The Idea

“Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of your life.”

- Neil Simon

The idea for To Catch a Tooth came during a class at Loyola Marymount University. I was taking an introductary Playwrighting class. We all had to write a one act. I had written a few things at this point about kids Blackmailing Santa and getting lost in video game worlds. So, I guess it was only natural that I thought of another mythical/make-believe character for kids to mess around with.

A friend of mine, Pieter Miller, and I were talking about fairy tales and holiday figures. He said something along the lines of, "you know what always creeped me out was the Tooth Fairy!"

Dylan: "Why?"

Pieter: "Well, think about it. What kind of a fairy goes around the world buying bloody teeth off of kids?"

And that was the beginning. Right away you start thinking, okay... what would a kid do with that. And then I started thinking about how the Tooth Fairy must always carry a lot of cash because she has to give kids a buck for each tooth... and then the idea was born.

That was in the Spring of 2000... six years, and several re-writes later here we are...