POTATO GUMBO
by Jean Ciampi
A touchingly honest and, sometimes, zany look at the challenges of aging, Potato Gumbo tells the poignant story of Gretchen and Thomas, her dream, ill-gotten handcuffs, a diagnosis, and the adult children who must parent their parents. With the ideal recipe waiting at the New Orleans School of Cooking, Gretchen draws Thomas into her whimsical schemes. After an impromptu road trip ends with return under police escort, darkly serious issues begin bubbling up: Is Gretchen’s “whimsy” declining mental faculties or worse? How much can one old heart endure? And when must elder care end and control begin?
- Cast Size: 3M 4W
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
Sample Coming Soon
Order Script Copies
Order Digital Download (Will NOT download to phones, cannot be printed)
About the Playwright
Jean Ciampi is a playwright, humorist and corporate communicator based in
Houston, Texas. Mentored by highly decorated Canadian playwright Sharon
Pollock, she wrote her first full-length play, “Potato Gumbo,” while living in Saudi
Arabia. Jean is winner of the 2024 Robert J. Pickering/JR Colbeck Award for
Playwriting Excellence for her latest farce, “Yazoo, Miss’ssippi,” and she is a
recipient of a 2024 Veterans Repertory Theatre writers grant. Jean was the featured
playwright for the 2024 Conroe (Texas) Arts Festival which produced four of her
10-minute plays. A member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Kennedy
Center Playwriting Intensive, she is also a founder of the T43 Playwrights Collective
based in New York City and remains active in many aspects of the Houston theatre
community. Find more about Jean Ciampi at TheWriterJean.com. and read her work
at New Play Exchange (https://newplayexchange.org/users/10669/jean-ciampi)
Review Potato Gumbo.