Scenographer and lighting designer Jan Versweyveld received his training at the Sint Lucas Institute in Brussels and at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. In the 1980s, he and Ivo van Hove were two of the founders of the Flemish theatre groups Akt/Vertikaal and Toneelproducties De Tijd. During this time they worked with some of the most remarkable theatre people in the Low Countries. Jan Versweyveld became the regular scenographer of Eindhoven’s Zuidelijk Toneel theatre group in 1990. In 2001 he made the switch to Toneelgroep Amsterdam, where he became the head of scenography and the group’s regular designer. He worked on productions of Angels in America, Cries and whispers, Rocco and his brothers, the Antonioni project, La voix humaine, Teorema, Summer trilogy, Children of the Sun, And We'll Never Be Parted, The Miser, The Russians!, Husbands, Macbeth, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Danton's Dead, The Fountainhead and Mary Stuart.

Jan Versweyveld has been a guest lecturer at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and is one of the co-founders of the scenography training programme in Antwerp. He has been responsible for designing the scenes and lighting for a wide variety of theatre productions, ranging from the classics (Sophocles, Euripides, Shakespeare and Marlowe), to modern plays (Williams, O’Neill, Camus, Mauriac, Genet and Sontag). His oeuvre includes theatre, dance (ROSAS) and opera: Lulu and the complete Ring des Nibelungen by the Flemish Opera, I due Foscari by the Munt Opera, Fidelio at L’Opéra Palais Garnier and De zaak Makropulos, La clemenza di Tito and Iolanta by the Netherlands Opera. In addition to his work with Ivo van Hove and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, he has also collaborated with many internationally renowned directors, including Johan Simons and Pierre Audi.

He won the Bessie Award in New York for his scenography for Drumming Live, and he received the OBIE Award for Hedda Gabler. In 2008, he received the Prosceniumprijs, a Dutch theatre prize, together with Ivo van Hove. In 2015 he received the Amsterdam Award for the Arts for proven quality (with Ivo van Hove) and in 2016 the Knight of Illumination Award for Song from Far Away.

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WORK OUTSIDE TONEELGROEP AMSTERDAM

2017 - Salome
by Richard Strauss | De Nederlandse Opera

2016 - Hedda Gabler
by Henrik Ibsen | National Theatre

2016 - The Damned
by Luchino Visconti | La Comédie-Française, Paris

2016 - The Crucible
by Arthur Miller | New York

2016 - La Clemenza di Tito
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Teatr Wielki, Polish National Opera

2015 - Lazarus
by Enda Walsh | New York Theatre Workshop

2015 - A view from the bridge
by Arthur Miller | Lyceum Theatre, New York

2015 - Vu du pont
by Arthur Miller | L'Odéon, Paris

2015 - A view from the bridge
by Arthur Miller | Wyndham's Theatre, London

2014 - Scenes from a Marriage
by Ingmar Bergman | New York Theatre Workshop

2014 - A view from the bridge
by Arthur Miller | Young Vic

2014 - Brokeback Mountain
libretto by Annie Proulx, music by Charles Wuorinen | Teatro Real 

2013 - La Clemenza di Tito
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | De Munt Opera, Brussels

2013 - Seltsames Intermezzo
by Eugene O'Neill | Münchner Kammerspiele

2013 - Mazeppa
by Pjotr I. Tschaikowski | Komische Oper Berlin

2012 - Macbeth
by Giuseppe Verdi | L'Opéra de Lyon

2012 - Der Schatzgräber
by Franz Schreker | De Nederlandse Opera

2012 - Boris Godunov
by Modest Moessorgski | Teatro Real

2011 - Edward II
by Christopher Marlowe | Schaubühne Berlin 

2011 - Ludwig II
by Luchino Visconti | Münchner Kammerspiele

2010 - Der Menschenfeind
by Molière | Schaubühne Berlin

2010 - The Little Foxes
by Lillian Hellman | New York Theatre Workshop

2010 - Idomeneo, Re di Creta
by Mozart | De Munt Opera, Brussels

2008 - Kameliendame
by Alexandre Dumas fils | coproduction TA with Schauspielhaus Hamburg

2008 - Der Ring des Nibelungen, Götterdammerung
by Richard Wagner | The Flemish Opera

2008 - Fidelio
by Ludwig van Beethoven | Opéra national de Paris

2007 - Der Ring des Nibelungen, Siegfried
by Richard Wagner | The Flemish Opera

2007 - The misanthrope
by Molière | New York Theatre Workshop

2007 - Der Ring des Nibelungen, die Walküre
by Richard Wagner | The Flemish Opera

2006 - Der Geizige (The Miser)
by Molière | Schauspielhaus Hamburg

2006 - Der Ring des Nibelungen, das Rheingold
by Richard Wagner | The Flemish Opera

2006 - Intra Muros
by Peter Verhelst | Muziektheater Transparant, coproductie Toneelgroep Amsterdam

2005 - Faces
by John Cassavetes | Theater der Welt, coproduction with Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Staatstheater Stuttgart

2004 - Hedda Gabler
by Henrik Ibsen | New York Theatre Workshop

2004 - Rain Ragas - Love Supreme
Rosas | Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

2004 - Iolanta
by Pjotr Tchaikovsky | De Nederlandse Opera

2003 - La Clemenza di Tito
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | De Nederlandse Opera

2002 - De zaak Macropulos (The Macropulos Case)
by Leos Janácek | De Nederlandse Opera

2002 - I due Foscari
by Giuseppe Verdi | Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

2002 - Bitches Brew - Tacoma Narrows
Rosas | Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

