Photos: EVERYBODY HAS A STORY TO TELL to Activate Lower East Side Gardens This Spring

Photos by Paul McGeiver.

Activating Lower East Side community gardens on weekends this May, see first look photos of Remote Theater Project's free interactive community play EVERYBODY HAS A STORY TO TELL, an original work by Obie Award-winning playwright Carmen Rivera.

Having performed May 16 and 17 at M'Finda Kalunga Garden, upcoming events will be staged for free from 1-5pm on May 23, 2026 (6th and B Garden) and May 24, 2026, (El Jardin del Paraiso, 4th Street bet. C & D). Performances are at 2pm and 4pm (40 minutes), surrounded by art-making workshops and food justice programming.

Alexandra Aron directs a multilingual cast of six, including James Alton, Christopher Bisram, Ana Sofia Colon, Darlenis Duran, Coco Huang, and Jesse Cao Long.

Everybody Has a Story to Tell is a new play by the Remote Theatre Project, returning to New York’s Lower East Side and Chinatown to illuminate the voices that shape its vibrant, ever-evolving community. Set among the neighborhood’s streets and shared spaces, the piece invites audiences to encounter the lived experiences of artists, members of the Chinese community, housing-insecure individuals, and migrants whose stories often go unheard. In a time marked by social change and deepened isolation, Everybody Has a Story to Tell reveals the resilience, complexity, and humanity within each voice, reminding us that listening is an act of connection and that empathy can be a powerful force for healing and understanding in a fractured world.

“For three years, we’ve embedded ourselves with Chinese seniors, new migrant families, and unhoused artists in the Sara Roosevelt Park area - listening deeply, hearing stories amid political strife, displacement, and loss,” shared Alexandra Aron, founder and artistic director of Remote Theater Project. “We are transforming community gardens into vibrant stages to ensure these voices are heard. In a time when shelters close and visas block international collaborations, we double down on local resilience.”

Created in collaboration with seniors, new migrants, and housing-insecure artists in the Lower East Side and Chinatown to bridge divides and foster empathy in the community. This marks the third iteration of RTP’s Sara Roosevelt Park community project, following Thank You for Listening in 2024 and 2025. 

Funded by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and created in partnership with the Open Door Senior Center, Unframed Artists Collective, and Inside Change From Within, Everybody Has a Story to Tell was developed through weeks of workshops in and around Sara Roosevelt Park and reflects the lived experiences of the Chinese seniors, new migrant families, and housing-insecure artists and individuals RTP has worked with since 2023. The production builds on Remote Theater Project’s ongoing community-engaged work in Lower East Side/Chinatown, beginning with Embrace the Tangle for Little Amal Walks NYC in 2022, which engaged more than 1,000 community members, and continuing through Thank You for Listening in 2024 and Thank You for Listening ’25, created with local seniors, new migrant families, and unhoused neighbors in Sara Roosevelt Park.

Remote Theater Project (RTP) develops the work of artists whose voices are not often heard in the U.S., including international artists as well as U.S.-based artists from other countries. We aspire for people to feel “seen and heard” and “to see and hear” more deeply. We believe that art, especially story-telling, is a powerful form of communication and interaction that can change the way we think, see, and experience the world with others. We believe people learn about and understand other cultures through human-scale stories that shed light on larger historical, socio-political dramas. We believe in challenging artists and audiences to engage in difficult questions about their perceptions of other groups and cultures, thus expanding our appreciation of the differences while embracing a common humanity. We believe that work bravely exploring relationships between diverse cultures can broaden understanding and empathy, even between groups in political conflict. We value the thoughts, ideas, and input of everyone involved in the act of creating a production—behind the scenes, on-stage, and in the audience. Founder and Artistic Director: Alexandra Aron. www.remotetheaterproject.com

2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats

Best Off-Broadway Play - Top 3

1. A Christmas Carol (Thorne Adaptation) - PAC NYC

7.8% of votes

2. Prince F****t - Playwrights Horizons

5.9% of votes

3. Andre De Shields is Tartuffe - House of the Redeemer

4.4% of votes

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