Park Avenue Armory Appoints Deborah Warner as New Artistic Director
Photo by Stephanie Berger
After the death of Pierre Audi last year, Park Avenue Armory appoints world-renowned British director Deborah Warner as Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director.
Warner has defied an extensive scope of art with celebrated works in theater, opera, classical music, and hybrid productions, serving as Resident Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and becoming the first woman to win an Olivier Award for Best Director, before joining the National Theatre as Associate Director.
The Last September, Photographs from Scala Thunder Productions (1999)
In Park Armory’s announcement, notes Warner’s “passion for outside-the-box thinking and a fascination with the power of “found” spaces have also guided her artistic trajectory. This decades-long commitment to reimagining space—industrial, urban, architectural, or forgotten—makes her uniquely aligned with the scale, patina, and unconventional beauty of the Armory.”
Warner has directed Fiona Shaw in 18 productions, including the stage and BBC versions of Hedda Gabler, Richard II (with Fiona Shaw in the title role), the Tony-nominated and Drama Desk–winning Medea, the Drama Desk-nominated Happy Days, the film The Last September, and more. She has worked with many other notable artists, including Glenda Jackson (King Lear), Ralph Fiennes, Simon Russell Beale (Julius Caesar), and Bruno Ganz (Coriolanus), among others.
Wozzeck, Royal Opera House, London (2023)
Renowned for her work in opera, including productions of Berg’s Wozzeck, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, performed at major opera houses around the world. In 2026, Warner will direct productions at The Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Royal Ballet and Opera, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Recent productions include acclaimed revivals of The Turn of the Screw at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Winterreise at Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet in Paris, both of which opened in the fall of 2025.
Read Park Avenue Armory’s official statement and full accolades of Warner here.
Writer and Editor-in-Chief: Karlye Whitt
