Kip Williams
Kip Williams
Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director
Kip Williams is an award-winning director and writer of theatre and opera and is the current Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Sydney Theatre Company, a role he has held since November 2016. His appointment at age 30 made him the youngest Artistic Director in the company’s history.
Williams has worked extensively at STC for over the last decade, having been appointed a Resident Artist in 2012 by then Artistic Directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett. He has since gone on to direct over 20 productions for the company, working with an array of Australia leading actors and writers, including Hugo Weaving, Jack Thompson, Mia Wasikowska, Shari Sebbens, Kate Mulvany, Rob Collins, Heather Mitchell and Richard Roxburgh.
Williams’ work is noted for its stunning visuals and groundbreaking formal experimentation. His recent cinetheatre adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde have been seen by over 200,000 people around Australia. Dorian Gray will open on London's West End in January 2024 starring Succession’s Sarah Snook.
Williams has been nominated a record six consecutive times for the Helpmann Award for Best Director, Australia’s top theatre prize, and in 2015 became the youngest director to win the award, for Suddenly Last Summer. He has twice won Melbourne’s Green Room Award for both Best Director and Best Production, first in 2016 for his adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie and next in 2023 for Dorian Gray. He has won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Director a record three times, for The Harp In The South (2018), Dorian Gray (2021), and most recently for his adaptation of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (2022).
Williams has also directed for many of Australia’s leading theatre and opera companies and festivals, including Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Adelaide Festival, Perth Festival, Melbourne’s RISING Festival, Victorian Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, Dark MOFO, and the Biennale of Sydney, as well as New Zealand’s Auckland Arts Festival and the English National Opera.
A graduate of both Sydney University and Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Williams served as a Board Member for NIDA from 2016-2023.
Williams has worked extensively at STC for over the last decade, having been appointed a Resident Artist in 2012 by then Artistic Directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett. He has since gone on to direct over 20 productions for the company, working with an array of Australia leading actors and writers, including Hugo Weaving, Jack Thompson, Mia Wasikowska, Shari Sebbens, Kate Mulvany, Rob Collins, Heather Mitchell and Richard Roxburgh.
Williams’ work is noted for its stunning visuals and groundbreaking formal experimentation. His recent cinetheatre adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde have been seen by over 200,000 people around Australia. Dorian Gray will open on London's West End in January 2024 starring Succession’s Sarah Snook.
Williams has been nominated a record six consecutive times for the Helpmann Award for Best Director, Australia’s top theatre prize, and in 2015 became the youngest director to win the award, for Suddenly Last Summer. He has twice won Melbourne’s Green Room Award for both Best Director and Best Production, first in 2016 for his adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie and next in 2023 for Dorian Gray. He has won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Director a record three times, for The Harp In The South (2018), Dorian Gray (2021), and most recently for his adaptation of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (2022).
Williams has also directed for many of Australia’s leading theatre and opera companies and festivals, including Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Adelaide Festival, Perth Festival, Melbourne’s RISING Festival, Victorian Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, Dark MOFO, and the Biennale of Sydney, as well as New Zealand’s Auckland Arts Festival and the English National Opera.
A graduate of both Sydney University and Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Williams served as a Board Member for NIDA from 2016-2023.
Connect
Related Sessions
Featured Session: Innovation on Stage - The Picture of Dorian Gray
TUE, OCT 17, 4:00 PM
Conference
The groundbreaking tech reinventing the live theatre experience.
Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company Kip Williams sits down with internationally recognised producer Michael Cassel AM to discuss the smash-hit production The Picture of Dorian Gray. After multiple sell-out Sydney seasons, a sold-out Melbourne premiere and Adelaide Festival season in 2022, and the New Zealand premiere at the 2023 Auckland Arts Festival; the groundbreaking production will premiere on the West End in 2024 starring global superstar Sarah Snook.
This breathtakingly innovative production coined the “cine-theatre” genre in Australia – incorporating live and pre-recorded video with live performance; enabling a single performer to nimbly shapeshift and play every role in the gripping tale. A dizzying combination of ultra-precise live camera work, motorised LED screens, novel staging, live image manipulation, and unmitigated technical audacity combine to create a piece that “will change theatre practice globally” (CX Magazine).
Developed locally by an Australian creative team in the midst of a pandemic, this home-grown work is poised to take on international stages at the height of theatre. Join Kip as he discusses with Michael the scintillating mix of cutting-edge contemporary theatre design and astonishing live video behind his vibrantly contemporary adaptation at the dawn of its global expansion.
