Craig Thaine has been writing since 1980 when his first work, a children’s play, Gruzzlefummit!, was produced at Centrepoint Theatre in Palmerston North. The following year Stagger, his first full length play, was also produced at Centrepoint.
From May 1981 until June 1982, Craig worked as a playwright-in-residence at The New Zealand Drama School. His time there resulted in Today’s Bay (1982), written for the students there. During the early eighties, Craig wrote two plays for Radio New Zealand, Woolf ‘n Stone (1982) and Only When It Hurts (1983), and his stage play New Day In The Valley was workshopped at the 1982 Playwrights’ Conference.
In the eighties, Craig lived in Egypt, England, Italy and Sweden. During this time, he completed Body Dreams (1985), Ponte Vecchio (1987) was written with the assistance of a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Bursary, and Digging For Europe (1989).
Since returning to New Zealand at the end of 1991, Craig has lived in Auckland and continued writing for the stage, television and radio. In the mid-nineties, he wrote for Shortland Street for just over a year. His 1998 play, Retro, was performed as part of the Young & Hungry Season at BATS Theatre, Wellington. Telling Stories was produced at Circa Theatre, Wellington, in 2003. Piccole Storie was first broadcast by Radio New Zealand in 2007.
His plays Martha Mee and Rupture were shortlisted for the Adam Play Award in 2019 and 2020 respectively. In 2022, his play Lonely Flotsam was runner up in the Adam Play Award. As well as writing plays, Craig has also written numerous English language teaching books for Cambridge University Press.