Kip Williams takes the reins while STC hunts for a new Artistic Director.

Sydney Theatre Company has announced that Kip Williams is to be the company’s Interim Artistic Director, effective immediately, until the new Artistic Director is appointed later in the year. The appointment follows the controversial departure of British director Jonathan Church, who parted ways with STC in May less than nine months after being appointed Artistic Director, leaving programming for the 2017 season incomplete.

“We have begun the recruitment process for a new Artistic Director and Kip will provide strong artistic leadership during this transitional period,” said STC Chairman Ian Narev. “Kip has an intimate knowledge of the company, excellent relationships with theatre makers and a great track record as a practising artist.”

A distinctive theatrical voice who has sometimes divided critics, Williams, aged 30, has been closely involved with STC ever since he worked as an assistant director on Andrew Upton’s 2011 production of The White Guard straight after completing a Master of Dramatic Art in Directing at NIDA.

A year later, he directed a production of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood for STC in his own right. Talking to Limelight recently, Williams described the opportunity to direct a mainstage production, just 12 months out of drama school, as “insane. I’m well aware of the incredible good fortune I’ve had and the immense support the Company has given me. It’s been nuts,” he said.

A Resident Director at STC since 2013, Williams has directed another seven productions for the Company. Already this year his credits include a highly acclaimed production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and The Golden Age by Australian playwright Louis Nowra.

His other productions for STC include Love and Information by Caryl Churchill (for which he was nominated for a Helpmann Award), Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams (for which he won the 2015 Helpmann for Best Direction of a Play), Children of the Sun by Maxim Gorky, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and a controversial production of Macbeth starring Hugo Weaving where he put the audience on the stage and had much of the action unfold in the auditorium.

He was also Upton’s Associate Director on Cyrano de Bergerac and has worked as Assistant Director on The Secret River with Neil Armfield, Gross und Klein with Benedict Andrews and Loot with Richard Cottrell.

His other directing credits include Miss Julie for Melbourne Theatre Company and four operas for Sydney Chamber Opera: Index of Metals, The Lighthouse and the double bill Ich Habe Genug and Nunc Dimittis.

Known for his bold aesthetic and the intelligent play of ideas at work in his productions, Williams is currently rehearsing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which opens at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House on September 16. The production for STC will emphasise the exhilaration, terror and danger of sexual awakening.