Alice Williams is a Sydney based independent artist working between socially engaged theatre projects, devised performances, and research, whose collaborations, performances and papers have been presented locally, interstate, and internationally.Her 2010 solo performance The Seagull, based on Chekhov's naturalist classic, telling the story of a bird's life in art, has been performed at Tamarama Rock Surfer's Theatre Company, Brisbane Festival, Performance Space, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Petit Théâtre du BonHeur Paris, and Proekt_Fabrika Moscow. Her 2012 verbatim performance Impossible Plays reimagined our social lives based on the fantasies of four strangers, a drag king, Arente watercolour artist, a street poet, and a Tarot card reader.
Impossible Plays was commissioned for the Next Wave Festival's Kickstart Program, and was performed at Arts House, Melbourne, with videos shown at Federation Square and Footscray Community Centre. The show toured subsequently to the PACT Theatre's Tiny Stadiums Festival and to Crack Theatre Festival.
Since 2011 she has facilitated workshops and directed projects for local socially engaged theatre companies including Milk Crate Theatre Company, Big hArt inc., Shopfront Arts Centre, Powerhouse Youth Theatre, NIDA Open and Twenty10. In 2018 she directed On The Edge for Milk Crate Theatre, a collaboration with Evolve Youth Housing for youth at risk of homelessness, which was presented at Parramatta Riverside. In 2018 she produced Changing the Tune: songs, theatres and social transformations, a conference workshop and barter in partnership with the Caravan Next Project a European network of social community theatres hosting partners from this network in Sydney. Since 2015 she has facilitated workshops for adults with intellectual disabilities at NIDA Open and Different Degrees theatre ensemble where she is the current artistic director.
In 2020 she completed her PhD through practical research with historic Denmark based intercultural theatre Laboratory Odin Teatret – Nordisk Theatrelaboratorium (NTL), graduating from the University of Sydney where she has coordinated teaching for two undergraduate courses Silent to Sound Cinema and Cross Cultural Perspectives on Film, as a tutor and lecturer in the Department of Art History and Film over four consecutive years.
Her practice has been supported by the Australia Council of the Arts, the Ian Potter Foundation, Kath O'Niel Fellowship, Doctoral Research Travel Grants Scheme, Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, the Australian Postgraduate Award, the City of Sydney Arts and Cultural Grants among other grants and fellowships.
In 2021 she formed The Institute of Luck, through which she pursues her interest in performance as a form of transformation between theatre and everyday life.