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