Marco Praga was an Italian playwright and theatre critic. 

He was the son of Emilio Prague, representative of the Scapigliatura artistic movement. He lost his father in 1875, at the age of 13. 

Marco Praga was among those playwrights who developed the experience of realism in Italy. He was forced to find a job as an accountant until 1889, when the resounding success of the comedy Le Vergini, played by the great actress Virginia Marini, allowed him to fully devote himself to theatre. 

His comedies, which were affected by the teachings of Henry Becque, draw a fair description of local costumes, undertaking psychological research in a scientific spirit, though sometimes with little certain expressive mean. 

After Le Vergini (1889), he wrote La Moglie Ideale (1890), his masterpiece. More intimate psychological motivations appear in other works, especially in La crisi (1904) and La Porta Chiusa (1913). 

He wa an active activist, who distinguished himself in the activity carried out on behalf of the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE, by its Italian initials), of which he was director from 1896 to 1911, contributing in that role to the appreciation of the Italian repertoire against the xenophile fashion of the time. He continued to address the SIAE even though he had already given up the leadership to engage in the management of the Company of the Theatre Manzoni at Milán. 

Since 1919 he was theatre critic for the Illustrazione Italiana and his chronicles were collected in 10 volumes (Cronache teatrali 1920-1929). 

He also wrote a novel, La Biondina (1893), and several short stories. He was one of the authors who, though not credited as the others, collaborated on the libretto for Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (1893). 

Victim of a severe depression, he committed suicide.