Meet Baby Teeth

We had the good fortune of connecting with Baby Teeth and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Baby Teeth, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
We were really craving something that didn’t seem to exist in the creative landscape of LA: scrappy, impactful, artist-driven work that wasn’t limited to one medium. When we first had the idea for Baby Teeth, there was a palpable sense of urgency to create… we were in the throes of industry strikes and it was hard not to feel helpless and defeated. Our company was birthed out of a desire to help ourselves and others thrive despite the unpredictable nature of the business… and it’s been really empowering.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We are a team of longtime theater artists and collaborators committed to bringing joyful, immediate, and artist-centered work to the LA community. The four of us first met in 2019 at UC San Diego where Emily and Cody earned their MFAs in directing and acting, respectively. As their long-time partners, Russell and Caroline (both actors and writers) joined them in the move to sunny La Jolla. After settling in Los Angeles after graduation, we would daydream about pooling our talents and diverse skill sets to, quite simply: do what we love with the people we love!

Next month we’ll be transforming a community garden in Los Feliz into a summer camp for our intimate, immersive production of The Grown-Ups by Skylar Fox & Simon Henriques (LA premiere). The Grown-Ups is a funny, prescient, thought-provoking exploration of responsibility, identity, and the blurred lines between childhood innocence and adult realities. It also portrays the dilemma of a culturally divided society eerily similar to our own. What The New York Times calls “an apocalyptic play… part satire, part scary story,” The Grown-Ups follows a group of camp counselors trying to mold the leaders of tomorrow when tomorrow is looking…well…bleaker by the day. We’re staging this production outdoors around an actual campfire where the audience will very much feel “in the world” of the play.

We’ve been thinking a lot about what this next year might have in store for us…politically, economically, environmentally… right now it feels like the only thing we can truly count on is change. At its core this play is about who we become when the world around us changes. Are you going to be the kind of person who is able to move through discomfort gracefully? Or will you choose to cling to the familiar? With this production, we’re really tapping into theater’s innate strengths. It’s a story that demands to be a play. There’s something almost primal about sitting around a fire, telling stories. I think there’s a real opportunity for genuine connection when you present a show in such an intimate, communal way.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Caroline & Cody: Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher Shop, Eagle Rock Dog Park, The Ruby Fruit, Elysian Park!

Emily & Russell: We love Playa Provisions!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We’d love to shout out Skylar Fox & Simon Henriques, the playwrights of our upcoming show, The Grown-Ups. They’ve given us a script that we can really sink our teeth into (pun intended!). It’s topical, brilliantly crafted, and you can’t help but fall in love with the characters they’ve created!

Website: https://bit.ly/BabyTeethLA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/babyteethla/

Image Credits
Duncan Gregory