2001 - April me
Rosas | Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

2001 - Repertoire evening
Rosas

2000 - Rain
Rosas | Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

2000 - Small hands (out of the lie of no)
Rosas | Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

2000 - Alice in Bed
by Susan Sontag | New York Theatre Workshop, coproduction Zuidelijk Toneel/Holland Festival

2000 - Rent
by Jonathan Larson | Joop van den Ende Theater Productions

1999 - Lulu
by Alban Berg (after Wedekind) | The Flemish Opera

1999-2000 - La Dame aux Camélias (Kamliendame)
by Alexandre Dumas | Zuidelijk Toneel

1999 - Hard Brood
by Paul Claudel | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1999 - The Lisbon piece
Companhia Nacional do Bailado, Portugal

1998 - De Kus van de Spinvrouw
by Manuel Puig | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1998 - Faust
by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1998-1999 - India Song
by Marguerite Duras | Zuidelijk Toneel, coproduction with Holland Festival

1998 - A Streetcar Named Desire
by Tennessee Williams | New York Theatre Workshop

1997-1998 Romeo and Juliet: A study of a drowning body
by Peter Verhelst after Shakespeare | Zuidelijk Toneel, coproduction with Holland Festival

1997 - Just before
Rosas | Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

1997 - Drumming
Rosas | Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

1996 - Flirt
by Arthur Schnitzler | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1996 - Lucifer
by Joost van den Vondel | Het Zuidelijk Toneel, coproducent Compagnie De Koe

1996-1997 - Faces (Koppen)
by John Cassavetes | Zuidelijk Toneel, coproduction with Holland Festival

1996-1997 - Les Mal Aimés
by François Mauriac | Zuidelijk Toneel

1995-1996 - Caligula
by Albert Camus | Zuidelijk Toneel

1996 - More Stately Mansions
by Eugene O’Neill | New York Theatre Workshop

1995 - Gier unter Ulmen (Desire under the Elms)
by Eugene O’Neill | Staatstheater Stuttgart

1995 - De Cenci
by Percey Shelley | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1995 - La Géometrie de l’Abîme
Compagnie Claudio Bernardo

1994 - Agatha
by Marguerite Duras | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1994 - Phaedra
by Hugo Claus | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1994 - Amor constante mas alla de la muerte
Rosas | Theatre Royal de la Monnaie

1994-1995 - A Streetcar Named Desire (Tramlijn begeerte)
by Tennessee Williams | Zuidelijk Toneel

1994-1995 - Splendid's
by Jean Genet | Zuidelijk Toneel

1993-1994 - More Stately Mansions (Rijkemanshuis)
by Eugene O'Neill | Zuidelijk Toneel, coproduction Holland Festival

1993 - Die Bakchen (The Bacchae)
by Euripides | Schauspielhaus Hamburg

1993 - Decadence
by Steven Berkoff | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1992 - Abele Spelen
Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1992-1993 - Hamlet
by William Shakespeare | Zuidelijk Toneel, coproduction Antwerp European Cultural Capital 1993

1992-1993 - Saved (Gered)
by Edward Bond | Zuidelijk Toneel

1991-1992 - Desire under the Elms (Begeerte onder de olmen)
by Eugene O'Neill | Zuidelijk Toneel

1991-1992 - It's a pity she’s a whore
by John Ford | Zuidelijk Toneel

1991 - De eenzame weg
by Arthur Schnitzler | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1991 - Thyestes
by Hugo Claes | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1990 - La Passion de Gilles
by Pierre Mertens | Het Zuidelijk Toneel

1990-1991 - Ajax/Antigone
by Sophocles | Zuidelijk Toneel

1990-1991 - South
by Julien Green | Zuidelijk Toneel

1989-1990 - Richard II
by William Shakespeare | Theater van het Oosten

1989-1990 - Jakow Bogomolow
by Maxim Gorky | De Tijd

1989-1990 - Lulu
by Frank Wedekind | De Tijd, coproduction Toneelgroep Amsterdam

1988-1989 - Mourning Becomes Electra
by Eugene O'Neill | Zuidelijk Toneel

1988-1989 - Don Carlos
by Friedrich von Schiller | De Tijd

1988 - Congo
by Paul Pourveur | Toneelproducties De Tijd

1987 - Pan
by Charles van Lerberghe | Toneelproducties De Tijd

1987-1988 - Dans la solitude des champs de coton
by Bernard-Marie Koltès | De Tijd

1987-1988 - Macbeth
by William Shakespeare | De Tijd

1986-1987 - The Bacchae
by Euripides | akt/vertikaal

1985-1986 - Russian Gambit
by Heiner Müller | akt/vertikaal

1985-1986 - ImitationS
akt/vertikaal (group project)

1985 - Ghetto
by Joshua Sobol | Zuidelijk Toneel Globe

1985 - Boom in de tropen
by Yukio Mishima | Akt/Vertikaal

1984-1985 - India Song
by Marguerite Duras | akt/vertikaal

1984-1985 - Miracles of Humanity
akt/vertikaal (group project)

1984-1985 - Wild Men
akt/vertikaal (group project)

1983-1984 - Morocco
by Botho Strauss | Akt

1983-1984 - Agatha
by Marguerite Duras | Akt

1982-1983 - The Servant
by Harold Pinter | Vertikaal

1982-1983 - Like in the War (Als in de oorlog)
by Sophocles/Gie Laenen (as part of Europalia) | Akt

1981-1982 - Germs (Ziektekiemen)
by Ivo van Hove | Akt

1981-1982 - Rumours (Geruchten)
by Ivo van Hove | Akt