Williams says he will be spending a significant amount of 2025 in the rehearsal room, interstate and overseas. Programming for a season starts a year ahead, so he has given nine months’ notice for the board to find and settle his replacement.

During his eight-year tenure as artistic director, Williams has become known for his visually sumptuous style and cinematic approach, and has also made some shrewd commissions including one of STC’s biggest hits, RBG: Of Many, One.

Williams is considered one of STC’s most successful artistic directors of the past two decades, with adaptions of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde selling out 10 back-to-back seasons across the country, and a 14-week West End run for Dorian Gray.

Following Dorian Gray’s triumphant London debut, STC’s artistic director has been courted by several notable London theatre players including the Young Vic, now searching for a new artistic director.

Williams declined to comment on job offers but is said not to be looking to run another theatre company straight away. He returns to London next week for the Olivier Awards with Snook nominated for best performance and Marg Howell for best costume design.

His departure from the STC will trigger a nationwide and international search for a replacement.

Chair Ann Johnson, who was part of the board that appointed Williams, said the company experienced one of its most critically acclaimed and creatively vibrant periods with the director’s artistic input.

“Kip has put great focus on Australian writing, championing new voices and has realised his goal of gender parity for women writers and directors in every season,” she said.

“He has mentored and nurtured the careers of some of our most exciting writers, directors, designers, performers and technicians, and the Australian theatre industry is a richer and more diverse place for the role Kip has played in it.”

Williams took on creative control of STC from Jonathan Church after the British artistic director abruptly left the company in 2016 just six months into the job.

At the age of 30, he was the youngest director ever appointed to the STC.

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Williams started at the STC five years earlier, fresh out of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, as Upton’s assistant director on The White Guard. He was appointed resident director by Upton and Cate Blanchett in 2012. Williams’ early credits include Suddenly Last Summer for which he won a Helpmann award.

During William’s tenure, the company was exiled to Fox Studios while its Walsh Bay home was renovated. Then, the pandemic turned the lights out on stages across the country, a period Williams says was his low point. He avoided COVID-19 for two years only to contract it amid rehearsals for Dr Jekyll.

Williams says he continues to finesse Dorian Gray.

“I look at a moment like the success of Dorian right now, and it’s the culmination of years of investment in not just me but multiple artists, technicians, crew and stage managers who have worked inside the company for years and years. I’m an example of someone who has benefited from great nurturing and mentoring inside the company, and I’ve tried, in turn, to make that my key focus.”

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