by
Fred Rohan Vargas
Synopsis: Set in a suburban community of eastern Pennsylvania, Crystal takes place in an abandoned woodshed, circa 1981. Andy, 17, has left the body of a 16-year-old girl under the floor. Hoping to gain status with two close friends, Ralph and Joey, he brings them to view the body. When they return the next day, however, the hole under the floor is empty, and Crystal, the girl, appears soiled and livid from outside.
What follows is an intense and gritty character study of teens whose behavior is a mirror of the chaotic world outside the shed. Overweight and insecure, Andy takes out his frustrations on the women around him; Ralph hides his pain at his brother's death behind a thickening emotional wall; Joey will do almost anything to dispel his all-American boy image; and Crystal's search for love leads instead to violence. Insightful, compassionate, Crystal provides a startling glimpse into four desperate young lives.
Crystal at The Latino
Experimental Fantastic Theatre, New York
Amateur and professional rights:
Fred Rohan Vargas
30-41 90th Street
Jackson Heights, NY
USA 11369-1705
Ph./Fax: (718) 426-2585
E-mail: faasr4@hotmail.com
About the Playwright: Fred Rohan Vargas is the author of several full length, one act, and children's plays. He holds an MFA in dramatic writing from New York University. Prior to receiving a fellowship for graduate school, Mr. Rohan Vargas started a dance theatre company for youths that saw his fifty young performers appearing at such venues as Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Pittsburgh's Performing Arts Center, and Cami Hall with jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and Horace Silva. Mr. Rohan Vargas
later became a radio announcer for WSTA in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, where he also produced his first play, Why De Donkey So Stubborn, and discovered a love of theatre.
Returning to New York in 1981, Mr. Rohan Vargas enrolled in the playwriting program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Since then he has worked with theaters such as the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre and the New Federal Theatre. While at the latter he received a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to write Crystal, which was later produced by New York's Latino Experimental Fantastic Theater.
His work has also been seen in festivals at the Riant Theatre (1996-99), Love Creek Productions (1995, 96 & 98), La Mama Experimental Theatre Company (1999), and First Stage (2000). Two of his plays appeared at Fort Worth Theatre's Annual Hispanic Playwriting Festival in 2000, with his one act, Accent, taking the festival's top prize. Mr. Rohan Vargas has also been playwright-in-residence at Third Step Theatre (1991-1993), Artist In Search of…Inc.(1995-1996), and Stageplays Theatre Company (1998- 2000).
In 2003 he was a finalist in the 5th Annual TRU (Theatre Resources Unlimited) Voices Play Reading Series 2003 and the Yankee Rep Theatre's 2003 Short Play Festival. Mr. Rohan Vargas is a member of the Dramatists' Guild, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and the Songwriters Guild of America.
Crystal was first produced by The Latino Experimental Fantastic Theatre (L.E.F.T.) at The Clemente Solo Velez Cultural Center, New York City in January, 2001.