news: 2024
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This summer I’ll be workshopping for the fish with the wonderful Leo Grierson at the cell theatre. I feel so grateful for the time to get more specific with this piece and to share it with audiences in NYC for the first time! I’m also in pretty fantastic company with the other artists-in-residence this season.
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for the fish is a finalist out of 600+ submissions for Live Arts’ WATERWORKS Festival in Charlottesville, VA! WATERWORKS is “a labor of love: for playmaking, artistry, storytellers, surprises, and most importantly, for the power of theater…”
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for the fish is a semi-finalist out of 200 submissions for Local Theater Company’s Local Lab in Boulder, CO. Local Lab is “a forum to explore, develop, and strengthen work…” concluding in a staged reading with public feedback sessions. Stay tuned for updates as they come!
news: 2023
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for the fish is a finalist out of 345 submissions for Seattle Public Theater’s Distillery New Works Festival in collaboration with Macha Theatre Works in Seattle, WA. Distillery is a “celebration of emerging theater…” concluding in a staged reading with public feedback sessions. Stay tuned for updates as they come!
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I am a finalist for Company One’s Volt Lab 2024 right here in Boston, MA. Volt Lab “provides mentorship opportunities for pre-professional theater creatives to practice and enhance their craft…join[ing] a cohort of civically-engaged, antiracist peers led by C1’s Resident Playwright Kirsten Greenidge.” Stay tuned for updates as they come!
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for the fish is a finalist for the cell theatre’s Artist-in-Residency program in New York, NY. the cell’s Residency Program “is a selective program that develops new works by artists from across all disciplines throughout an annual cycle.” Stay tuned for updates as they come!
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What a joy it was to work on Fresh Ink’s Mad Dash with the amazing Gabriele Preston :’) In HOUSE PLAY (which Gabriele and I wrote in less than 12 hours) we tackled themes that ignite us both: ‘otherness’, adolescence, grief, and monsters lurking in the dark. Huge thank you to Fresh Ink for facilitating this 24-hour whirlwind of collaboration and experimentation.
You can now read a draft of HOUSE PLAY on New Play Exchange!
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for the fish will be a part of the Great Plains Theatre Commons PlayLab program and will receive development & a public reading with feedback from GPTC Guest Artists, national theatre artists, and the general public. I've never even been to Nebraska before, and I am super excited to be sharing space with these amazing artists. Omaha, here I come!
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For the first time, a 10-minute excerpt from THE DEAD DADZ CLUB will be read as part of TC Squared's New Play Festival. I've been a part of TC Squared for a little less than a year now, and their weekly PlayLab program is a fantastic community of writers. The festival will be over Zoom in May 2023, so please join us to witness these new plays.
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for the fish will kick off The Depot for New Play Readings' 2023 season with an in-person reading at the little red barn in Connecticut. I am very grateful to be a part of bringing live programming back to The Depot, and I am looking forward to working on for the fish with a new group of actors and creatives.
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Each year, BPT collaborates with local high-school students for New Noises, the Massachusetts Young Playwrights’ Project (MYPP) festival celebrating the work of student writers. I am so happy to be flexing my acting muscle this spring to bring these 10-minute plays to life. Combining two of my loves: creating new work and mentoring young folks.
kind words about my work
New Play Exchange Review: for the fish
“What a gift this play is to queer theatre and what a master class in how to create rich, nuanced characters. Susanna perfectly encapsulates the pre-teen/teenage struggle of who we are and who we are supposed to become, and Uncle serves as an incredibly honest parental figure who is trying their best to figure it all out. Lots of humor, empathy, and connection bleed through this text. A must read and must produce!”
New Play Exchange Review: Linda’s Donuts
“Surrey Houlker’s play snapshots the daily indignities, large and small, being suffered behind every coffee counter and fast food register, and asks how—and why—we’re meant to put our souls and sanity on the line for a cup of coffee and a meager hourly wage. Houlker once again centers queer characters of different generations whose imperfect alliance is a rickety life-raft on unfriendly seas...”
New Play Exchange Review: for the fish
“…The play’s power builds from the accumulation of small consolations: cigarettes, dancing, new shoes. Ultimately for the fish revels in brave acts of love and hope in an age of reaction. Very highly recommended.”