A native of Manhattan, Annie Landenberger has been immersed in writing–in all the arts–since childhood. In 1996 she moved from Providence, RI, to teach English and direct theater at Leland and Gray Union Middle/High School in Townshend, VT. There she supervised student literary magazines, led workshops in grammar, edited/counseled on hundreds of seniors’ college essays, and wrote nearly that many recommendations. In addition, she directed/produced 65 shows with the Leland and Gray Players and led or co-led 16 student trips abroad before moving on in 2017. With a BA in English from Brown University, she earned a MA in drama at University of Virginia before returning to Brown for a teaching degree. A 2009 contributor at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, she also studied advertising art in a certificate program at Rhode Island School of Design.
Before going into teaching, Annie served myriad clients for marketing and PR—primarily in the arts. Since retiring she’s done copy editing for Penguin, Random House, and HarperCollins and has been a regular contributor to the late Vermont Arts and Living as well as to the Commons, for which she’s a featured arts writer. Her work has also appeared in Okemo Valley Magazine and the Brattleboro Reformer among other SE Vermont publications and picked up by Vtdigger, resilience.org, and commondreams.org, among others. Featured as a grammar expert on VPR’s Vermont edition, she’s also past editor of Grammar Moses, a grammar and usage publication of the former PR/Marketing firm PotterHazlehurst in East Greenwich, RI. Her review of the 2009 Weston (VT) Playhouse production of Death of a Salesman appeared in the Arthur Miller Journal.
Annie has worked for various arts organizations including Trinity Rep in Providence and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires. She’s written reviews for the Southern Vermont Arts Center and other publications and hosted a weekly radio interview show, Charlottesville and the Arts.
Other credits include performances at the Lenox Arts Center with Richard Foreman’s Ontological Hysteria Theatre and at Berkshire Theater Festival’s barn theatre. She co-authored and directed A Generous Spirit to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Newfane (VT) Moore Free Library and co-founded Mother Wit Improvisational Theatre at UVa. Co-founder of Journey East, Leland and Gray’s Asian Studies Academy and Sino-American Performing Arts Exchange, she led ensemble creation of that program’s first five productions which were then toured for a month each in China.
Under another cap, Annie is artistic director emerita of the Rock River Players and under yet another cap, she’s half of the music duo, Bard Owl.
Mother of three strong thirty-something sons and Grandmannie to one outstanding Henry, Annie lives happily in Southern Vermont with her life and music partner, inlay artist, T. Breeze Verdant.