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Kip Williams is an Australian theatre director. Williams is the Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company.
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Williams has been a Resident Artist with Sydney Theatre Company since 2012. He was appointed Directing Associate in 2012, Resident Director in 2013, and Artistic Director in November, 2016. His appointment at age 30 made him the youngest Artistic Director in the company's history.
Williams won the 2015 Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play for his production of Suddenly, Last Summer.
Suddenly last summer interview with director kip williams
Theatre
Williams has directed for many of Australia's leading theatre companies, including Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, and Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne.
Williams' first production for Sydney Theatre Company came in 2012, where at age 25 he directed Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, at the Sydney Opera House, starring Jack Thompson. In 2013 he directed a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, again at the Sydney Opera House, as well as an all female production of William Golding's Lord of the Flies at Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne as part of the Helium Festival. In 2014, for Sydney Theatre Company he directed productions of Macbeth starring Hugo Weaving and Maxim Gorky'a Children of the Sun adapted by Andrew Upton.
In 2015, Williams directed a radical staging of Tennessee Williams's Suddenly Last Summer, using a blend of live video and stage action. The production earned him a Best Director nomination at the Sydney Theatre Awards, and won him the Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play. He also directed the Australian premiere of Caryl Churchill's Love and Information for Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, and the Sydney Theatre Company. The acclaimed production garnered Williams a second nomination for the Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play, as well as Best Director nominations from the Sydney Theatre Awards, and Melbourne's Green Room Awards.
In 2016, for STC Williams directed a revival of the Australian classic The Golden Age by Louis Nowra, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Arthur Miller's All My Sons, for which he was nominated for Best Director at the Sydney Theatre Awards. He also adapted and directed a production of Miss Julie for the Melbourne Theatre Company. It was his second time combining live video and stage action. The production was nominated for eight Green Room Awards, including Best Director, Best Digital Media Design and Integration, and Best Production.
Opera
Williams has directed extensively for Sydney Chamber Opera, including productions of Peter Maxwell Davies's The Lighthouse, Fausto Romitelli's An Index of Metals, and stagings of J S Bach's Ich Habe Genug and Jack Symmonds' Nunc Demitus.
He also staged a song cycle for SCO and the 18th Biennale of Sydney titled Through The Gates, composed of works from Schostakovich to Bach.
Education
Williams is a graduate of NIDA and the University of Sydney.