Return Engagement of Liza Birkenmeier's GRIEF HOTEL is Coming to The Public

Clubbed Thumb will present a return engagement of Grief Hotel, written by Liza Birkenmeier and directed by Tara Ahmadinejad. Grief Hotel will be presented in partnership with New Georges and in residence at The Public Theater. Performances begin in The Shiva Theater, at The Public on Wednesday March 20, with opening night scheduled for Wednesday, March 27 for a run through Saturday April 20, 2024.

Birkenmeier and Ahmadinejad received a Special Citation from the Obie Awards for Grief Hotel. The design collective dots received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence for their work, including the 2023 Summerworks engagement of Grief Hotel.

Loss is fast, but grief is slow. Aunt Bobbi's going to try to make everyone feel better, even though her parties are cursed.

“The response to Grief Hotel during Summerworks was deep, visceral—mine included,” said Clubbed Thumb artistic director Maria Striar. “We knew we needed to share this work with more people, and are excited to make our debut at The Public with the help of our good friend New Georges.“

“We were bowled over by Grief Hotel when we saw it at Summerworks, and excited for Liza and Tara, two artists we hold dear,” said New Georges artistic director/producer Susan Bernfield. “It's been way too long since we've worked with Clubbed Thumb, our closest peers for more than two decades. We're so happy this gorgeous collaboration brought us the opportunity.”

The cast of Grief Hotel includes Nadine Malouf (she/her, Montag - Obie Award) as “Em,” Ana Nogueira (she/her, Which Way to the Stage) as “Winn,” Naren Weiss (he/him, Letters of Suresh) as “Rohit,” Obie Award-winner Susannah Perkins (they/them, The Good John Proctor) as “Teresa,” Susan Blommaert (she/her, “Dead Ringers”) as “Aunt Bobbi,” and Bruce McKenzie (he/him, SHIPWRECK) as “Asher.”

Grief Hotel features scenic design by dots (Appropriate, An Enemy of the People), costume design by Mel Ng (she/her, California), lighting design by Masha Tsimring (she/her, Terce), and sound design & composition by Jordan McCree (Empathitrax).

Performances will run Monday through Friday at 7:30pm and Saturday at 3:00pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are $65.

Grief Hotel originally premiered as part of the 2023 Summerworks festival of new plays. Highlights from the previous 26 festivals include the NYC premieres of Gina Gionfriddo, Jordan Harrison, Lisa D'Amour, and Sarah Ruhl; professional debuts of Jaclyn Backhaus, Will Arbery, Clare Barron, Rinne Groff, and  Susan Soon He Stanton, and premieres by Anne Washburn, Jenny Schwartz, Ethan Lipton, Sheila Callaghan, Tanya Saracho, and Heidi Schreck. Many of these artists continue to make Clubbed Thumb an artistic home.

Clubbed Thumb made its Broadway debut in 2019 with Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me, the most produced play of this season which premiered at the 2017 Summerworks festival, in partnership with True Love Productions. Clubbed Thumb's second anthology, Unusual Stories, Unusually Told, was published in 2021 by Methuen Drama / Bloomsbury.

Liza Birkenmeier

Liza Birkenmeier's recent work includes F*ck7thGrade with Jill Sobule (Wild Project), Islander with KATIE BROOK (HERE), Honestly Sincere (TiQ), Please Welcome Our Guest with Trish Harnetiaux (MTC Snapshot Series), and Dr. Ride's American Beach House (Ars Nova.) Liza is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and a Macdowell and Yaddo Fellow. She is an alum of Play Group, Playwrights Realm, and EWG, and was the 2019 Tow Playwright-in-Residence at Ars Nova. 

Tara Ahmadinejad

Tara Ahmadinejad is a director and co-founder of the live arts collective Piehole. Most recently, she directed Mourning // Morning by Gelsey Bell (Prototype Festival, HERE Arts Center, NY Times Critic's Pick) and Lunch Bunch by Sarah Einspanier (PlayCo, Clubbed Thumb, NY Times Critic's Pick). With Piehole, she has directed and co-authored boundary-pushing live art for theaters, galleries, and digital spaces, including collaborations with the LA-based Tender Claws in AR and VR: Tendar (Sundance 2018) and The Under Presents (Oculus, Sundance 2019, Emmy Finalist). Piehole's recent work includes Christmas Mountain, a media installation at WNYC's The Greene Space, and Disclaimer (Drama League Award Nominee, NYC Women's Fund), written/performed by Ahmadinejad, which premiered at The Public's Under the Radar 2021. Other recent directing includes digital collaborations with Satoko Ichihara (Japan Society), Eliza Bent (New Georges), Rinne Groff (Clubbed Thumb), and Scarlett Kim (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Resident Futurist at Pig Iron; NYTW Usual Suspect; New Georges Affiliated Artist; MFA Columbia University.

Tickets are on sale now at publictheater.org, by calling 212.967.7555 or by visiting The Public's Taub Box Office during regular business hours.

Photo credit: Marcus Middleton

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