Will Luera is the Artistic Director of ImprovBoston, Artistic Director of the Lowell Comedy Festival, Mainstage Director at ImprovAsylum, and Artistic Associate of the Chicago Improv Festival. Will Luera joined ImprovBoston in 1997 as a member of the Mainstage cast. Soon after he joined the TheatreSports cast and helped to start the Boston franchise of Sitcom. In 1999, he left ImprovBoston to start his own improvisational theater company called Blue Screen, where he continued to direct Sitcom but also developed and directed ground-breaking shows like Secret Society and Dropkick Bandito. In 2000, he rejoined ImprovBoston as Artistic Director, directing the Mainstage cast and developing the nationally renowned productions of Sitcom, Secret Society, Blue Screen, and Quest. He has appeared in numerous improv festivals around the world and has studied improvisation with ImprovOlympic, The Second City, The Annoyance Theater, The Upright Citizens Brigade, and Keith Johnstone. In addition to his work at ImprovBoston, Will has taught improvisation classes for the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), the National Fire Prevention Association, Northeastern University, Boston College and has directed shows for the ImprovAsylum, The Tribe Theater, Another Country Productions, and The Alarm Clock Theater. He has also directed short films for the 48-hour film festival and Filmerica, both of which were considered highlights of the festival. In 2004, Will was the Boston and national winner of PAX-TVs World Cup Comedy. Will is also a producer and actor in Strange Faculty, which was accepted to the 2007 New York Television Festival, the 2008 Los Angeles Independent Television Festival and winner of the 2008 NBC Comedy Short Cuts competition.
Website
wluera.tumblr.com
Influences
Mick Napier, Joe Bill, Greg Allen, Zabeth Russell
Will's Interests
General
Improvisation, Fantasy Baseball, Theater, White Sox, Conspiracies
Music
Molotov, INXS, Shakira, Nirvana, White Stripes, Michael Jackson (Jackson 5 to Black or White), A Tribe Called Quest
Movies
The Shawshank Redemption, The Poseidon Adventure (Original), The Goonies, Groundhog Day, Lord of the Rings, Apocalypse Now, Jackass, Napoleon Dynamite, The Matrix, Amelie. Rushmore, Amadeus, Titanic, The Usual Suspects, Dead Poets Society
Television
The Family Guy, Survivor, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, SportsCenter, The Twilight Zone, Heroes, Man vs. Wild, That 70's Show, Kid Nation, 30 Rock, The Office, No Reservations, News Radio, Countdown, X-Files, ER, Animaniacs, Bullshit
Books
1984, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Around the world in 80 days, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Great Train Robbery, Lord of The Rings, The DaVinci Code, Skeleton Crew, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, And then there were none, A Cook's Tour, Still Alice
Heroes
Phil Jackson, Ozzie Guillen, Jesus, Anthony Bourdain, Joe Crede
I like to keep myself as busy as possible. My day, I work freelance as a Project Manager in the Boston area and at night I work with a variety of different theaters in the Boston area. My main passion is being the Artistic Director of ImprovBoston (www.improvboston.com) but I also work with other local theaters including the ImprovAsylum, The Tribe Theater, Another Country Productions, and the Alarm Clock Theater Company. When I have a few hours off, I try to fill them up with extra curricular activities like recreational basketball, softball, and football.
Oh my goodness! I hope the Sox perform that well when they come over here this weekend! I'm gonna be at the Coliseum to cheer them on in Black & White!!! Pray I don't get beat up by 'dem crazy Oakland fans!!!
Pretty weird feeling with those earthquakes, huh!? The first one I experienced...I just thought a big semi drove by the apartment, but then the vertical blinds were swingin' way tooooo much. :)
I saw a couple of pages of carbon paper at the bottom of a pile in an office supply drawer at work. I thought of throwing them out. Maybe I should get them gold-dipped and framed instead!
I might still use carbon paper. I'm not sure. For my sound reports -- I use a form that is in triplicate? Or is that the technology that followed carbon paper?
