Ken Urban
Ken Urban is a playwright, screenwriter and director. He was born in New Jersey in 1974.[1] He currently lives in Boston. He occasionally teaches at Princeton University. He is a graduate of Bucknell University and holds a Ph.D. in English literature from Rutgers University.
His plays have been produced and developed at Summer Play Festival at The Public, Theatre503 (London)theatre503.com, Donmar Warehouse (London), TimeLine Theatre Company, Studio 42, Theatre @ Boston Court, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Irish Rep, Primary Stages, and The Huntington. The Awake opened at 59E59 Theatres in August, starring Maulik Pancholy from Weeds and 30 Rock. The New York Times named the show a Critic’s Pick and it played for a sold out run. The Correspondent opens at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in February, directed by Stephen Brackett.
Urban was the Founding Artistic Director of The Committee, a New York-based theatre company that produced “catastrophic theatre" including the first workshop production of Sarah Kane's Cleansed.
In 2009, he won the 2008 L. Arnold Weisberger Award, given each year by the Williamstown Theatre Festival, for his play Sense of an Ending.
Urban maintains a website with information on his theatre and music.
He plays in the band Occurrence, which also features Wayne Feldman. Their latest release DECKS features vocals from cassette tapes that Wayne purchases at estate sales.
Plays
- I (Heart) Kant
- Nibbler
- The Absence of Weather
- The Female Terrorist Project
- Sense of an Ending (winner of the 2008 L. Arnold Weissberger Award)
- The Happy Sad
- The Private Lives of Eskimos
- Wasps
- The Awake
- The Correspondent
Awards/Recognition
- 2009 MacDowell Fellow
- 2008 L. Arnold Weissberger Award
- 2007-2009 Huntington Playwriting Fellowship
- 2008 MacDowell Residency
- 2006 Tennessee Williams Fellowship at the Sewanee Writers Conference
- 2004 Winner of Moving Arts Premiere One Act Competition