Ken Urban

Background

Urban attended Bucknell University, and graduated magna cum laude in English in 1996. He earned a Master's and Ph.D. in English Literature from Rutgers University in 2006. After receiving his doctorate, Urban taught at Harvard University for 8 years, and has since held teaching positions at Princeton University and Tufts University, focusing on instruction related to playwriting, screenwriting, academic writing, and dramatic literature. Urban is currently a senior lecturer and Director of Dramatic Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has been since 2017. There, he founded the annual Playwright's Lab, a play festival featuring student-written plays read by local professional actors.

Urban has a portfolio that includes over ten plays, and has had plays both Off-Broadway and on London's West End. Further included in his portfolio are screenplays and albums and songs from the band Occurrence —which Urban is the lead member of.

Plays

Produced plays

Source:

• 2001: I (Heart) KANT (Moving Arts)
• 2007: The Private Lives of Eskimos (The Committee)
• 2009: The Happy Sad (The Public Theater)
• 2013: The Awake (59E59 Theaters)
• 2014: The Correspondent (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
• 2015: A Future Perfect (Speakeasy Stage Company)
• 2015: Sense of an Ending (Theatre503)
• 2017: Nibbler (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
• 2017: A Guide for the Homesick (Huntington Theatre Company)
• 2018: The Remains (Studio Theatre)
• 2022: Vapor Trail (Tribeca Festival)
• 2025: Danger and Opportunity (East Village Basement)
• 2026: The Moderate (Central Square Theater)

TV and film

Pilots

• The Art of Listening (Optioned by ITV and Madison Wells Media)

Feature films

• 2013: The Happy Sad (Produced by IFC and Miasma Films and directed by Rodney Evans)

Short films

• 2013: *I Am a Great Big Ball of Saddness (*Produced by Manhattan Short Film Festival and directed by Chris Tyler)

Music

Urban is a co-founder of the band Occurrence, which also features vocalists Cat Hollyer and Johnny Hager.

Occurrence (band)

Albums

Source:

• 2016: The Past Will Last Forever
• 2018: If He Were Here
• 2018: Everyone Knows the Disaster is Coming
• 2021: I Have So Much Love to Give
• 2023: Slow Violence
• 2025: Real Friend
• 2025: REAL PERSON

Singles / EPs

Source:

• 2017: "The Time of Year"
• 2018: "All of Your Devils"
• 2020: "All My Days" (2020 Version)
• 2020: "All My Days" (Remix H1987)
• 2020: "Dead Sleep Best"
• 2020: "Privacy Invaders"
• 2021: "I Have So Much Love to Give"
• 2021: "The Happy Years"
• 2021: "Boy Joy"
• 2021: "My Eternal Autumn"
• 2022: Music from Vapor Trail EP (with Daniel Kluger)
• 2023: Dissolve EP
• 2025: "Feeding Time"
• 2025: "Opportunity Window"

Awards and honors

Awards

• 2007: Playwriting Fellowship, Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, MA
• 2007: Nancy Quinn Grant, A.R.T./NY, NYC
• 2008: L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award (for Sense of an Ending)
• 2010: Dramatists Guild Fellowship, NYC
• 2016: New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for Playwriting/Screenwriting
• 2018: Independent Reviewers of New England Award for Best New Play (for A Guide for the Homesick)
• 2023: A IS FOR Playwriting Contest (2nd Place Winner) (for Cath Carroll)
• 2024: Winner of the Blue Ink Award for Playwriting (for The Conquered)
• 2025: Drama Desk Winner of Special Award (for Danger and Opportunity)
• 2025: Levitan Teaching Award at MIT

