Park Performing Arts Center

The story

The nation's longest-running passion play is performed here every year, on the same stage a German Catholic parish built in 1931 as an extension of Holy Family Church. The driving force was Msgr. Joseph Grieff, reputed to have a taste for theater. In 1983 the center became a non-profit, and what began as a church hall widened into something the neighborhood claimed entirely. Today it hosts local, national, and international artists, an embroidery museum, gallery spaces, and arts classes — programming shaped by the Hispanic culture of North Hudson County.