Ken Urban


Ken Urban is an American playwright, screenwriter, and musician based in New York. Urban is an alumnus of New Dramatists and an affiliated writer at the Playwrights' Center.
He is a senior lecturer of Theater Arts and the Director of Dramatic Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously he has taught writing at Harvard University, Princeton University, Tufts University, and Davidson College.
Urban's play The Happy Sad, had its first production at the Summer Play Festival at The Public Theater. He adapted the play into a screenplay, and in 2013, it was released as a feature film directed by Rodney Evans. His play Danger and Opportunity won a 2025 Drama Desk Special Award for its intimate production at the East Village Basement.

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 KANT
  • 2007: The Private Lives of Eskimos
  • 2009: The Happy Sad
  • 2013: The Awake
  • 2014: The Correspondent
  • 2015: A Future Perfect
  • 2015: Sense of an Ending
  • 2017: Nibbler
  • 2017: A Guide for the Homesick
  • 2018: The Remains
  • 2022: Vapor Trail
  • 2025: Danger and Opportunity
  • 2026: ''The Moderate''

    TV and film

Pilots

  • ''The Art of Listening''

    Feature films

  • 2013: ''The Happy Sad''

    Short films

  • 2013: ''I Am a Great Big Ball of Saddness

    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: "All My Days"
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 2023: A IS FOR Playwriting Contest
  • 2024: Winner of the Blue Ink Award for Playwriting
  • 2025: Drama Desk Winner of Special Award
  • 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