Astor Piazzolla's New Tango, "Milango del Angel" that she had seen him perform in Cordoba, Argentina. The performance was the sum of all parts for the artist and it galvanized her work weaving together visuals, verbal, sound and filmic devises. She called herself a visual verbalist.
Bugbee then wrote "The Vacation: Worlds of Desperation" staged in an urban parking lot. A series of drawings, done while on vacation in Canada, followed. "Laundry" by the playwright featured an auction of Great American Boxers laundry items and was staged at The 10th Street Laundromat in Atlanta, GA. Videotaped by Gerald Jones Bugbee worked with Alicia Loving-Cortez who edited the video now known as"Boxer Shorts." The short film included archival footage of great American boxers. The Atlanta Trilogy was funded by The Bureau of Cultural Affairs, City of Atlanta when Maynard Jackson was mayor and the city embraced art as a public forum for change.
New York City
In 1981, Bugbee moved to New York City and lived in Chinatown with sculptor George Warren.
They worked on a series of projects including the trailer for David Cronenberg's feature "Videodrome". Warren built the set for Bugbee's performance piece "Life and Death With Business In Between," staged in the windows of Benson's Furniture Store. Besides Warren's sculptures, the backdrop for the death scene was painted by Richard Purdy.
Singer Jo Pacific played Life and performance artist Alyson Pou was Death. Carter Innskeep, whom I had met when we were together at The Greenhouse Workshop in Hell's Kitchen, played George and brought his friends with him to perform. The actors included Irma St. Paul and John McQuire. With a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Playwrighting the one act was expanded to a full length musical with music by Joe Deihl and lyrics by Bugbee.
Since Chinatown, Bugbee has continued with her large mural sized pastels of Chinatowns throughout the US and incorporated fireworks wrappers into her work. The traveling art installation is entitled KABOOM.
Performance Artist Alyson Pou was instrumental in Bugbee receiving a commission from Creative Time http://creativetime.org/projects/a-surreal-soap-opera/ to write and direct "A Surreal Soap Opera" at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Jenneth Webster Producer. Lynne Goldberg starred and co-produced the show. A year later, Emmy winning director and designer Malcolm McNeill directed the play that ran as a weekly at The Village Gate (1994) in Greenwich Village. It stars dancers Lynne Pidel and John Maynard, Georgia Warren, Janine Hamilton and Curtis Roberts. Bugbee strung together titles of Soap Operas for lyrics with composer Joe Deihl reggae tune for the theme song, "Dying, lying, crying on a Surreal Soap Opera."
On a personal note Bugbee and Warren married in 1985 on the Staten Island Ferry and have 3 children: Georgia (now a science educator and artist) is married to Conor Loughren a professional stage manager and builder. Tess is an archivist and has worked at Storm King Art Center. Dylan is a professional photographer www.dylanwarrenphotography.com.
Hastings-on-Hudson
As the family expanded - at one time they owned 22 pets - they moved to Hastings-on-Hudson, NY where they bought an old boarding house and have been working on it ever since.
In Hastings, Bugbee joined RiverArts - The Rivertowns Arts Council in 2007 with her friend and collaborator Cherie Fortis. Cherie and Bugbee had worked together on filming Crobar - The Making of a Megaclub. Fortis had produced Anna Deavre-Smith's "Fires In the Mirror," Paul Simon's Graceland. Bugbee's play "The Gas Station Project" that was sponsored by RiverArts and Arts Westchester. Staged in Overseas Auto Body, the play featured Kurt McKinney and Carrie Cromelin, both of the cast of the soap "The Guiding Light" and Caroline Winterson, reknowned book narrator, as The Car Chick Narrator.
The play originated in a workshop The Actors Lab organized by actress Maureen Garrett at CBS's backlot on the set of "The Guiding Light." It was part of The First Playwrights Marathon in Ossining, NY. A year later Fortis and Bugbee restaged Gas Station in Dobbs Ferry at Clark Academy that is part of St. Christopher's - a center for at risk teens. St. Chris's students were enlisted to transform their gym into a gas station, run the ticket booth and be part of the audience interaction. It was a milestone for the production team as well as the students.
NYC
Bugbee was Special Projects Producer at B Productions. The production company is headed
by Emmy winning cinematographer Bill Marpet and is known for their award winning videos for the fashion and beauty industries. Bugbee has produced work for Oscar de la Renta, Betsey Johnson, Roberto Cavalli, YSL, True Religion, Harry Winston, CFDA, Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Milk & MAC, AOL, CBS, NBC, STARZ, E!Style, PBS, Conde Nast, GQ, Glamour, Vogue, Brides, Elle, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Paper Magazine, Coty, Clairol, Burt's Bees, MATRIX, COLOR WOW, HUE, FABB, MATRIX, MACY's, JCP, The Heart Truth and many more.
VICTORIA BUGBEE PRODUCTIONS
Film - "Out of State - A Gothic Romance"
Bugbee wrote "Out of State - A Gothic Romance" with her late cousin Charlie Bugbee. It is in memory of Charlie and the late George Warren, Ex. Producer, that we are making the film. It is set in the 1990's in a little town in Pa shot on location in my Victorian house in Hastings on Hudson, NY.
Executive Producers - George A Warren III and Victoria Bugbee
Screenplay - Victoria Bugbee and Charles Bugbee Jr.
Producers - Victoria Bugbee and Cherie Fortis
Director - Victoria Bugbee
Cinematography - Ilya Schnitser, D.P with additional camerawork by Daniel Marracino, Blair Johnson, Dylan Warren, David Zung.
Sound - Jin, Olitan Agueh, Eric Bini,
Editor- Kim Millie
Assistant Editor - Matthew Brueckner
Production Assistant- Tess Warren
CAST
Elsa - Sarah Moliski
Marcia - Caroline Winterson
Emery - Avery Ryder Turner
Tab - James Nester
Becky - Tess Warren
Ms. Heller - Lynne Goldberg
Roy - Matthew Brueckner
Butter Buns Baker - Dave Scheffler
Limo Driver - Peter H. Bugbee
Crowd Scene - Paola Tawa, Oden Tawa Diaz, Lyhia Tawa, Dianna Gondeck, Nick Tarricone.
STREET PERFORMANCE
"Life and Death With Business In Between." A Surreal Musical
"Gas Station Project"
"A Surreal Soap Opera - Toxic Waste Meets Beach Resort"
"Boxer Shorts"
"The Vacation Worlds of Desperation"
"Murder at Le Pavillion Hotel"
One Woman Shows
"Art Angel'" previously title "Oddicum, Jobicum, Diplomicum"
"Confessions of a Baby Slave"
"Big Pink Sweaters"
"I Have the Knowledge of Carpentry"
Looking for adventurous theater and performance groups to produce my work