Residencies

• 2003: Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, NY
• 2008: MacDowell Fellow, MacDowell, Peterborough, NH
• 2009: MacDowell Fellow, MacDowell, Peterborough, NH
• 2012 Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA
• 2014 Core Writer, Three-Year Residency, Playwrights' Center, Minneapolis, MN
• 2015 Selected Playwright, R&D Group, The Civilians, NYC
• 2015 Artist in Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
• 2016 Member Playwright, Multi-Year Residency, New Dramatists, NY
• 2017 Affiliated Writer, Playwrights' Center, Minneapolis, MN
• 2019 Artist in Residence, Millay Colony, Austerlitz, NY
• 2020 Selected Playwright, Keen Playwrights Lab, Keen Company, New York, NY
• 2020 Selected Playwright, R&D Group, The Civilians, NYC
• 2020 EST/Alfred P. Sloan Science & Technology Project Commission
• 2022 MacDowell Fellow, MacDowell, Peterborough, NH
• 2023 MacDowell Fellow, MacDowell, Peterborough, NH
• 2023 Venturous Theater Fund Finishing Commission

References

References

1. "Ken Urban {{!}} New Dramatists".
2. "PRESCRIPTIONS FOR MID-CAREER".
3. (15 August 2013). "'The Happy Sad,' Based on Ken Urban's Play". The New York Times.
4. "2025 Winners — 2025 Drama Desk Awards".
5. "Ken Urban '96".
6. "Friends of Rutgers - A Newsletter for Alumni and Friends of the Department of English".
7. Aucoin, Don. "For playwright Ken Urban, a world premiere and a teaching gig at MIT".
8. "Plays".
9. Gates, Anita. (September 13, 2006). "Seeing Four Women's Lives, Full of Pluses and Minuses".
10. La Rocco, Claudia. (September 12, 2007). "Must Check This Out! Eskimos Speak Spam! Who Knew?".
11. "Studio Theatre {{!}} The Remains: Visual History".
12. Rampell, Catherine. (August 30, 2013). "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream Another's Reality".
13. Feldman, Adam. (February 13, 2014). "The Correspondent".
14. Jeffrey Gantz. (January 15, 2015). "In 'A Future Perfect,' the end of indie". The Boston Globe.
15. (May 21, 2015). "Sense of an Ending".
16. Soloski, Alexis. "Review: 'Nibbler,' About the Sweet Horrors of Youth". The New York Times.
17. (2017-10-20). "'A Guide For The Homesick' Could Leave You With Spiritual Sunburn". WBUR.
18. "Studio Theatre {{!}} The Remains".
19. "Vapor Trail".
20. "Danger and Opportunity".
21. "The Moderate".
22. "Ken Urban {{!}} New Dramatists".
23. Catsoulis, Jeannette Catsoulis. (August 15, 2013). "Each Couple Is Unhappy in Its Own Way".
24. Tyler, Chris. "I Am a Big Ball of Sadness".
25. "Occurrence".
26. "Occurrence".
27. "Playwriting Fellows".
28. "The world premiere of In the Event of My Death {{!}} IRT Theater".
29. "Clarence Coo's Chapters Of A Floating Life Receives 2023 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award".
30. "Ken Urban – Dramatists Guild Foundation".
31. (2016-07-08). "NYFA Announces Recipients and Finalists for 2016 Artists' Fellowship Program".
32. "2017 IRNE Awards Winners Announced – Shoshana Bean, Mark Rylance, Scottsboro Boys and More!".
33. "Playwriting Contest 2024!".
34. Blues. (2024-03-27). "2024 Blue Ink Award Winner Announced".
35. Daniel, Benjamin. (2025-05-02). "Six MIT SHASS educators receive 2025 Levitan Teaching Awards".
36. "Writer Director Lab".
37. "Ken Urban - MacDowell Fellow in Theatre Arts".
38. "Ken Urban's The Immortals".
39. (2016-03-15). "An interview with Ken Urban {{!}} Playwrights' Center".
40. "2015-2016 - The Civilians".
41. (2014-12-16). "Ken Urban - Headlands Center for the Arts".
42. "Ken Urban {{!}} Playwrights' Center".
43. "Alumni 2010-2020".
44. "Keen Playwrights Lab".
45. "2020-2021 - The Civilians".
46. "Finishing Commissions Program".