Category: Out of State A Gothic Romance Backstory

Victoria and Charles Bugbee met through a mutual friend who worked on Broadway. Turns out the two were distant cousins whose fathers played together as kids. Charlie’s first feature “Just Off The Coast” won best first feature at San Sebastian Film Festival. Vicky wrote, produced and directed “A Surreal Soap Opera – Toxic Waste Meets Beach Resort” at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Both were on fire creatively and decided to collaborate on an independent feature. Victoria’s parents offered the filmmakers the use of her childhood home in Pennsylvania as the location. To save money they decided on a family of shut-ins whose perfect symmetry is disrupted by an outsider. It’s a little Gothic, a little romantic, kinda funny and a little weird.

Everyone who read it thought it was a great property so Charlie took the screenplay out of LA to find production money. In a tragic turn of events Charlie got salmonella and became very ill. After a year he recovered and was back on Broadway working the sound mixing board for “Carousel” at The Vivienne Beaumont Theater. Charlie had worked on “Cats,” “Evita,” “Aspects of Love,” and many Tony winning shows. While working on “Carousel” he received word that he had an inoperable brain tumor and passed away in his late 30’s. His family and friends were devastated by his loss.

Vicky continued to write, produce and direct audience immersive plays and performances. This including producing “A Surreal Soap…” as a weekly show at The Village Gate, While working with the actors from CBS’s soap “The Guiding Light” in their Actors Lab she wrote the full length play “The Gas Station Project.” Since the play focuses on a young couple who run a gas station Vicky together with Producer Cherie Fortis staged a reading of the play in Overseas Auto Body Shop in Hastings on Hudson. She also wrote the book & lyrics for the surreal musical “Life and Death With Business In Between” with composer Joe Deihl.

Her plays were well received & got grants but this didn’t pay the bills. For 15 years she worked as a video producer at B Productions of NY. Her projects included GQ’s Mens Trend Report massive 49 screen video wall at MAGIC in Las Vegas, Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the JumboTron in Times Square, Vogue & CBS’s TV Special “The Making of Fashion’s Night Out,” AOL’s “MAC + Milk Fashion Week,” Starz “The 25th Reunion of ‘Murphy Brown’ TV Special,” WGNS Trend Reports, COTY’s CEO Summit in Geneva, CFDA, Fashion Accessories Benefit Ball, Brides “Wedding March on Madison,” Oscar de la Renta, Vivienne Westwood, Betsey Johnson, Burt’s Bees, Matrix, Hue, Spanx, Rowenta, and many more.

After years in the making”Out of State-A Gothic Romance” is a reality. In the interim a psychological thriller bearing the same title had been produced. Therefore, the subtitle “A Gothic Romance” was added to delineate Bugbee’s film from the other.