Weaving comedic storytelling and the wisdom of lived experience, Whore’s Eye View is a mad dash through 10,000 years of history from a sex worker’s perspective.

Note from the artist

It feels like I have been obsessed with sex worker stories for my entire life. I’ve been working on this show for about five years. I want people to come to this show curious, and leave with skin in the game.

I began writing this show amongst sex worker advocates at an event in New Hampshire to celebrate the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers on December 17, 2019. In January of 2020, I completed the first developmental run as an artist in residence at the Barbershop Theater in Nashville, TN. Working closely with director Carole Montgomery, historian Dr. Charlene Fletcher, and graphic designer Leah Moon, I was able to further develop the show at the Theater Under St. Marks, Q.E.D., and at some very generous people’s apartments in NYC throughout 2021. In 2022, I presented readings of Whore’s Eye View to audiences in Austin, TX, Pittsburgh, PA, and Durham, NC. I am so grateful for all of the artists who have contributed to this piece. I’m delighted to be back at The Tank Theater, where I developed my first one woman show Cuntatious. I’m honored to be working with dramaturge, Stephanie Prugh, and director, Vanessa Morosco.

Writer & Performer

Kaytlin Bailey is a stand up comic, writer, and a leader in the growing movement to decriminalize sex work.

Kaytlin Bailey started The Oldest Profession Podcast in 2017, where each episode focuses on an “old pro” from history, contextualizing that figure in their own time and connecting their story to the ongoing struggle for sex worker rights. In 2020 she founded Old Pros, a non profit media organization working to change the status of sex workers in society. She developed her first one woman show, Cuntagious, at the Tank Theater in 2015 and the production enjoyed sold out performances and an extended run in multiple NYC theater festivals in 2016.

Kaytlin Bailey has toured with the CAKE Comedy Tour, performing stand up all over the country. She has written for Vice, The Daily Beast, and Washington Blade. Her work has been featured by the New York Times, Paper Magazine, and Broadway World. She has been quoted in Reason, The Washington Post, and the Boston Globe. She has been featured on Lifetime, and appeared on countless podcasts as a comic and expert on the history of sex work.

You can follow her @kaytlinbailey and @oldprosonline, and learn more about her work at kaytlinbailey.com.

Director

Vanessa Morosco (she/her) is a New York based multi-hyphenate theatre practitioner who focuses on the intersectional spirit of collaboration through an ethical framework. As a director, she has created productions for several theatres, including the American Shakespeare Center, Harlem Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Historic Cultch Theater (Vancouver), Gateway Playhouse, and Palm Beach Dramaworks, and she is an ongoing collaborator with Clutch Productions in New York, developing new plays by women-identifying playwrights. In May she will direct the world premiere of WEBSTER’S BITCH, set in the world of lexicography, at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, the birthplace of Noah Webster.

This summer at Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival she directs her own adaptation of Hamlet, which addresses the gender inequality in Shakespeare‘s most famous play by reallocating text and rebalancing the power dynamic imbedded in the structure of the play. This is part of the 50/50 SHAKESPEARE PROJECT designed to create gender equity in the workplace of Shakespeare’s plays. As an actor, she has performed at theatres across the country, including Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Yale Rep, Geva Theatre, American Shakespeare Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, and Cleveland Playhouse. Vanessa is also the co-founder of iMPACT DRAMA, where she consults for multinational corporations to create drama-based content for use in training and development, focusing on global diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias, and cultural awareness: (impactdrama.net). Vanessa is a member of AEA, SDC, Statera, and holds an M.A. in Ethics from Yale University: (vanessamorosco.com)

Producer & Dramaturg

Stephanie Alvarado Prugh is a NYC based Dramaturg and Producer. She produces the celebrated Lyrics and Lyricists Series at the 92nd Street Y, New York. Recent dramaturgical works include the award-winning newly revised The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Transport Group, The Muny, Denver Center Theatre Company), and the award-winning new musical, Renascence (Transport Group). Regional Credits include The Glass Menagerie, The Secret Garden and Twelve (Denver Center Theatre Company), Blueprints to Freedom, Indecent, and Guards at the Taj (La Jolla Playhouse). Stephanie holds a PhD in Theatre from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Executive Producer

Old Pros is a non-profit media organization creating conditions to change the status of sex workers in society. Changing minds is critical for driving the cultural and legislative breakthroughs required to secure human rights and opportunities for sex workers. Media, art and storytelling are powerful levers for shifting beliefs and breaking down taboos. Old Pros produces persuasive content and compelling events. We bring people together and we change people’s minds. Old Pros produces a weekly newsletter, The Oldest Profession Podcast, the Old Pros Show in NYC, and Founder & Executive Director Kaytlin Bailey’s live show, Whore’s Eye View.

Follow @oldprosonline on Instagram and Twitter. Stay in the know with the Old Pros weekly newsletter, featuring sex worker rights related news, new podcast episodes, and resource guides to make you a more informed ally.