Will has directed and developed new plays and musicals with such theatres as The Guthrie, American Repertory Theatre, 2nd Stage, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, Hartford Stage, New York Theater Workshop, The Signature Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Soho Rep, Culture Project, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Studio Theatre, Epic Theatre Ensemble, The Mark Taper Forum and Ensemble Studio Theater.
He has directed world premieres by such playwrights as John Guare, David Auburn, Neil LaBute, Craig Lucas, Kia Corthron, David Lindsay-Abaire, Stephen Belber, Noah Haidle, Linda Cho, Kira Obolensky, Russell Davis and Carey Perloff . In addition to his work on new plays, Will has also directed texts by Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shakespeare, Shaw and Sophocles.
His production of THE BLUE FLOWER, swept all the major awards in the Boston Area, winning both the Elliot Norton and the Independent Reviewers of New England (I.R.N.E.) Awards for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Design, Best Musical of the Year, as well as multiple Best Performance Awards. The New York production, produced by 2nd Stage was listed as one of the 10 Best Productions of the Year by Bloomberg (“The best musical since Spring Awakening.”) and has been nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical.
His production of The Shape of Things was voted Outstanding Production of the year in Washington, DC and received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Performance, as well as being cited as among the year’s 10 best by The Washington Post and The Washington Times.
His production of Dai received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance and was awarded a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. He received an OOBR Award for Outstanding Production (for A Tale of Two Cities) and his work has been cited multiple times as Critic’s Pick (TimeOutNY) and Voice Choice (The Village Voice).
Will Pomerantz was Director-In-Residence for Culture Project for 6 seasons. Past productions for the company include Tatjana in Color by Julia Jordan, Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, Prater Violet (based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood), The 5:48 (based on the short story by John Cheever), A Tale of Two Cities (based on the novel by Charles Dickens), and Social Note: An Evening with Dorothy Parker (staged in The Algonquin Hotel). Will was Associate Director for Culture Poject’s U.S. premiere production of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.
Will Pomerantz is the first American director ever invited to direct for the National Theatre of Poland, and his production of Cinders by Janusz Glowacki performed as part of the repertory for 4 years.
In addition, Will has been the Boris Sagal Fellow in Directing for Williamstown Theatre Festival, Staff Repertory Director for The Acting Company, and is an alumnus of the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center, a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, and a member of Ensemble Studio Theater. He is also the co-librettist for the new music theatre works This Side of Paradise and FOR THE LAST TIME.
Will is currently Associate Artistic Director for Bay Street Theatre, and Associate Director of Artistic Development for Epic Theatre Ensemble, where he directed Kathleen Chalfant in Howard Barker’s A Hard Heart.