SO WHAT IF I LOVED YOU Opens in Jersey City, 8/21

Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC) presents 68 Productions' (68P) "So What If I Loved You," a multimedia one-woman show by Summer Dawn Hortillosa debuting next week at exciting new venue Merseles Studios.

"So What If I Loved You," which was highlighted in the New York Times and the Jersey Journal last week, runs Thursday through Saturday, August 21 to 23, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, August 24 at 7 p.m. at Merseles Studios, 339-345 Newark Ave. (at Merseles Street), Jersey City, NJ. Tickets are $12 in advance online and $15 at the door. They are available at SoWhatIfILovedYou.BrownPaperTickets.com.

The show, called SWIILY for short, is about a young woman haunted by memories of a lost lover. Unable to sleep, she remembers various incarnations of this man through two monologues and an original song. Hortillosa's sharp wit and sense of rhythm and poetry keeps this piece shifting -- quirky one minute, uproarious the next, sassy, then painful, then touching, then right in your gut.

SWIILY may be Hortillosa's brainchild, but it's also the work of several New Jersey and New York artists including director and 68P co-founder Liliane Wolf, director of photography Alex Pergament, video editor DeukYun Hwang. It also features "Lions," an original song by Hortillosa's band Wordsmith and Hammer, available for streaming and download on SoundCloud. And with a touch of modern dance thrown in, too, there's something for everyone.

The Asian-American playwright, director and actress burst onto the scene in 2012 with "Secrets; Love," a finalist in the Downtown Urban Theater Festival in New York City and is best known for "Kookspeak," her comedic one-woman show that toured regional festivals from 2012 to 2014.

Hortillosa's new show, SWIILY, will be one of the first major productions in Merseles Studios, an exciting new performance space and sister to White Eagle Hall, an 800-person music venue opening later this year.

For more information, visit SoWhatIfILovedYou.com. See a trailer: http://youtu.be/4QXs2QkB-V8.

There will also be an art exhibit inspired by themes in SWIILY. "The Nature of Love," a group art show curated by Joe Velez, opening this Thursday, Aug. 14 at 6 p.m. at Merseles Studios.

Jersey City Theater Center, Inc. (JCTC) manages Merseles Studio and the adjacent White Eagle Hall, due to open later this year. JCTC is a nonprofit, 501c3 arts organization committed to presenting innovative and progressive performing & visual arts as well as educational arts programs which embrace the multicultural identity and preserves the rich history of Jersey City, bringing its community closer together and enhancing its quality of life.

68 Productions is a for-profit theater company founded in 2012 which is dedicated to producing work by and for ethnically diverse people.

Pictured: Summer Dawn Hortillosa

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