Ken Urban

Ken Urban is a playwright and director. He was born in New Jersey in 1974. He now divides his time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and New York City. He teaches at Harvard University. He is a graduate of Bucknell University and holds a Ph.D. in English literature from Rutgers University.

His work has been published in [http://nytr.org New York Theatre Review] and [http://www.nytesmallpress.com Plays and Playwrights 2002] , in addition to numerous monologue and scene compilations.

Urban is the Founding Artistic Director of [http://www.thecommitteetheatre.org The Committee] , a New York-based theatre company that produces “catastrophic theatre.”

He was recently commissioned by Target Margin to adapt Aristophanes’ "The Wasps" and the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty Foundation to write a play about immigration for visitors to Ellis Island. Urban maintains a [http://www.kenurban.org website] with information on his theatre and music.

Essays

His critical essays have appeared in:
*Performing Arts Journal
*Theater (Yale University)
*New Theatre Quarterly
*Modern Drama
*Theatre Journal
*Out of Silence: Censorship and Self-Censorship in Theatre and Performance
*Cool Britannia: British Political Drama in the 1990s
*A Concise Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Theatre

Plays

*"I (Heart) Kant"
*"Nibbler"
*"Halo"
*"The Absence of Weather" (winner of the 2004 Moving Arts Premiere One Act Competition)
*"The Female Terrorist Project"
*"2 Husbands"
*"Sense of an Ending
*"The Happy Sad"
*"The Private Lives of Eskimos"

Ken Urban’s plays have been produced and developed by
* [http://www.theflea.org The Flea]
* [http://movingarts.org Moving Arts]
*Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab
* [http://sohorep.org Soho Rep]
* [http://www.theatreofnote.com Theatre of NOTE]
* [http://www.rudeguerrilla.org Rude Guerrilla]
* [http://www.annextheatre.org Annex Theatre]
* [http://www.targetmargin.org Target Margin]
* [http://www.sonofsemele.org Son of Semele Ensemble]
* [http://chocolatefactorytheater.org The Chocolate Factory]

Awards/Recognition

*2007-2009 Huntington Playwriting Fellowship
*2008 MacDowell Residency
*2006 Tennessee Williams Fellowship at the Writers Conference
*2004 Moving Arts Premiere One Act Competition
*2008 finalist at PlayLabs Festival at the Playwrights’ Center
*2001 finalist for Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship.

External links

* [http://www.kenurban.org Ken Urban]
* [http://www.thecommitteetheatre.org The Committee Theatre Company]
* [http://brooklynrail.org/2006/9/theater/you-gotta-have-ken-urbans-i-kant Article on Ken Urban from Brooklyn Rail, September 2006]
* [http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/voiceweb/v_urban.htm Interview with Ken Urban]
* [http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsU/urban-ken.html Ken Urban on Doollee.com]
* [http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/theater/july04/urban.html Article on Ken Urban from Brooklyn Rail, July 2004]
* [http://www.nyte.org/pp02.htm Plays and Playwrights 2002 anthology]
* [http://drunkenboat.com/db8/panlitsound/urban Drunken Boat Pan Literary Award Finalist]