Kip Williams talks with Regina about where he’s from, his inspirations and how he made his way to head Sydney Theatre Company.

Kip Williams is Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company.

At STC he has directed Lord of the Flies, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Cheery Soul, Harp in the South Parts One & Two, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Three Sisters, Cloud Nine, Chimerica, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, All My Sons, The Golden Age, Love and Information (a co-production with Malthouse Theatre), Suddenly Last Summer, Children of the Sun, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Under Milk Wood. He was Associate Director on Cyrano de Bergerac with Andrew Upton.

For Melbourne Theatre Company Kip adapted and directed August Strindberg’s Miss Julie. For Sydney Chamber Opera he directed The Rape of Lucretia (a co-production with Dark Mofo and the Victorian Opera), Index of Metals, The Lighthouse and the double bill Ich Habe Genug and Nunc Dimittis. For the 18th Biennale of Sydney he directed Through The Gates (also for Sydney Chamber Opera). For Malthouse Helium and US-A-UM he directed an all-female production of Lord of the Flies and for Tamarama Rock Surfers he directed Fallout at the Old Fitz. For the Sydney Writers’ Festival Kip directed 1001 Nights and for Princeton Theatre, New Jersey, Fifth of July.

Kip directed the short films B, Bee & Mee and Walk, as well as music videos for Guineafowl, including Little Fingers and Botanist, which was listed in ABC’s RAGE 50 list of the top music videos for 2009.

In 2015, Kip won the Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play for his STC production of Suddenly Last Summer. Two years later Kip won Best Direction at the 2017 Green Room Awards for Miss Julie at MTC, which also won Best Production and Best Digital Media Design and Integration. Most recently, Kip won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Director in 2018 for STC’s The Harp in the South, the play also receiving the award for Best Production and Best New Australian Work.

Kip was appointed Directing Associate at STC in 2012, and was Resident Director at STC from 2013 until being made Artistic Director in late 2016 – the youngest person to hold the position in the company’s history. A graduate of both NIDA and Sydney University, Kip is now on the Board of Directors for NIDA.