By Sally Deering
Actors, playwrights, choreographers, musicians – artists who have longed for a new performance venue in Jersey City will be happy to learn two new spaces are opening up on Newark Ave: Merseles Studios on the second floor of the Monaco Lock building, and White Eagle Hall which is being renovated from a Turn-of-The 20th Century meeting hall to a space for rock ‘n’ roll just like Hoboken’s former icon Maxwell’s.
Together, Merseles Studios and White Eagle Hall stand under the umbrella of the newly-formed Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC), which is under the leadership of Artistic Director Olga Levina and Executive Director Ben LoPiccolo – both married to the project and each other. The couple’s dream of offering Jersey City artists new performance venues to express their art is a personal as well as professional achievement and the beginning of a journey that will likely be as interesting as the artists performing there.
