Tom Griffin teaches Hispanic boys at a Catholic school on New York's lower east side. He tries to rescue one student: Lee Cortez, a talented artist trapped in a violent environment. The production is set entirely within an inner-city playground, complete with ten-foot high fence and basketball goals; keeping the characters caged in their own worlds, unable to gain entrance to the privileged inner-circle of the educators, nor to break free of the trappings of their birthplace. As the lead character repeats again and again: "Your family is your fate.

Quad C Theatre performed Stand Up Tragedy at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC, on April 15th and 16th 1996, as an American College Theatre Festival, National Festival Finalist.