SYNOPSIS

East Harlem, 1932. The Russo family survives on a meatpacker's wages and piecework sewing in their cramped fourth-floor apartment. When Cosmo Langtry—once Cosimo Langhetti—returns after years away, he brings promises of wealth: he's invented a "radio hat" and secured a meeting with investors.

His wife Valentina, struggling with failing memory, wants to believe her charming husband has finally struck gold. Their daughter Teresa, now the family's reluctant matriarch, knows better—she's seen her father's schemes before. But even she allows herself to hope as the family celebrates over Prosecco and dance.

When the promised fortune proves to be an elaborate con, the family faces a devastating choice: enable Cosmo's dreams one more time, or accept that survival sometimes means settling for small potatoes.

WHY THIS PLAY?

In an era of economic anxiety, political division, and questions about who belongs in America, SMALL POTATOES asks: What is the real cost of chasing our dreams? What do we lose when we erase our identities to fit in? And how do families survive when dreams collide with hard reality?

Set during the Great Depression, the play speaks powerfully to contemporary audiences navigating their own economic precarity and questioning the promises that brought their ancestors—or themselves—to America.

This play has not yet been produced.