Meissner was born in
Warsaw in 1933, the daughter of Alfred Meissner, a dental surgeon, Home Army soldier and a doctor in the Warsaw Uprising. She studied
Polish at the
University of Warsaw before studying Direction at Warsaw's State Academy of Theatre. She rose to be the artistic director of the W. Horzyca Theatre in
Toruń where she launched the international festival named Kontakt. In time this festival would see leading
German directors debuting their work in
Poland including
Thomas Ostermeier,
Christoph Marthaler and
Sasha Waltz. In 1994, she was the laureate in the theatre category for the
Paszport Polityki award in its second year of operation. In 1997, her abilities were recognised when she became the director of Poland's most important theatre, the
National Stary Theatre, which was founded in 1781. Her term there was difficult and within a year she left at the request of the actors. At the beginning of 1999, she was in
Wrocław working in the "Teatr Współczesny" (contemporary theatre), and organising the "Dialog Theatre festival". In 2000, she directed "Family Situations" by
Biljana Srbljanović; the following year she directed "Bulwar Comedy" by Oliver Bukowski. Later plays she directed were by
Tadeusz Miciński and
Juliusz Słowacki. She was a member of the judging team to find the leading theatre director for the European Theatre Awards which are held annually in Taormina. ==Awards==