VICTORIA BUGBEE
WRITER  DIRECTOR  PRODUCER 
      STAGE AND FILM 
 VISUAL ARTIST          
"Smile"  pastel on Arches rag paper.  50" x 36"  From KABOOM Show   Copyright Victoria Bugbee 2009 All Rights Reserved
Backstory
Victoria Bugbee is an award winning filmmaker, playwright, visual artist and journalist. She was born in Northampton, PA and grew up in Catasauqua, PA. Her parents who had six kids encouraged them to be creative and encouraged her interest in art, music and theater. As a Rotary Exchange student she studied visual artist at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina and at Kutztwon University in Pennsylvania. There she worked in drawings, sculpture, earth projects and performance art.Her mentors were James Carroll who founded New Arts Program and James Kelly. Visiting artist from NYC were Vito Acconci and Willoughby Sharp influenced her exploration of performance as an art form. Her first show was "Sex, Pornography and The Law." 

Atlanta
Bugbee married the artist Santo Bruno who taught painting at The Atlanta College of Art. She taught art at their private art school Artist In Residence. She also designed & painted needlepoint canvases for Papplilon. As an art specialist at the progressive school Paidea Bugbee also was an assistant teacher.Bruno and Bugbee were founders of The Atlanta Art Workers Coalition and ran the non-profit out of their apartment for the first year & a half. Bugbee was point person for the monumental art show at The Omni. 25 artists refurbished a raw 12,000 square foot space for their collective show. The organization provided a hub for artists including a newsletter that became Art Papers and a small gallery in a space provided by Department of Cultural Affairs,(DCA) City of Atlanta. 

Her artwork revolved around musical notation. This changed when she was resident manager of Le Pavilion Hotel and Apartment Complex on 17th Street between Peachtree and West Peachtree. Her art studio was the apartment where Margaret Mitchell completed "Gone With The Wind." When preparing for a one woman show of her drawings and paper sculpture based on the hotel, the artist had an epiphany and decided to build a cross-section of the hotel in the Java Gallery windows. She wrote and staged a performance based on David Lee's short story "Murder." 

"Murder at Le Pavilion Hotel" was funded through a grant from DCA who generously funded Bugbee's two more on-site performances."The Vacation Worlds of Desperation" took place in an urban parking lot on 17th Street. It featured a couple whose marriage was devolving while they were camping in Canada. "Laudry" took place in The 10th Street Laundromat and featured an auction of Great American Boxers Laundry Items. Gerald Jones videotaped the performance. While living in New York City Bugbee later worked with Editor Alicia Loving Cortes and called it "Boxer Shorts."

New York City
Bugbee moved to New York City with artist George Warren and they lived in a loft in Chinatown. She was determined to work in the film and video industry and got a job as a receptionist at Digital Effects, one of the first computer graphic companies in the world. They worked on "TRON." She and Warren also designed the trailer for David Cronenberg's film "Videodrome" with James Wood and Debbie Harry. While at Digital Effects Bugbee began writing for the trades. Her feature articles appeared in American Cinematographer, Sequence (Paris), Backstage, Computer Pictures, Millimeter, Shoot and Television Broadcast News. She was also Excutive Producer of George Parker Productions and Doros Animation.

At the same time she continued to make art. Her fireworks series and large pastels of Chinatown were Downtown Ten, a collective of artists living below 14th St. Michael Benson Gallery was above Benson's Furniture Store on Houston Street & Avenue A on The Lower Eastside. The artist was in awe of the big furniture windows and Michael Benson agreed to Bugbee creating a performance for opening night.  "Life & Death With Business In Between" was based on the life stories of the Mrs. Carrie Camiso who was the housemother of Bugbee's apartment. Part of the action was in the windows and another scene on the street. The audience was outside looking in.Bugbee received a New York Foundation for the ArtsFellowship in Playwrighting and turned "Life & Death ... into a full length musical with composer Joe Deihl whom she collaborated with on her projects.

Bugbee and Warren renovated a co-op on Mott Street, married and had three children. She wrote a one woman short play "Confessions of a Baby Slave," and
"Art Angel" that she performed as a visiting artist at New Arts Program at Kutztown Univesity. She was commissioned by Creative Time and Lincoln Center OUt of Doors to write, direct and produce "A Surreal Soap Opera-Toxic Waste Meets Beach Resort." This ecological disaster black comedy was performed as a weekly at The Village Gate on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village.

