From stage to screen…

When all the other kids in Port Chester, New York went outside to play after school, young Anthony Valbiro raced to his basement rec room… to pull down the curtains, turn on a spotlight, grab a microphone, turn on the reel-to-reel and croon his heart out.

Through narration, monologues and flashbacks, a-la “A Christmas Story,” Anthony draws us into the “quest for fame” that was his 1960’s childhood. 

Based on the autobiographical one-man show of the same name that Anthony Valbiro wrote and performed throughout Greenwich Village, Magic Pictures’ “Pressure Makes Diamonds” gives us a sneak peek into what it was like growing up in a big, theatrical Italian family – where everyone has plenty of advice to give.

Along the way, we ponder questions about how the people who raise us shape us, what constitutes “success,” and at what cost do we pursue our deepest dreams.