John Longenbaugh. Writer. Playwright. Man of the People. 

Matchbook bio: I live in Seattle, working as a freelance writer, mostly on theater and the arts. I grew up in Alaska, in the town of Sitka, which had approximately 21 miles of road and some spectacular scenery. After high school I attended the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, as an undergraduate, the University of York as a graduate, and after a brief hiatus the Central School of Speech and Drama on their directing course.

I came to Seattle and within six months I was writing theatre criticism for the Seattle Weekly, where I was soon promoted to head theatre critic, largely because the guy who was nominally doing that job was a moody old coot who had sort of grown tired of theatre anyway.

I worked at the Weekly for six years, while continuing to write and direct theatre at the rate of one or two shows a year. I also became the President of the Washington Chapter of the Northwest Playwright's Guild, as well as running a regular playwright's group. 

Six years ago I quit the job at the Weekly, tired out of the world of arts journalism, and how it set a barrier between myself and the local theatre community. I was gratified to have come away with some great memories, a couple of state journalism awards, and some good friends.

From late 2003 to early 2005 I was the artistic director of the late lamented Theatre Babylon, where we managed to produce a year and a half of great plays before losing our venue the Union Garage to an impressive mass of bureaucratic red tape. What was originally suspected to be $20,000 in upgrades ballooned up to nearly $400,000 needed to save the favorite venue, so we called it a day.

2007: Writing a new play, have had several plays performed both locally (NPA in Tacoma, ART in Seattle) and nationally (LA First Stage, Atlantis Playmakers in New England), and am generally pretty happy with life. I've gone back to writing for the Weekly and it's ever so much nicer now, mostly because I'm a freelancer, I get to write about whatever I want, and my editor has very kindly made it possible for me to write about theater without ever reviewing again. I'm starting off 2008 by finishing up some projects from last year, most  notably a new full-length play on a Christmas theme. While I admit it's a little hard keeping the Yuletide spirit bright a week or so after you've tossed out the tree (minus half the needles which decided to stay on the carpet), the piece is coming well and I have hopes that it'll have a production by the end of this year. Even if this means workshopping it in, say, June. How festive!