Crystal Field is an actress, director, choreographer, playwright, producer, artistic director and co-founder of Theater for the New City.  She has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, television and in the movies.  As a member of the original Lincoln Center Repertory Company she acted in AFTER THE FALL (1964), and MARCO MILLIONS (1964).  Off-Broadway performances include: VINCENT (1959), A COUNTRY SCANDAL (1960), PLATONOV (1960), PROMENADE (1965/1966), BECLCH (1968), DRACULA: SABAT (1971), DAY OLD BREAD: THE BEST WORST TIME I EVER HAD (1976), WRITERS OPERA (1979), ANTEROOM (1985), HOUSE ARREST (1987), LIMBO TALES (1990), WORSHIP (2014). Field choreographed ROSARIO AND THE GYPSIES (2015) at Theater for the New City.  Her movies include: Splendor in the Grass, Radio Days, Birdy, and Little Children.  Field has appeared in television in The Raft, We the People, and  Law and Order.  Field received an Obie for her performance in DAY OLD BREAD: THE BEST WORST TIME I EVER HAD (1960).  As a producer, director and artistic director of Theater for the New City, she has produced such plays as: PLAYS FOR THE DAMNED, DESIRE, LOCO, THE RED KINEVO.  Twelve Street Plays is a collection of plays Field wrote for Theater for the New City.  She received The Ellen Stewart Award (1917), the Lower East Side Community Hero Award (1918) and over 40 Obies for productions done for Theater for the New City.

Crystal Field grew up with parents who rejected the material world.  Her father was a journalist, published poet, and teacher of French, Spanish and Italian.  The family lived in a community on land given for free for residential living called ‘Free Acres,’ in Union County, New Jersey.  Here, in the woods, she was free to explore the community’s dramatic committee offerings, archery, swimming, and puppet shows.  Her uncle had a nightclub where she saw dancers perform.  Though her belongings and toys were secondhand, she was free to take classes in what interested her - dancing!  In public school, in Manhattan, she excelled at music and played many instruments, as well as joining the new dance group led by Pearl Primus who taught African Dance.  Bennes Maarden taught the acting class there.  Field was choreographing her dance piece called The Clock when Maarden, impressed by it, introduced Field to Paul Mann.  She then went to study at the Paul Mann Actors Workshop resulting in her career with the Lincoln Center Repertory Company, her role in AFTER THE FALL, her associations with Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan, and the movie, Splendor in the Grass.  In 1971 she co-founded Theater for the New City with George Bartenieff, Theo Barnes and Lawrence Kornfeld.  They all met while working at the Judson Poets Theatre, and started their theater in the Westbeth Artists Community space producing the plays of Charles Ludlam, Richard Foreman, Miguel Pinero and Jean-Claude van Italie, among others.  They created an Annual Summer Street Theater and founded the Village Halloween Parade with puppeteer Ralph Lee.  In 1977 the theater moved from the West Village to the East Village, 155 First Avenue, where it is run today under the artistic direction of Field.