Surrey Houlker

Surrey Houlker (she/her) is a Queer, New Haven-based theater maker who explores the intricacies of the LGBTQIA+ experience through belonging, community, honesty, and humor. Surrey is also drawn to stories that examine grief, loss, and neurodiverse ways of connecting with others. She is also a big crier.

Surrey is a MFA Playwriting Candidate (2027) at Yale University’s David Geffen School of Drama. Her full-length plays include her first play FOR THE FISH (residency/reading: the cell theatre, Great Plains Theatre Commons - workshopped production: Moonbox Productions - reading: The Depot - finalist: Trustus Playwrights Festival, Seattle Public Theater Distillery Festival, Live Arts WATERWORKS Festival), and THE DEAD DADZ CLUB (reading: TC2 Theatre Company). Other short plays include HOUSE...

Surrey Houlker (she/her) is a Queer, New Haven-based theater maker who explores the intricacies of the LGBTQIA+ experience through belonging, community, honesty, and humor. Surrey is also drawn to stories that examine grief, loss, and neurodiverse ways of connecting with others. She is also a big crier.

Surrey is a MFA Playwriting Candidate (2027) at Yale University’s David Geffen School of Drama. Her full-length plays include her first play FOR THE FISH (residency/reading: the cell theatre, Great Plains Theatre Commons - workshopped production: Moonbox Productions - reading: The Depot - finalist: Trustus Playwrights Festival, Seattle Public Theater Distillery Festival, Live Arts WATERWORKS Festival), and THE DEAD DADZ CLUB (reading: TC2 Theatre Company). Other short plays include HOUSE PLAY co-written with Gabriele Preston (performance: Fresh Ink Theatre), LINDA'S DONUTS, SEVEN MINUTES, and EVERYTHING MUST GO (performance: Emerson College). Additionally, Surrey was a finalist for Company One Theatre Volt Lab 2024.

Surrey believes wholeheartedly in the intersection of arts education, trauma-informed teaching, and advocacy. In her formal educational work, she has worked with American Repertory Theatre, ArtsEmerson, The Gamm Theatre, and as a teacher with Boston, MA public schools, Tiverton, RI Public Schools, and Moses Brown School. She is passionate about giving young people, especially young Queer people, space and liberatory tools to start conversations about their personal and collective histories regardless of societal factors that may tell them otherwise.

Let's chat! surreyhoulker@gmail.com

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Scripts

for the fish

by Surrey Houlker

6
Cast Size
3
Genre
dark comedy,
drama,
period

FULL LENGTH: 'for the fish' asks: How can we find (and keep) safety as queer people? What even is safety? Do fish have feelings? It’s 1974, deep in rural America. Uncle loves taxidermy, beer, and the oasis of solitude that they’ve built for themselves. Susanna isn’t quite sure what she loves...Maybe it’s fishing? Maybe it’s her best friend, Joanie? As the year comes to a close, Susanna’s big heart and quick...

FULL LENGTH: 'for the fish' asks: How can we find (and keep) safety as queer people? What even is safety? Do fish have feelings? It’s 1974, deep in rural America. Uncle loves taxidermy, beer, and the oasis of solitude that they’ve built for themselves. Susanna isn’t quite sure what she loves...Maybe it’s fishing? Maybe it’s her best friend, Joanie? As the year comes to a close, Susanna’s big heart and quick temper keep her precariously perched between normalcy and disaster. And Uncle, grappling with their addiction and the task of parenting Susanna, finds themselves caught up in a wave of teenage turbulence. When a scaly monster rears its ugly head, Susanna and Uncle draw closer, bonded by an understanding few in their world will ever hold.

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THE DEAD DADZ CLUB

by Surrey Houlker

2
Cast Size
6
Genre
dark comedy,
drama

FULL LENGTH: It's the early 2000s in suburban America, and there is nothing more important to the members of The Dead Dadz Club (Vee, Brooke, Lulu, Ethan, Natalie, and Lucas) than their dead dads…And maybe the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Middle School Talent Show. As teenage hormones rage, Queer romances blossom, and life-altering secrets come to light, 'THE DEAD DADZ CLUB' examines the cost of belonging, the...

FULL LENGTH: It's the early 2000s in suburban America, and there is nothing more important to the members of The Dead Dadz Club (Vee, Brooke, Lulu, Ethan, Natalie, and Lucas) than their dead dads…And maybe the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Middle School Talent Show. As teenage hormones rage, Queer romances blossom, and life-altering secrets come to light, 'THE DEAD DADZ CLUB' examines the cost of belonging, the impacts of trauma, and our collective, intrinsic need to be understood and in control.

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Rest, Stop.

by Surrey Houlker

Cast Size
2
Genre
dark comedy,
experimental

FULL LENGTH (in progress): A play about long-haul trucking, surveillance, solitude, and road kill. Kinda like if Leslie Feinberg and Large Marge from 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' had a baby.

FULL LENGTH (in progress): A play about long-haul trucking, surveillance, solitude, and road kill. Kinda like if Leslie Feinberg and Large Marge from 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' had a baby.

HOUSE PLAY (co-written with Gabriele Preston)

by Surrey Houlker

Cast Size
2
Genre
dark comedy,
horror

TEN MINUTES: Something’s lurking in the barn. Locks of hair and scraps of meat go missing. Still, 8-year-old friends Squid and Dukem play ‘House’. A ten-minute play dissecting childhood grief, scraped knees, and the ways we learn to let go. (Written in 12 hours for Fresh Ink’s 2023 Mad Dash)

TEN MINUTES: Something’s lurking in the barn. Locks of hair and scraps of meat go missing. Still, 8-year-old friends Squid and Dukem play ‘House’. A ten-minute play dissecting childhood grief, scraped knees, and the ways we learn to let go. (Written in 12 hours for Fresh Ink’s 2023 Mad Dash)

Seven Minutes

by Surrey Houlker

1
Cast Size
3
Genre
dark comedy,
drama

TEN MINUTES: Lucy, Abby, and Jamie thought they'd just have a normal sleepover: playing MASH, painting nails, listening to bubbly pop music, remembering Brittany & Madona's kiss at the 2003 VMAs...Normal 'girl stuff', ya know? But when Jamie invites Kyle, their classmate, over to play 'Seven Minutes in Heaven', everyone's world is completely blown apart, especially Jamie's.

TEN MINUTES: Lucy, Abby, and Jamie thought they'd just have a normal sleepover: playing MASH, painting nails, listening to bubbly pop music, remembering Brittany & Madona's kiss at the 2003 VMAs...Normal 'girl stuff', ya know? But when Jamie invites Kyle, their classmate, over to play 'Seven Minutes in Heaven', everyone's world is completely blown apart, especially Jamie's.

Linda's Donuts

by Surrey Houlker

3
Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy

TEN MINUTES: Steph and Leo's morning shift at Linda's Donuts just became 10x worse than it usually is. A ten-minute play exploring privilege, mental health, queerness, and the oppressive confines of capitalism.

TEN MINUTES: Steph and Leo's morning shift at Linda's Donuts just became 10x worse than it usually is. A ten-minute play exploring privilege, mental health, queerness, and the oppressive confines of capitalism.