Artistic Vision

Established in 1978 on Gadigal Country, Sydney Theatre Company is one of the world’s largest, most vibrant, prolific and impactful not-for-profit theatre companies. Situated near the waters of Sydney Harbour, the Company presents an annual season of productions and programs at our home venues, The Wharf Theatres and Roslyn Packer Theatre at Walsh Bay, and as a resident company of Sydney Opera House. Our annual season is curated by our current Artistic Director and Co-CEO, Mitchell Butel, who began his tenure in November 2024. The Company also regularly tours work, both nationally and internationally. Our work regularly plays to more than 400,000 audience members annually. 

Sydney Theatre Company offers audiences an exciting mix of Australian plays and music theatre, bold interpretations of the classic repertoire and the best of contemporary international writing. The Company produces brilliant theatre that connects with, inspires, stimulates and entertains our audiences. STC is committed to the engagement between the imagination of our artists and our audiences and the development of the theatrical art form.  

The Company’s first Artistic Director, Richard Wherrett, laid out Sydney Theatre Company’s mission to provide “first class theatrical entertainment that is grand, vulgar, intelligent, challenging and fun (and that) reflects the society in which we live, thus providing a point of focus, a frame of reference by which we come to understand our place in the world as individuals, as a community and as a nation.” 

The Company’s acclaimed pedigree stems from a history of ground-breaking productions made by some of the world’s most respected and beloved performers, directors, writers and creative teams.  

Sydney Theatre Company has launched or fostered the theatre careers of many of Australia’s beloved and internationally-renowned theatre-makers: writers like Nakkiah Lui, Jane Harrison, David Williamson, Joanna Murray-Smith, Andrew Bovell, Suzie Miller, Nick Enright, Terence Clarke, Kate Mulvany, Declan Greene, Anchuli Felicia King, Jonathan Biggins; directors like Wayne Harrison, Barrie Kosky, Wesley Enoch, Gale Edwards, Sarah Goodes, Stephen Page, Simon Stone, Zindzi Okenyo, Shari Sebbens, Marion Potts, Jenny Kemp, David Berthold, Kip Williams, Rodney Fisher, Jessica Arthur, Ian Michael, Kenneth Moraleda; designers and composers like Nick Schlieper, Nigel Levings, Jeremy Allen, Jennifer Tate, Brian Thomson, Marg Horwell, Renée Mulder, Bob Cousins, Gabriella Tylesova, David Fleischer, Kim Carpenter, Mel Page, Julie Lynch, Paul Charlier, Steve Francis, Damien Cooper, Jess Dunn, Clemmie Williams, Phil Scott, Verity Hampson; and an array of performers including Judy Davis, Robyn Nevin, Wayne Blair, Peter Carroll, John Gaden, Noni Hazlehurst, Hugo Weaving, Toni Collette, Mel Gibson, Rose Byrne, Essie Davis, Miranda Tapsell, Ewen Leslie, Helen Thomson, Mia Wasikowska, Tim Minchin, Ursula Yovich, Catherine Van-Davies, Damon Herriman, Hazem Shammas, Jacqueline McKenzie, Henri Szeps, Fayssal Bazzi, Yael Stone, Heather Mitchell, Charles Wu, Richard Roxburgh, Justine Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki, Mandy McElhinney, John Bell, Rebecca Gibney, Kat Stewart, Olivia DeJonge, John Waters, Tara Morice, Joel Edgerton, Sam Worthington, Brendan Cowell, Nancye Hayes, Tony Sheldon, Geraldine Turner, Paula Arundel, Susie Youssef, Pamela Rabe, Ruth Cracknell, John Bell, Garry McDonald, Jacki Weaver, Sarah Snook, Eryn-Jean Norvill, Zahra Newman, David Wenham, Miranda Otto, and Cate Blanchett. 

Sydney Theatre Company also actively cultivates relationships and collaborations with international artists and companies. Renowned directors like Michael Blakemore, Howard Davies, Declan Donnellan, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Liv Ullmann, Steven Soderbergh, Tom Creed, Rupert Goold, Nicholas Hynter, Annabel Arden and Tamás Ascher have worked with STC. STC has presented productions by or co-productions with Abbey Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre Portland, ATG Entertainment, Barbican Centre, Cheek by Jowl, Complicité, Curve Theatre, Gate Theatre, Global Creatures, Kindred Partners, Michael Cassel Group, National Theatre of Great Britain, Ontroerend Goed, Out‑of‑Joint, Royal Court Theatre, Singapore Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Traverse Theatre. 

The first Sydney Theatre Company production to tour internationally was Chicago to the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 1982. Subsequent works that toured internationally include Dracula to the West End's Noël Coward Theatre, The Picture of Dorian Gray to the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2024, and The Music Box Theatre on Broadway in 2025; The Present on Broadway, Hedda Gabler and A Streetcar Named Desire at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Uncle Vanya at the Lincoln Center Festival and the Kennedy Center, and The Maids at New York City Center; The Secret River to Edinburgh International Festival and at the National Theatre in London and Gross und Klein (Big and Small) and Waiting for Godot, at The Barbican Centre, London.   

Over the years, Sydney Theatre Company productions and artists have been recognised with numerous industry accolades including Helpmann, Green Room, Time Out and Sydney Theatre Awards and several Olivier and Tony Awards for touring productions. 

In all our work and practice, Sydney Theatre Company values creativity, quality, integrity, collaboration and accountability and seeks to maintain a sense of daring, curiosity and openness as we move forward to make more brilliant theatre to show the world.