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A PLAY BY CRAIG HOUK

THE KEEPERS QUARTERS

​Inspiration Demands More Than Imagination.

Desperate to overcome a crippling creative drought, celebrated horror novelist Evelyn Wray retreats to the long-abandoned keeper’s quarters of a historic Maine lighthouse she has impulsively purchased. Hoping to write one final great novel, Evelyn clashes with her sharp-tongued literary agent Nora over money, legacy, and relevance, while forming an uneasy rapport with Thomas, the local cable technician, and Deputy Sam Chadborn, a devoted fan who shares the lighthouse’s grim legend of a keeper and his wife whose fatal fall from the tower may not have been an accident. As strange occurrences multiply, locked doors, shifting objects, unexplained lights, dizzy spells, missing time, and a mysterious clockwork crank tied to the old story, Evelyn begins to lose her grip on the boundaries between memory, performance, authorship, and haunting. In a space built to cast light into darkness, she confronts the possibility that the terror she has spent decades writing about is no longer confined to the page, and that creating one final great work may require a far more devastating sacrifice than she ever imagined.

Supernatural Thriller/Dark Comedy • 2 Female, 2 Male • Two-Act/Full Length  • ~110 Mins

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CONTACT CRAIG

No presentation or production of The Keeper's Quarters, in whole or in part, is permitted without authorization from the playwright or his designated agents.

Playwright Note

In The Keeper’s Quarters, Evelyn Wray finds herself staring at a blinking cursor, questioning whether her creative life has quietly run dry, a fear that mirrors my own anxieties about relevance, legacy, and the uneasy line between validation and insulation. Retreating to a lighthouse, Evelyn dares the darkness to meet her, just as I wrote this play to confront the possibility of creative atrophy, the dread of becoming formulaic, and the quiet panic of repeating oneself. On the surface, it is a ghost story, complete with a haunted structure and lingering violence, but beneath it lies a more unsettling question about whether the real terror is not haunting but emptiness. This is my most surreal and absurd work to date, and perhaps my most honest, embracing instability, ambiguity, and the risk of failure over control. It is talky, self-aware, and resistant to clarity, inviting the audience to sit without answers and to wrestle with questions of ego, legacy, and the pursuit of greatness. Whether indulgent or infuriating, it is meant as a confrontation rather than a retreat, a piece willing to be misunderstood in exchange for risking something real. Like the lighthouse itself, it casts light while also warning of what lies beneath, so this play may be less a farewell than a flare, a signal that if this is an ending, it comes from pushing too far rather than playing it safe, and if not, perhaps it is not an ending at all, but a door.

Production History

None to date.

Development History

None to date.

Awards/Recognition

None to date.

Reviews/Recommendations

"A ghost story from Craig Houk that is psychologically unsettling in two parallel timelines!"
"THE KEEPER’S QUARTERS is a haunting, beautifully constructed psychological thriller that blends gothic suspense with an emotionally resonant exploration of artistic obsession, isolation, and memory."
"It's one of the most - if not the most - original ghost stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading."
"This play is a spiraling staircase of dual, time traveling plots and paintings, gaslighting, stolen lives, literary heroines and anti heroines – as well as a few less than heroic heroes – all of it wrapped into an original and wholly Houkian portrait of creepy, riveting horror."
"In THE KEEPER'S QUARTERS by Craig Houk, there's an exciting and sinister current that runs from the first page through the surprising conclusion."
"An irresistible thriller about creativity, money, and storytelling itself. Haunting."
"A briskly paced ghost story, mystery story, and journey towards redemption through art in one elegantly constructed play."

LICENSE REQUEST

Enter "N/A" if not applicable. 

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NOTE: To License Brute Farce, Syd​, Cooler, or Cold Rain, please visit Next Stage Press.