Hastings on Hudson, NY  
With the arrival of their third child Bugbee and Warren bought an old boarding house in the small town 12 miles north of Manhattan. Rather than do a gut reno the couple decided to restore the century old house that still had original details. Bugbee was asked to join The Actors Lab that was created by Maureen Garrett who starred on CBS's "The Guiding Light." Bugbee wrote the play "The Divorce of Tammy & Chet" and workshopped it with Garrett and her fellow cast members.
Wroshop readings happened at CBS & Ossinging's First Playwrights Marathon.Actos Carrie Cromelin and Kurt McKinney were Tammy & Chet. Bugbee rewrote parts of the play and with support from River Arts and Arts Westchester held a staged reading in OverSeas Autobody Shop. "The Gas Station Project" starred Caroline winterson as Narraor who was in a red corvette convertible and Carrie Cromelin and Kurt McKinney reprising their roles. Cherie Fortis produced and Bugbee directed.
Working with at risk teens who were in residence at Clark Academy, Bugbee and fortis restaged in play in the auditorium. The kids transformed the lobby to look like the office of a gas station. It was a great outreach program and they were thrilled to have "real" televison actors perform.

B Productions
For 15 years Bugbee worked with Founder and Director Bill Marpet and Andy Biskin as Special Projects Producer at B Productions of New York. B was the premier fashion video company whose clients included the top designers in New York as well as international clientel. Bugbee rebranded the company and brought in Conde Nast. Her projects included GQ's 49 screen videowall at MAGIC in Las Vegas, Wedding on Madison, a 3 day 36 event for Brides Magaine, The 25th Anniversary Reunion of the Cast of "Murphy Brown" for Starz, and "Fashion's Night Out Runway Show" TV Special for Vogue and CBS, "Mac&Milk - 22 runway shows for AOL.

Victoria Bugbee Productions
After working for many production companies, Bugbee decided to make her first feature. In 1992fresh off the success of "A Surreal Soap Opera..." she united with her distant scousin, Charlie Bugbee, to write the screenplay "Out of State." Charlie went to LA to look for funding when he became serioiusly ill. He recovered but a few years later succumbed to cancer. With permission from his brother, Vicky decided to make the film in Charlie's honor. In the interim, a documentary about Samoan Warriors was made with the same title so the writer/director added the subtitle "A Gothic Romance" to set her film apart. With a tiny budget and a small crew - camera, sound and an assistant - Bugbee shot over 100 scenes in 21 days in her house and garden. A few extra shots were lensed to denote the change in seasons - i.e winter scenes and the magnolia tree in full bloom Before shooting scenes the cast and crew would say "For Charlie." We think he would be proud.

VITA

Vic

Catasauqua

Victoria Bugbee was born in Northampton, PA to Monica Bugbee and A. Newton Bugbee, Jr.  One of six children, the Bugbees were encouraged by their art loving parents to create things and experiment. This led to singing in the cow pastures that surrounded their industrial iron town of Catasauqua, going down to the basement to make Christmas gifts and making a solar distillery for St. Francis Academy's science fair.  At Catasauqua High School, Bugbee participated in many musicals and plays.  She also took extensive visual art classes and decided to enroll in art school. 
 
Argentina
As a Rotary Exchange Student at the University of Argentina at Cordoba Bugbee took foundation and drawing classes.  The Cordobasa was the year before and students were revolting against the military junta.  The dramatic culture of revolution, new tango of Astor Piazzolla, folklorica music and street performance and murals left an indelible mark on Bugbee's growth as an artist. Her boyfriend, Ernesto Abril, was an ardent law student and introduced her to politics, American jazz and Folklorica, the native music of Argentina. 

US Colleges
Back in the USA she worked in a department store while taking night courses at Moravian College. She then studied with James Kelly and James Carroll, Director of  New Arts Program, at Kutztown State University.  There she worked with performance artist Vito Acconci and Willoughby Sharp, founder of the seminal art magazine, "Avalanche."  Influenced by artists at the vanguard, Bugbee's first performance installation was "Sex, Pornography and the Law," in 1973.

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
Caoline Winterson and James Nester sing "Greensleeves"
Sarah Moliski as Elsa arrives at The Garths
Sarah Moliski as Elsa awakens
Shooting Solitaire scene with Sarah Moliski and James Nester
Sarah Moliski and Tess Warren take a break during Rain Scene
Sarah Moliski and James Nester are ready for The Croquet Scene
Avery Ryder Turner and Sarah Molisk in Magnolia Scene