Baby Teeth To Stage Fire-Side Production Of THE GROWN UPS This August

Producing company, Baby Teeth, will be transforming a community garden in Los Feliz into a summer camp for their intimate, immersive production of The Grown-Ups by Skylar Fox & Simon Henriques (LA premiere). Baby Teeth was founded in 2023 by good friends and collaborators Caroline Keeler, Emily Moler, Cody Sloan, and Russell Sperberg.

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.

"I've been thinking a lot about what this next year might have in store for us as I've been preparing for rehearsals," expresses Moler, who is at the helm of the production as director. "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?"

The Baby Teeth team met in 2019 at UC San Diego where Moler and Sloan earned their MFAs in directing and acting, respectively. Their long-time partners, Sperberg and Keeler (both actors and writers), also joined in the move to sunny La Jolla. After settling in Los Angeles after graduation, the foursome daydreamed about pooling their talents and diverse skill sets to, quite simply, do what they love with the people they love.

"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," says Keeler. "When we 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. It 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."

Since officially landing on the scene in January with a sold-out reading of Beth Hyland's Cancelina, Baby Teeth has been slated to become one of the city's most promising new generators of electric and unexpected work.

"We're not putting limits on ourselves," says Sloan. "The future of Baby Teeth includes theater, film, podcasts, and anything else we and our community wants to make. Giving ourselves and the artists in our lives agency to make the work that excites us is at the core of Baby Teeth and is something we're really proud of."

"With this production, we're really tapping into theater's innate strengths," Sperberg points out. "This is 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."

The Grown-Ups will run August 2nd-11th at Hollywood Lutheran Church, 1733 North New Hampshire Avenue Los Angeles, CA. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit Eventbrite or Instagram.

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