Walter Meierjohann

Walter Meierjohann is a Director, Artistic Director and Lecturer (previously Guest Professor for Theatre at MMU.)

He was born in Amsterdam and grew up in Holland, America and Germany. He studied Directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Arts, Berlin and French Literature at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford.

Walter was the Artistic Director of NEUBAU, the international new writing line at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, International Associate Director at the Young Vic Theatre, London and Artistic Director at HOME: Theatre in Manchester until 2019. 

At HOME, Walter directed the inaugural production of The Funfair (Simon Stephens/Odon von Horvath),  The Emperor (a co-production between the Young Vic, HOME and Theatre de la Ville, Luxembourg with a revival at TFANA, New York in September 2018),  Uncle Vanya and the site-specific production of Romeo and Juliet in The Victoria Baths (Manchester).

Before joining HOME in 2013, Walter Meierjohann was International Associate Director at the Young Vic in London. There, his productions included the European premiere of In the Red and Brown Water by Tarell Alvin McCraney and Kafka’s Monkey starring award-winning actress Kathryn Hunter. This acclaimed production toured worldwide to Sydney, Melbourne, Athens, Paris, Istanbul, Tokyo, Taipei and New York. 

In 2020 Walter co-created the celebrated audio and light installation Blindness based on the novel by Jose Saramago in an adaptation by Simon Stephens and featuring the voice of Juliet Stevenson.  The project was initially presented at the Donmar Warehouse before a world tour to Carre Theatre Amsterdam, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Galway Arts Festival,  Princess of Wales Theatre Toronto, Teatro de los Insurgentes, Daryl Roth Theatre New York, Adelaide Festival and Esplanade Theatre Singapore.  A live version was later presented at the Carre Theatre starring Juliet Stevenson.

Walter has worked extensively in Germany and the UK at theatres including The Young Vic, The Barbican,  Residenztheater Munich, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Schauspiel Graz; Theater Freiburg, The Sophiensaele and Arena, Berlin, for Peter Stein’s Faust Ensemble and the renowned Impulse Theatre Festival. 

In Opera, he has assisted the late Klaus-Michael Grueber in his productions of Aida (Nederlands Opera, Amsterdam) and Don Giovanni (Ruhrfestspiele).