Simon Stone’s THE CHERRY ORCHARD, Marina Abramović and More Set for Park Avenue Armory 2026 Season

Park Avenue Armory has revealed its 2026 season of multidisciplinary experiences from artists at the vanguard of dance, visual art, theater, music, and performance art. With highlights including North American and New York premieres from Marina Abramović, Steve Reich, Benjamin Millepied, Simon Stone, and Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, the 2026 season builds upon the Armory’s legacy of staging large-scale, boundary-defying performances and participatory audience experiences, while amplifying a diverse range of global artistic ideas and perspectives. Leveraging the 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall, these productions will surround audiences with artistry in unique and unexpected ways that defy categorization. In the Armory’s historic period rooms, the intimate Recital Series performances and Jason Moran-curated Artists Studio programs—the latter of which are celebrating their tenth-year anniversary—will showcase a variety of artistic talents across genres, including the world premiere of an Armory-commissioned composition by Tyshawn Sorey. In addition, Making Space at the Armory will spark dialogues on themes of democracy and freedom among leading artists, scholars, cultural figures, and audiences.

Wade Thompson Drill Hall programming launches in March with Romeo & Juliet Suite, a site-specific dance-drama by celebrated choreographer, director, and filmmaker Benjamin Millepied that reimagines Shakespeare’s tragic tale and Sergei Prokofiev’s iconic ballet through a contemporary lens. The piece exceeds the parameters of a traditional stage, with dancers performing throughout the Armory’s entire building. This immersive approach transforms the work into live cinema, broadcast on screen in the Drill Hall. With lead roles performed by different configurations of gender pairings for each performance, the piece breaks from stereotypical couple roles in a universal celebration of love.

In June, acclaimed artist, musician, and composer Céleste Boursier-Mougenot will present the largest iteration to date of his ongoing aquatic and musical installation clinamen. In the Drill Hall, Boursier-Mougenot will install a series of circular basins filled with water in which ceramic bowls, selected for their timbre and drift, float and gently collide to produce melodious chiming sounds. These physical and sonic configurations are constantly changing, creating a bespoke auditory experience that invites audiences to contemplate time and sound as both individual and collective experiences.

Following his Obie Award-winning take on Federico García Lorca’s Yerma (2018), director and dramatist Simon Stone returns to the Armory with the North American premiere of his radical, modern-day adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. The play features an all-star Korean ensemble, including Doyeon Jeon, winner of Best Actress at the 60th Cannes Film Festival for Secret Sunshine (2007), and Haesoo Park, Emmy-nominated for his role in the hit international TV show Squid Game. Set in Seoul and brought to life in a transparent glass house designed by celebrated architect Saul Kim, this tragicomedy offers audiences a voyeuristic view into the characters’ private lives as they navigate change and domestic conflict.

Trailblazing composer Steve Reich’s 1976 work Music for 18 Musicians made a massive impact, inspiring countless musicians across experimental music, rock, and contemporary electronic music. In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its premiere and the 90th birthday of the composer, dynamic conductor Alan Pierson will stage this masterpiece within the Drill Hall as a cycling, durational performance, enveloping audiences to reveal the intricate structure of the composition and its ecstatic energy. The piece is performed by new-music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, the original Steve Reich Ensemble, musicians from the Manhattan School of Music, and special guest artists.

To close the 2026 season, visionary performance artist Marina Abramović returns to the Armory following her transformative works The Life and Death of Marina Abramović (2013) and Goldberg (2015) to present her largest-scale performance work to date, Balkan Erotic Epic. Combining dance, song, and ritual, this four-hour immersive experience invites audiences to wander freely through the Drill Hall and experience dramatic adaptations of Balkan mythology and folklore enacted by a cast of 50 performers, including Abramović herself. The durational work merges traditional elements of performance with sensuality and eroticism, removing modern taboos to reclaim the body as a site of power, mystery, and transformation.

Over the course of the season, the Armory will present intimate performances, lectures, artist talks, and educational programs in its historic period rooms. The Board of Officers Room offers a home for classical and contemporary performances through the Armory’s Recital Series, including the world premiere of a new, evening-length percussion commission by musician Steven Schick and composer Tyshawn Sorey, in addition to concerts by Turkish pianist Fazıl Say, soprano leggero Liv Redpath with pianist Harry Rylance, Italian countertenor Carlo Vistoli with pianist Giulio Zappa, Beverly Sills Award-winning tenor Ben Bliss with pianist Christopher Allen, and mezzo-soprano Deepa Johnny with pianist Jonathan Ware.

Celebrating a decade of programming, the Artists Studio, curated by MacArthur Genius and Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Jason Moran, will continue performances in the Armory’s Veterans Room. Programs include a 10th-anniversary performance led by Moran and an ensemble of special guests including past series performers, as well as individual performances by composer and performance artist Joy Guidry, percussionist and composer Jamire Williams, musician and visual artist Raven Chacon, and director and sound artist IONE.

The Armory will host its fifth season of Making Space at the Armory, a series of conversations, panels, performances, symposia, and additional public engagements organized by Curator of Public Programming and Guggenheim fellow Tavia Nyong’o. Inspired by the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this season’s programs invite audiences into dialogue with contemporary artists, scholars, cultural leaders, and social trailblazers to explore themes of interdependence, freedom, censorship, and the cruciality of artistic expression in the current moment. Programming includes a salon on the challenges and risks of making art in the face of censorship and political backlash; a two-part convening with conversations, artist salons, interactive workshops, and performances that explore the United States’ 250th anniversary as a call to action for artistry and activism; a gathering of influential podcasters who will live record thought-provoking discussions on scientific topics and the power of storytelling; a convening of the company members of The Cherry Orchard to reflect on Asian American theater and the impact of Asian diasporic arts on U.S. culture; and additional conversations with artists Benjamin Millepied, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, Simon Stone, Steve Reich, and Marina Abramović.

As part of the Under Construction Series in January, Armory Artist-in-Residence Tina Satter and her company Half Straddle will present PETRA, a work-in-progress theatrical adaptation of The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in the Board of Officers Room. This intimate performance, set entirely in Petra’s apartment, explores contemporary notions of ambition, motherhood, domesticity, and desire. PETRA is presented in partnership with Under the Radar Festival.