MAINSTAGE SHOW
Milk Tooth Wisdom Tooth
BY: Basement STair Collective
Milk Tooth Wisdom Tooth is a grim fable exploring fear of aging, loss of control, and vulnerability — through teeth.
Teeth hold enormous power in our society. They simultaneously showcase status, are ornamental, and are necessary for us to eat and function as humans. Dreams of teeth falling out have been said to symbolize stress, insecurity, or fear of change.
Taking inspiration from that physical and symbolic importance of teeth, Milk Tooth Wisdom Tooth creates a world of folkloric fantasy supported by an inhuman world of strange characters. A tooth fairy plans on giving the noble peasant dentist a gift — but with a cost.
This faded, twisted fantasy world relies on design elements from the BSC team, including but not limited to fantastical paper mache adornments, a horrific dentally-designed soundscape, and mouthy projections.
No matter what’s on the outside, this show is a reminder that we are just machines of meat and bone, and that bones (and TEETH) are the most eternal part of our physical bodies. Isn’t that kind of magical, and also horrifying?
Showtimes
45 min | PG-13
FRIDAY, Oct 9 7:30pm
Saturday, Oct 17 2:00pm
sunday, Oct 18 3:30pm
Content Warning: Flashing Lights
Production
Company
Basement Stair Collective
Basement Stair Collective is Claire Elizabeth Aldridge, Kora Link, R.L. Routh, and Becca Wirta.
Our mission is to illuminate and challenge the cycles in which we are trapped through immersive, collaborative, design-forward performance.
We are the child running up the stairs, and the monster chasing after them.
Bios
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Performer
R.L. Routh (they/them) is a performer and artist with theatrical backgrounds in Shakespeare, puppetry, and devised theatre. R.L. graduated from Southern Oregon University with a BFA in Theatre Arts, minors in both Shakespeare Studies and Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies, and a handful of stage combat certifications. Since moving to Portland, they were a member of the 22-23 cohort of PETE’s Institute for Contemporary Performance. They have worked regionally with Artists Repertory Theatre, Puppeteers for Fears, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Oregon Fringe Festival, and Shaking the Tree Theatre, and have performed at Risk/Reward and Club Alive events. R.L. is a founding member of Basement Stair Collective, a co-producer of Portland’s Stage Fright Festival, and is on the organizing committee of Sellwood, OR’s annual Everything Under the Sun Parade. (they/them) is a performer and artist with theatrical backgrounds in Shakespeare, puppetry, and devised theatre. R.L. graduated from Southern Oregon University with a BFA in Theatre Arts, minors in both Shakespeare Studies and Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies, and a handful of stage combat certifications. Since moving to Portland, they were a member of the 22-23 cohort of PETE’s Institute for Contemporary Performance. They have worked regionally with Artists Repertory Theatre, Puppeteers for Fears, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Oregon Fringe Festival, and Shaking the Tree Theatre, and have performed at Risk/Reward and Club Alive events. R.L. is a founding member of Basement Stair Collective, a co-producer of Portland’s Stage Fright Festival, and is on the organizing committee of Sellwood, OR’s annual Everything Under the Sun Parade.
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Performer
Becca Wirta (she/her) has performed in recent years with companies such as Bedrock Theatre (Hibernate, Sun Songs & Moon Tunes), Basement Stair Collective (Still Life, GRINDHOUSE, The Innkeeper), Corrib Theatre (An Scéal), Renegade Opera (Waking the Witch), Mt. Hood Repertory Theater (Silent Sky), and The Theatre Company (Gossnight - Valentines Day Edition). Becca is a member of Bedrock Theatre, connecting audiences to their environment and to each other through immersive storytelling in natural landscapes, and is also a founding member of Basement Stair Collective. Becca is a graduate of the Institute of Contemporary Performance with PETE and is a graduate of Willamette University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Theatre Performance as well as Rhetoric and Media Studies.
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Performer
Kora Link (they/she) is a performer, musician, maker, mover & shaker based in the Portland area. Kora holds a Bachelors in Performance from Lewis & Clark College, and most recently attended and graduated from Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble’s Institute of Contemporary Performance. As an artist, Kora is interested in themes of embodiment & ritual and melding the personal, spiritual and political to inspire change in the world through emergent changes within ourselves.
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Director
Claire Elizabeth Aldridge (she/they) is a queer interdisciplinary artist based in Portland, OR. You will find her on any given midnight at the crossroads of dance, theater, poetry, and sculpture. Committed to collaboratively driven works that push the boundaries of form she has trained with the Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble’s ICP, Dell Arte International School of Physical Theater and The American Conservatory Theater.