Park Avenue Armory has announced the appointment of Deborah Warner as its Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director.

Warner is a well-pknown director in theater, opera, and unexpected stagings for more than four decades. She launched her career in 1980 when she founded the Kick Theatre Company, staging works by Shakespeare, Brecht, and Büchner, which forged her reputation as a powerful reinventor of the classics.

She then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as Resident Director, becoming the first woman to win an Olivier Award for Best Director for her production. She has stage opera at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Among her productions include Berg’s “Wozzeck,” Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” and Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw.”

Warner was named a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2006 and was made a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2013.

In a statement regarding her new position Warner said, “I have always been inspired by the artistic potential of the Armory, the epitome of an unconventional space, where artists are prompted to think boldly, innovate, and work at scale. It is a rare institution that welcomes ambition in this way, and I am tremendously excited to contribute to its extraordinary trajectory.”

“The powerful combination of artistic rigor and daring imagination have solidified Deborah Warner’s standing as one of the most innovative and influential directors working today. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated the highest level of excellence, with a proven track record of celebrated works in theater and many other genres, including opera, classical music, and adventurous hybrid productions. She has a trailblazing approach to bringing new meaning to Shakespeare and other beloved classics, such as her productions of Richard II and King Lear, a passion for outside-the-box thinking, and a fascination with the power of “found” spaces. All of this aligns precisely with the Armory’s own artistic vision, which demands high-quality, imaginative, and unconventional thinking to provide those memorable ‘only at the Armory’ experiences that continue to attract our audiences,” added, Rebecca Robertson, Adam R. Flatto Founding President and Executive Producer of Park Avenue Armory.

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