Sara Roosevelt Park Project

Theater for the community,by the community,in the community

How It Began...

In September 2022, Remote Theater Project produced "Embrace the Tangle" as part of Little Amal Walks NYC, a project involving over 1,000 community members in the Lower East Side/Chinatown. The event was a celebration of diverse communities coming together to welcome newcomers, like Little Amal, a Syrian refugee. How can we continue build on this experience to connect diverse groups of people who share the same public space? From this question, The Sara Roosevelt Park project was born.

Hear about the project from RTP founder Alex Aron:

Phase 1: “Getting to know each other”

Spring 2023

RTP held workshops with 3 different community groups around SDR Park.

Chinese Seniors (@ BRC & Open Door Senior Center)
Unhoused Community (with CITY RELIEF)
New Migrant/Asylum-seekers (with NAICA)

Hear more about phase 1 in this video produced by a student from Avenues the World School.

Phase 2: Workshops

Fall 2023

In collaboration with the community RTP was able to hold workshops to generate materials that would be used to write our production.

We worked with each community separately to foster connections and understanding in order to develop a play that was true to the people of the park.

Without these workshops we would not have been able to tell true stories about real people.

Phase 3: Writing

Winter 2023/24

After months of gathering information from all three communities, we started the writing process with Carmen Rivera.

Carmen gathered stories from the workshops and started to craft a play about some of the residents. This process was filled with referring notes and contacting the people we are writing about. We wanted them involved in the process, this way their stories were accurate and detailed.

Additionally, we were able to feature the writings of Ryon a talented writer and visual artist, who wrote the Litter Ninja Island sections.

Phase 4: Rehearsal & Production!

Spring 2024

After the writing process came to an area where we felt ready to bring in actors. we started our rehearsals. On our very first day we were able to welcome Ryon to a cold reading of the entire play.

At a later day we were able to bring in Kareli one of the people we based our play on. She brought her children who are also featured, and they truly felt the work our actors put in and appreciated the way we were telling their story.

After many weeks of rehearsals, we were ready to put on our show. We had a true community involved with our show who came out and supported the play.

Community members such as Bob, and Ryon came to watch the play. We had the support of Inside Change from within, with us creating murals from the scenes and surroundings.