Each month on The Subtext, Brian speaks with a playwright about life, writing, and whatever itches we are scratching.

This time, the Minneapolis-based playwright introduces the episode with an anecdote about what it’s like to workshop and create in the Twin Cities right now. Then he speaks with Ken Urban, a multi-hyphenate in every sense: He takes teaching “very seriously,” makes new music with his band Occurrence, and still centers space and opportunity for his writing. Urban discusses time management, how his various pursuits feed one another, the unpredictability of mapping out a playwriting career, the dilemma of pursuing or passing on grad school, and how luck and timing impact success. “Being good at writing plays is only one part of having a career,” he says. “The other big part is luck and knowing what to do with your luck. And sometimes I’ve been very bad about knowing what to do with my luck, and other times I’ve been better at it.”

Ken Urban’s plays include The Moderate; Drama Desk winner Danger and Opportunity; A Guide for the Homesick (which has run Off-Broadway, in the West End, and beyond); The Remains; Sense of an Ending; Nibbler; The Correspondent; The Awake; and The Happy Sad (which was also made into a film). He is also known for audio plays Vapor Trail (Tribeca Festival and Playwrights Horizons Sound Stage) and A Sticky Memento (NPR Playing on Air). He is a four-time recipient of the MacDowell Fellowship, a New Dramatists alum, an affiliated writer of the Playwrights’ Center, a member of both the Dramatists Guild and Writers Guild of America member, and a Recording Academy voting member. His playscripts are published by Concord Theatricals. Urban’s band, Occurrence, releases music on Archie & Fox Records, a label that Ken runs with sound designer and musician Daniel Kluger. He is also senior lecturer of theatre and head of the dramatic writing program at MIT.