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Denver Fringe Festival: American Whore Story
Denver Fringe Festival: American Whore Story

Thu, Jun 06

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The Bug Theatre

Denver Fringe Festival: American Whore Story

Emmy-nominated actress, Naomi Grossman made a name for herself as “Pepper” on American Horror Story. Her "side-splitting," new one-woman show is a love letter to AHS fans.

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Time & Location

Jun 06, 2024, 8:30 PM – 10:00 PM

The Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo St, Denver, CO 80211, USA

About The Event

Emmy-nominated actress, Naomi Grossman made a name for herself as “Pepper” on American Horror Story, the fan-favorite and first crossover character in the show’s history to be featured in multiple seasons. Her "side-splitting," new one-woman show is a love letter to AHS fans, which shares her “darkly fabulous and profoundly revealing” behind-the-scenes experiences leading up to AHS and its afterglow. Winner of the 2023 BroadwayWorld Award for “best solo production,” this autobiographical ode to self-compromise chronicles Naomi's history of hustling— from the odd jobs she’s held to her even odder love life. She gives it to us straight (with a slight, gay detour), recounting everything from her Red Bull car crash to her boyfriend in a coma. She takes us on a transformative trip to Burning Man, an acid trip to a 1960’s Rat Pack-rager, and along her own, triumphant trip from a Spanish teacher to #1 on IMDb.

Part of Denver Fringe Festival.

Naomi Grossman (writer/performer/producer) was a 2018 Primetime Emmy nominee for "Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama" for her role in Ctrl Alt Delete. Best known as the first crossover character, the fan-favorite "Pepper" on FX's American Horror Story: Asylum & Freak Show; Naomi also appeared as a new character, the Satanist "Samantha Crowe" in the 8th season, Apocalypse, as well as in the spin-off series,  American Horror Stories.

Naomi made #5 of IMDb's "Top 10 Breakout Stars" after her STARmeter skyrocketed to #1, making her the most searched in its entire 8 million person database. Huffington Post, The Wrap, Screen Rant, and Syfy all ranked Pepper among "The Best AHS Characters Ever;" MTV named her their "#1 Good Guy;" Uproxx, their "#1 Most Tragic;" Geek Insider, a "Top 5 Most Underrated AHS Performer," and Entertainment Weekly called her being cast in the role "The Best of 2012."

Fans may also recognize her from cameos in the following feature films: Table for Three, The Chair, 1BR, Sky Sharks, Bite Me, Painkillers, Hauntology, The Lurker, Murder RX, The Portal, Preacher Six, An Accidental Zombie (Named Ted)Fear, Inc. and Pet Detectives. Naomi graduated in theatre from Northwestern University, and is a former member of the Groundlings Sunday Company.

Richard Israel (director) is an LA and New York-based theatre director specializing in the development of new musicals. Current development projects include A Very Brady Musical (with Lloyd Schwartz, the original Brady Bunch series producer), King Of Pangaea, (finalist - NAMT Festival of New Musicals), Good Man with David Goldsmith (book writer - Motown), Home Street Home with Jeff Marx (co-lyricist and bookwriter, Avenue Q) and The Mollyhouse.

Richard was the Theatrical Coordinator for the Emmy award-winning seriesBig Little Lies and was the director of the multiple award-winning musical short film Into Light.  Notable west coast productions include Violet (LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Direction of a Musical), Floyd Collins (LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Direction and Outstanding Musical), 110 in the Shade (LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Outstanding Intimate Musical), and the world premiere of Anita Bryant Died For Your Sins. He is the proud recipient of the LADCC Career Achievement Award for Directing.

Sarah Anthony (producer) most recently produced the documentary, Kiss The Future with Pearl Street films, and was the Senior Story Producer of Light and Magic, for director Lawrence Kasdan and Lucas films. She was the lead Producer on the Grammy-winning HBO documentary seriesThe Defiant Ones, and on the Emmy-nominated The Price of Free (formerly titled Kailash), a documentary about child slavery which won the 2018 Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize. Other recent projects include story-producing the top ten Netflix series Heist, and Consulting Producer for Making a Murderer, Season 2.

Sarah began her documentary career in London, with films on subjects ranging from the Iraq war to the Ming Voyages of the 1400’s. She was Associate Producer for PBS FRONTLINE on The Age of AIDS, a four hour series covering the history of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 2007 Sarah moved to Los Angeles and joined Exclusive Media as the Co-head of Documentary Features. At Exclusive she supervised development, production and distribution on multiple documentaries including Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison: Living in the Material WorldBilly Joel’s Last Play at Shea, and the Academy Award-winning Undefeated. She then returned to FRONTLINE as co-producer on Endgame: AIDS In Black America, and from there went on to line-produce The World According to Dick Cheney for Showtime.

Sarah has worked extensively with director Davis Guggenheim and Laurene Powell-Jobs' Emerson Collective on a variety of social justice issues, from immigration reform to re-designing the American high school system. She is passionate about using media to inspire social change.

Kate Atkinson (producer) has created, developed, and produced documentaries, narrative films, and live stage productions.

She’s the co-writer and producer of Part of the Plan, a Broadway-aimed original musical with songs by Dan Fogelberg, which opened Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s 2017/2018 Broadway series.  She and her partner Karen Harris - as K-Squared Entertainment - are current investors in Broadway’s Funny Girl and the upcoming Off-Broadway's new musical, Millennials Are Killing Musicals.  Kate’s also one of the lead producers of A Very Brady Musical, based on CBS's iconic TV show The Brady Bunch.

On the film side, she’s produced almost a dozen movies, from quirky comedies like Night Vet, starring James Cromwell, and Clara's Carma, starring Stephen Tobolowsky... to romantic dramedies like McCartney's Genes, and Enough Is Enough, which she also co-directed.  Her first film, the documentary Extra: In the Background of a Dream, has been distributed both in the U.S. and internationally, and its soundtrack has been regularly featured on NPR’s “This American Life”.

To nourish her passion outside of the arts, Kate's built a successful, full-service education company, having taught and mentored hundreds of students over the past 25 years.  Holding an MBA from Northwestern in Marketing, Finance, and International Business, as well as undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Education, she’s an active member of the Screen Actors Guild.

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