"Craig's work never fails to surprise and delight me. He crafts some dark and often unsettling worlds populated with some of the most delightfully unlikable characters. Despite the darkness, he still finds humanity in his characters, opening them up for both our censure and our empathy. Similar to Pinter and Beckett (though far more approachable), Craig's plays capitalize just as often on silence as they do bombast, utilizing the theatrical space (and the spaces between) in unexpected ways to build tension and disarm the audience. If you find the darker side of life delicious, then look no further." -Eric Webb, Dramaturg and Director of Creative Development at The TheaterMakers Studio
By downloading/accessing any of the plays below, you hereby acknowledge that Craig Houk is the sole owner of all rights in and to these plays. None of these plays may be produced or reproduced in whole or in part unless permission is granted by the playwright or his designated agents. For License Application & Fees Information or to Purchase a Copy of Brute Farce, of Syd, of Cooler, or of Cold Rain, please visit NEXT STAGE PRESS. Licensing and royalty information for all other works are available upon request through CRAIG HOUK directly. 
Looking forward to the reading of SMOKING FAGS ON A ROOFTOP at the 2026 Valdez Theatre Conference, June 7–13 in Valdez, AK. The conference provides an enriching educational experience for playwrights and theatre artists, with readings followed by feedback from featured artist panels and audiences, plus a private consultation for each writer.
Looking ahead to the end of this year, I’m thrilled to share that a monologue from COOLER will be included in Smith & Kraus’s The Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2026. I’m deeply honored to be included once again and incredibly grateful to Debbie Lamedman for her unwavering and incredible support.
Excited to announce that two monologues from SYD are now available for purchase as part of Smith & Kraus's The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2025 and The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2025. Thank you to Gene Kato (Next Stage Press) and to Owen Robertson (Lab Theater Project) for their incredible support. ​And a very special thank you to the enormously gifted Debbie Lamedman for her ongoing dedication to and support of playwrights. 
BIO
Craig Houk is an award-winning DC based Playwright and proud Dramatists Guild Member. He is also a Producer, Actor & Director. ​Houk’s plays include Cold Rain (published by Next Stage Press, winner “Best Drama” and “Best of Festival” at Capital Fringe 2018), Syd (published by Next Stage Press), Brute Farce (published by Next Stage Press, 2021 The Loom New Works Festival Finalist, 2022 Dominion Stage Playwrighting Competition Full Length Winner), Cooler (published by Next Stage Press), Lost In Place Anthology (2022 Dominion Stage Playwrighting Competition One-Act Honorable Mention), and Radiator (2020 Dominion Stage Playwrighting Competition One-Act Honorable Mention). His other works include Herb Cleary Meant No Harm, The Reluctant Hen, Big Bastard, The Keeper's Quarters, Lost Sole, Dinner Dance, Old Money, Smoking Fags On A Rooftop, and Chum and Get It!. Lost In Place: Rhonda & Danielle (now titled The Corpse Flower) has been included in Smith & Kraus’s “The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2022”. Brute Farce has two monologues included in Smith & Kraus’s “Best Women's Stage Monologues 2023” and “Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2023” 2023. Radiator has one monologue included in Smith & Kraus's "Best Men's Stage Monologues 2024". Syd has two monologues included in "The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2025" and "The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2025". Many of Houk’s plays can be found at The Drama Book Shop in New York City.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My plays inhabit the uneasy space where the familiar begins to tilt, ordinary places where ordinary people are just trying to get through the day. Yet something is always pressing beneath the surface: a secret, a grievance, or a bad decision waiting to be made, and once it starts to push its way out, things rarely go according to plan. My writing has been compared to that of Pinter, Beckett, Albee, Shaffer, Shepard, and even the Coen Brothers, artists whose works have profoundly shaped my sense of rhythm, tension, and the strange elasticity of human behavior. While I am grateful for those comparisons, I make no claim to their depth or output; what I do claim is a love of storytelling that refuses to sit still. I describe my style as dynamic realism, with stories grounded in recognizable worlds that are always nudging against the limits of that reality, stretching it, testing it, and sometimes cracking it wide open, where humor and danger often arrive in the same moment because people are rarely as stable, rational, or predictable as they believe themselves to be. I am not interested in inviting an audience to settle in politely; I want them to buckle up and feel like they have boarded a ride that might take a sharp turn at any moment. Above all, I write to entertain, offering actors characters they can sink their teeth into and audiences stories that are vivid, unsettling, and funny, and, if I have done my job right, impossible to look away from.
Next Stage Press Podcast - Episode 35 - On Location in Tampa/St. Petersburg
Gene is on location in Florida with Next Stage Press playwrights Owen Robertson, Craig Houk, and Doug DeVita discussing Lab Theatre Project and celebrating the World Premiere of FABLE at FreeFall Theatre
Next Stage Press - Episode 22 - Craig Houk
Gene talks to Washington D.C. playwright Craig Houk about his plays COLD RAIN, SYD, and BRUTE FARCE.
Enter "N/A" if not applicable. 
NOTE: To License Brute Farce, Syd​, Cooler, or Cold Rain, please visit Next Stage Press.
Brute Farce is available for purchase and licensing through Next Stage Press. 
