Will Bonfiglio

Will is a theatre artist and scholar with a background in acting, directing, playwriting, and producing. His work has been featured on stages across the country, and he is the proud recipient of three St. Louis Theatre Circle Awards. Recent directing projects include Disney’s The Little Mermaid (COCA), Legally Blonde the Musical (Tesseract Theatre), The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong (East Central College), and SIX: Teen Edition (COCA). Other regional companies he has worked with include The Black Rep, ERA, Insight Theatre, Max & Louie Productions, Mustard Seed Theatre, The New Jewish Theatre, SATE, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Stray Dog Theatre, and Variety Theatre.

A proud educator, Will has served as part of COCA’s Theatre faculty since 2012. After being appointed as COCA’s Artistic Director of Theatre in 2024, Will developed and launched a Musical Theatre Pre-Professional program to provide students with high-quality conservatory-style training and industry preparation.

He previously served as COCA’s Director of COCAbiz, where he designed and facilitated professional development workshops using the arts. Corporate and nonprofit partners included Bayer, BJC HealthCare, Comcast, Commerce Bank, Delta Dental, Edward Jones, Regions, Rung for Women, Starkloff Disability Institute, TEDxStLouis, and World Wide Technology. Under his leadership, the program saw an expansion of partnerships and increased access to consulting services for nonprofits and community organizations.

In 2020, he became one of the youngest community members selected for FOCUS Leadership St. Louis. Will earned an MA in Theatre and Performance Studies and an MA in Nonprofit Management from Washington University in St. Louis. An alumnus of the Fulbright Program, he often teaches courses on theatre and performance studies at St. Louis-area universities.