Welcome new Associate Artist Caroline Williams
9 Jun 2025
Bristol Old Vic today announced the second Associate Artist to join their two-year rolling Associate Scheme will be multi-disciplinary director Caroline Williams.
Refreshed in March 2024, Bristol Old Vic's Associates initiative welcomes collaborations with artists and companies from across the South West.
Year One involves the Associate Artist engaging with the creative functions of Bristol Old Vic, while Year Two will allow the Associate Artist to focus on the development of their own practice. Saikat Ahamed was welcomed as the first Associate Artist and today, Bristol Old Vic is delighted to announce award-winning director and social/environmental activist Caroline is joining him as part of the scheme from June.
We caught up with her earlier this month to get to know her a little better...
When did you decide you wanted a career in theatre?
I didn’t grow up surrounded by books and we never went to the theatre, except for the occasional musical at Christmas (which I loved). It wasn’t until secondary that my school offered drama classes and unlike in most other subjects I remember my usually very busy mind going silent and still every time the lesson started. In terms of a career, I think the clearest moment was on a school trip to Ireland. We saw a play at The Abbey Theatre called, A Whistle in the Dark, by Tom Murphy. It’s about an Irish family immigrating to England and how the violence of their life back home pursues the family however hard some of them try to escape it. As we all sat hushed in the dark, an elderly Irish man stood up towards the end, pointed his finger towards the stage and shaking with feeling shouted, ‘Rubbish! Rubbish!’. In my mind, he was saying ‘no, that’s not what should happen, that’s not the Irish people I know.’ I snuck away from my school group after the show and stood by the river and made a promise to myself that I was going to work in theatre. It was the proof I was looking for to say theatre matters - how you represent people on stage does actually matter.
What is it about theatre that creatively resonates with you?
I’ve always loved words. What they can do and the images they can conjure up. Other friends would hide if we had to read out loud in class but my hands would start shaking because the idea of reading out loud was so exciting. I wanted to see what pictures the words would make. I love that theater, even when it’s a finished art work, still happens in the present tense and that it can be used to do so many different things. I’ve made work with people in their nineties, with teenagers from three different countries performing simultaneously using live tech, with contemporary dancers, with a Syrian filmmaker navigating a war and with some of the best actors in the country. I’ve made work inside a cardboard box and on some of the biggest stages in the UK. The scope and breadth of that within one art form is exciting.
How did you make your dream a reality?
It’s been a long journey of doing almost every job you can do. Saying yes to anything and anybody who would have me and pay me. I worked as a props lady in a theatre in South Africa for eight months, I’ve written, directed and acted. Spot me in Holby City and Casualty in 2009. When I decided I wanted to focus on directing I wrote letters to lots of people who didn’t reply and to one or two who did. I even approached Katie Mitchell, (one of my favourite directors), in a cafe when I was twenty-three and embarrassed myself by interrupting her coffee asking if she needed an assistant. She was polite but not really sure how to react to this overtly keen stranger. While I chipped away at getting more experience I always continued making my own work. I sought out peers and buildings who would be into the work I wanted to make. I asked anyone who would to send me their Arts Council England (ACE) applications, so I could see how you actually write one. The first time I got a yes from ACE I burst into tears. It felt like a sign that I was following the right path and it was possible to have the financial freedom to concentrate on making performance. Then came the Young Vic Jerwood Assistant Director’s Programme, run by Sue Emmas. That programme was key to learning how professional theatre actually gets made and opened a lot of doors that had previously felt far too heavy to open.
What are you most proud of?
Putting the first ever community show out in front of a sold out audience at The Coliseum or a recent reading at the National Theatre of a play I’ve written. But it’s always the ripples that last longer than the show itself that feel the most meaningful. My Syrian collaborator from our work, Now Is The Time To Say Nothing ( The Young Vic/ MAYK ), Reem Karssli, used our show in her immigration hearing which helped her get permanent asylum in Germany. In 2019, I met the then thirteen year old Hasan Patel in Tower Hamlets as part of our show You Do Not Have to Say Anything (The Yard). It was a special show in which I visited Tower Hamlets for over a year to make a piece about some of the resident’s relationship to being policed. Hasan hadn’t spoken in public before. We worked hard and by the end of the show Hasan was easily holding the stage on his own. He went on to become a leading voice in the young Labour movement and continues to dedicate his life to activism. That made me very proud.
Tell us what you love most about Bristol?
There is so much I love about Bristol. The history of activism, the food culture, the museums and the access to beautiful green spaces. People in Bristol know how to come together, whether that’s to say no to something or to dance in the streets. I first came to Bristol to work with artists from Interval in 2016. I was so inspired then by the multitude of artist-led spaces that existed in the city. Artists were everywhere, contributing to civic life in a way that was visible and important. It felt like it was possible to explore and create here and that organisations like MAYK were putting Bristol on the map as a leader in contemporary practice. I love the tenacity of everyone who is continuing to hold a torch for that spirit, even though times are so much harder now. I know Bristol will lead the way in whatever is next.