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Synopsis: A band of aging, ego-bruised actors in a crumbling provincial theatre abduct the merciless critic who has savaged their careers and devise a ludicrously overcomplicated plan to murder him live onstage during their own performance. What could possibly go wrong? Egos outrun intellect as the conspirators – an unhinged leading man with a hero complex, a facelift-obsessed diva, a long-in-the-tooth, narcoleptic ingénue with a cocaine habit, and a gloriously mediocre drunk – attempt to carry out a revenge plot they scarcely understand. Aided by a disgruntled stage manager and a stagehand who may be the only competent person in the building, the scheme rapidly unravels into missed cues, malfunctioning tech, duplicate costumes, bungled pickpocketing, accidental concussions, and an increasingly exasperated captive critic who proves far steadier than his would-be executioners. What results is a razor-sharp backstage satire about vanity, desperation, and the thin line between performance and reality, where the show must go on even if someone doesn’t. Brute Farce is a biting, satirical look at the tangled, often dysfunctional, and sometimes explosive relationship between actors and critics.
Syd is available for purchase and licensing through Next Stage Press. 
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Synopsis: In 1973 New Orleans, on the sweltering night a fire tears through the Upstairs Lounge, killing thirty-two men, nineteen-year-old nursing student Sydney “Syd” Trahan is arrested for dancing at a nearby lesbian bar, an act that detonates long-simmering tensions within her devout, working-class family. As her father, Bud, basks in public praise for a professional honor and her mother, Helen, struggles to reconcile faith, reputation, and maternal fear, their neighbors Beau and Beverly Larson confront the consequences of their own cruelty toward their gay son, Roscoe, now among the dead. Over the course of two harrowing days, secrets surface, hypocrisies are exposed, and private reckonings unfold against a backdrop of religious fervor and communal tragedy. SYD is a searing domestic drama about shame, complicity, and the cost of survival in a world that mistakes intolerance for righteousness. 
Cold Rain is available for purchase and licensing through Next Stage Press. 
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Synopsis: Cold Rain follows three witch sisters in a small Western Pennsylvania town whose attempt to conjure the perfect husband for the youngest, Carly, unleashes consequences that ripple across decades. When the volatile Shirley adds a dangerous twist to a simple love spell and Lolly secretly attempts to reverse it, the magic binds Carly to touring crooner Joe Rekowski and sets their family on a troubled path. Years later, as rumors swirl around the mysterious drowning of the Pacheco twins at Flat Rock and suspicion falls on Carly’s sensitive, troubled son Johnny, old secrets resurface and long-buried resentments ignite. Moving between 1959 and 1989, the play blends dark humor and supernatural lore to explore fate, guilt, and forbidden longing in a family bound by blood – and black magic – struggling to outrun the consequences of a single, fateful night.
Cooler is available for purchase and licensing through Next Stage Press. 
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Synopsis: Aging Oscar-winner Jack Dunn emerges from years of self-imposed exile in Alaska to reconnect with his oldest friend – and fiercest rival – Wade Henry, a Tony-winning stage actor weathering his own uncertain season in a well-appointed Connecticut home. What begins as a late-night poker game fueled by expensive whiskey and shared history gradually exposes old resentments, professional jealousy, and the lingering shadow of a woman who once stood between them. As talk turns to a highly anticipated new play that could redefine (or quietly diminish) a legacy, the evening slips from nostalgic to volatile. With egos bruised and memories distorted, Jack and Wade find themselves trapped in a dangerous game where performance and reality blur, alliances shift, and the stakes extend far beyond the cards on the table.
Lost In Place: Rhonda & Danielle (now titled The Corpse Flower) is available for purchase as part of Smith & Kraus's The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2022.
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Synopsis: Two or more years into a world-wide pandemic, next door neighbors, Rhonda and Danielle, gossip with one another while dealing with the loss of their significant others. ​
Deirdre's Monolgue from Brute Farce is available for purchase as part of Smith & Kraus's The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2023.
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Synopsis: Production Stage Manager, Deirdre Shepherd, is just about to announce “places” before walking into the disastrous aftermath of an entire cast that has turned on one another.​
Killian's Monolgue from Brute Farce is available for purchase as part of Smith & Kraus's The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2023.
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Synopsis: Killian Black is shocked to discover that none of the other actors are familiar with his plan to murder Alistair McHugh, a theatre critic from the Daily Telegraph, during a production of the play they’re all currently appearing in.
Lou's Monolgue from RADIATOR is available for purchase as part of Smith & Kraus's The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2024.
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Synopsis: Lou Brunazzo, with his customary offbeat sense of humor, opens up to his neighbor about his need for solitude.
Syd's Monolgue from SYD is available for purchase as part of Smith & Kraus's The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2025.
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Synopsis: Sydney "Syd" Trahan, a 19-year-old nursing student from New Orleans, confides in her mother about a dark memory from her childhood, revealing a time when she contemplated ending her own life.
Bud's Monolgue from SYD is available for purchase as part of Smith & Kraus's The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2025.
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Synopsis: Robert “Bud” Trahan, a New Orleans blacksmith in his early forties, opens up to his neighbor about a deeply personal and troubling experience from his childhood as the neighbor struggles to come to terms with his son’s sexuality.