Inhabiting a world of words.
I have always been captivated by the intricacies of human language.
It’s why I have been writing poems and lyrics since a young age. What began as a penchant for crafting parodies of popular songs in elementary school grew into a passion for the creation of new musical theater. My obsession with language is also the reason for my interest in linguistics, where courses in phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics have taught me how to analyze sounds, their structure, their meaning, and their interpretation in context. As any linguist will tell you, language is arbitrary: a system of signs arising from an evolutionary need to communicate crucial information. And as any lyricist will tell you, that arbitrariness is where the fun comes in. Stephen Sondheim sometimes lamented that he preferred composing to lyric writing, as the latter was far too difficult. He was underselling himself, of course, as his ability to communicate meaning within constraints was unparalleled. It’s a difficult job, but someone has to do it, and it might as well be the person who can’t stop thinking about words, no matter how hard he tries.
(Photo by Oliver Shoulson.)
Will and his collaborator Charlie Romano were 2022 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalists for work on their musicals Onward & Upward and Word Nerd. Will and Charlie also received the Eric H. Weinberger Award for Emerging Librettists for Onward & Upward, resulting in a reading in April 2023 at The Phoenix Theatre Company and a ten-day workshop in New York in November 2023 co-produced by TPTC and Amas Musical Theatre. For their musical Unscheduled Maintenance, Will and Charlie were nominees at the 2020-2021 Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards, and their other short musical, Video Rental Store, will be featured in an upcoming collection of 10-Minute Musicals licensed by Music Theatre International. Will is also currently a lyricist in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and a member of the Dramatists Guild. As a linguist, Will has taken part in Claire Bowern’s Yale lab where he studied the formal semantics of Australian languages. His undergraduate thesis advisor was Josh Phillips, with whom he has presented research at FoDS, NELS, and SALT. Beyond lyrics and linguistics, Will is a veteran of Yale’s only musical comedy improv group, Just Add Water, and he served as the Marketing Director of the Yale Dramatic Association.