JAC Publishing & Promotions

Crystal by Fred Rohan Vargas
#2005-0021

ISBN #1-933159-25-1

The Cast:

bulletANDY: 17. A little on the heavy side. Stands about 5’11” to 6’.
bulletRALPH: 17. Medium build. Stands about 5’9” to 5’11”.
bulletJOEY: 15. Well built. Stands about 5’6” to 5’8”.
bulletCRYSTAL: 16. An attractive, sensuous looking girl.

The Setting

A woodshed in a bedroom community of Eastern Pennsylvania. The walls and portions of the floor, are covered with old tools, lumber, a few crates and barrels and useless junk. Upstage right, a loft stands six feet from the floor. A ladder leans against it. Two windows are located on both sides of the shed. The door is upstage off center. Downstage left is a door trap covered by a dusty Persian rug. Downstage right sits a potbelly stove.

Plot Summary

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.

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Props List Costume List
bullet

Marijuana rolled up to smoke (joints)

bulletSports letter
bulletCarton of cigarettes
bulletBag of chips
bulletLunch bag
bulletWhoopee cushion
bulletBullhorn
bulletFlashlight
bulletCar keys
bulletSuitcase
bulletScrewdriver
bulletEnvelope & letter
bullet2 shovels
bullet1 pick
bulletWood logs
bulletNewspapers
bulletBottle of pills
bulletCostumes are left to the discretion of the director and cast.
Crystal was originally produced by The Latino Experimental Fantastic Theatre in New York City in 2001, directed by Gabriel Gorces. In the original cast were Bridget Barkan, Omar Hernandez, Emanuel Loarca, Ken Mayo, Erzulie Mendoza and Julio Mercedes.

Headshot (75662 bytes)Author Biography
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, 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 Silver. 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, 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, 1999 & 2004), Love Creek Productions (1995, 96 & 98), La Mama Experimental Theatre Company (1999), and First Stage (2000), and Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Original Short Play Festival (2004). 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. Rohan Vargas has also been playwright-in-residence at Third Step Theatre (1991-93), Artist In Search of…Inc.(1995-1996), and Stageplays Theatre Company (1998- 2000).

In 2004, Fred Rohan Vargas was a finalist in the Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One Act Festival, in which his play Anything But Black is included for publication in the Festival’s 2005 anthology, The Best Plays from the Strawberry One Act Festival. Other finals he’s made were Pregones Theater’s 2005 Asuncion Project, the 4th and 5th Annual Theatre Resources Unlimited (TRU) Voices Play Reading Series (2003 & 2004), and the Yankee Rep Theatre’s 2003 Short Plays Festival.

Fred Rohan Vargas is a member of the Dramatists’ Guild, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and the International Songwriters Association.