The Park Avenue Armory’s Deborah Warner On Sidestepping Genre and Embracing Collision

The Park Avenue Armory is well-loved by the denizens of the art world. It’s the site of numerous art fairs and can’t-miss programming like Anne Imhof’s DOOM: House of Hope. Earlier this month, the esteemed institution named Deborah Warner as its new artistic director. Warner comes to the Armory from the U.K., where she has done award-winning work in theater, opera and experimental stagings. We caught up with her to hear about her plans for the Upper East Side.

Congratulations on the new gig! What excites you most about it?

There is nowhere like the Armory in Europe, and is there anything to surpass it in the world? To be programming for this unique and remarkable space, building on the extraordinary work of the past two decades, is a dream. It is therefore an immense excitement and privilege to be in a position to approach artists across disciplines—musicians, actors, visual artists, dancers, singers, performance artists and more—with an invitation to create boundary-defying work that could not be staged anywhere else in the city.

The huge Drill Hall awaits the act of multiple transformations, and in addition, the remarkable set of satellite rooms offers the excitement of smaller performances—world-class recitalists and performers offering programs side by side with younger, less established practitioners. A cocktail of possibilities and excitements for an artistic director.

What are some of your early priorities for this role? What are some of the first things you’d like to change or expand?

An immediate priority is to finalize the 2027 season. There are some very exciting projects and commissions already in place programmed by Pierre Audi—and in the next few months the entire season must be complete. I will seek to continue the balance between theater, opera, dance, installation, visual/performance art and music so successfully found by the Armory. I intend to explore with artists the possibility of overlaps between these forms and relish them when they are found.

You’re coming to the Armory from the Ustinov Studio at Theatre Royal Bath. What would you say you learned in that position?

I have spent a career making my own work in theater, opera and installation. With the artistic directorship of the Ustinov, a new world of producing and commissioning opened up to me. Without that new appetite, I would not be here now. Whilst it is absurd to consider the two spaces together—one the size of a postage stamp, the other bigger than an aircraft hangar—my program at the Ustinov had a cross-discipline programming ambition at its heart, and the need for excellence and attention.

The programming at the Armory can range from concerts to plays and performance art—one of my favorite shows there consisted of sound installations by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. What are the challenges of having such a diverse remit when it comes to programming?

I see it more as an opportunity than anything else. Whilst my working discipline has been theater, song-cycle, oratorio, opera and installation work, my passion as an audience member is often found in dance and visual art; where these disciplines merge and overlap is where the ‘new’ lies. That’s one of the great strengths and challenges of the Armory—finding and commissioning these hybrids.

What place does durational work have in a world dominated by social media feeds and streaming?

COVID-19 taught many how lonely they were once the habit of social interaction was taken away. Fascinatingly, the young are beginning to turn off their social media platforms—conscious of the frustrations and isolation they begin to feel there. In the past hundred years, congregational places—such as churches—and communal ritual have become fewer and fewer. More and more are seeking meaningful moments of shared experience and interactive ones at that. It’s a good time for performance in that regard. Great or even good work is never measured by a clock.

The Armory has a rich history for the city, the neighborhood and the nation. How do you intend to work with these aspects of its history in your programming?

To include the magnificence of this building within the programming is crucial. The space is so powerful that to ignore it on any level is to risk defeat. The Drill Hall becomes a cast member in the creations here, so in a way every act of programming embraces and showcases the building: the space itself is the starting point for every artist. Anyone coming here for the first time is immediately engaged by the building and wants to know its history. As time goes on, I will learn more and more of the history of the building and hopefully create programming specifically inspired by that story.

What’s been some of your favorite past programming at the Park Avenue Armory? Why did it stand out?

One of the more remarkable things about the Armory is how vividly people recount the experience of seeing a live performance work there. It is as if the visual thrill of the building and the event within it is burnt on their retina, and they become animated and excited storytellers. For that reason, I can list some experiences that I didn’t actually see, for I can imagine them in my mind’s eye. One such example is the now-famous Lincoln Center Festival/Armory production of Die Soldaten; another is the great visual artist Christian Boltanski’s installation No Man’s Land; another is Richard Jones’ thrilling and hugely memorable The Hairy Ape; another is Marina Abramovic’s and Igor Levit’s Goldberg. Really too many to mention here—everyone has their favorites.

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