New Victory Arts Break: Shakespeare’s Stars

If you and your kid are seeing Spellbound Theatre’s Shakespeare’s Stars together, you’ve come to the right place! Whether it’s your first visit to the New Victory Theater or you’ve been with us before, we hope these activities help transport you into the world of Shakespeare’s Stars both before and after the show. Follow along below and try them out with your family of stars!

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Some of the videos in this Arts Break were filmed at New 42 Studios. We acknowledge that New 42 Studios resides on the seized homeland of the Lenape people and the intertribal territory of many First Nations. We celebrate and pay deep respect to all Indigenous peoples, past, present and future.

It’s almost time to head out the door to see Shakespeare’s Stars. Because you and your kid will be spending some time sitting, let’s use this first activity as an opportunity to stretch our bodies and get some wiggles out. Listen to some music and flow through the stretch routine below.

Music: You’re welcome to choose some gentle music of your own, but we recommend “Relaxing Mozart for Babies”—a night-long compilation from Baby Mozart Meets Friends:

Step One: Since you may be assisting your kid with their arm and leg movements, set up somewhere comfy for the both of you.

Step Two: Start out with some stretches to the sky. Gently move your kid’s arms up and then gently overhead to the right, back to center and then towards the left. Whooshing, windy noises are fun to incorporate here!

Step Three: After your upward stretches, bring your kid’s arms down for some hugs! Gently wrap their arms around their chest for a self-love hug. Slowly open up their arms all the way out to both sides in between each hug for a niiiice stretch!

Step Four: Wiggle wiggle! Wiggle and stretch your kid’s arms and legs freestyle! You can incorporate some of the earlier movements and stretches, or improvise your own.

If you’re looking to modify this activity for older kids, incorporate some jumping jacks, running in place and other fun physical challenges.

As you make your way to the New Victory Theater, get yourself and your kid ready for the show with a field guide scavenger hunt! All of the shapes, objects and sounds listed below are featured throughout Shakespeare’s Stars. Keep track of how many you encounter during your commute!

• A fluffy-looking cloud
• A star
• A musical instrument (Bonus points if someone is playing it!)
• The sound of a chime (The bing-bong of the subway doors works for this.)
• A flashlight (on or off!)
• A mirror

Great tracking! We hope you were able to find all of these on your way to the New Victory Theater. And now it’s time for Shakespeare’s Stars! We’ll see you back here after the show.

Welcome back home! Now that you’ve enjoyed Shakespeare’s Stars, let’s wind down for bed. New Victory Teaching Artist Ellen Winter has prepared a special nighttime stretch and singalong to an original song. Follow along as she guides you through her celestial bedtime routine with help from some New Victory staff and Teaching Artist families!

Here are the lyrics to Ellen’s song, in case you’d like to make it part of your bedtime routine. Don’t forget to do the stretches during each verse!

We hope you enjoyed your bedtime singalong! If you’re still awake and looking for one more activity, let’s take some time to explore a few visual elements from Shakespeare’s Stars—light, shadows and stars. Gather the materials below and try it out!

Materials: Flashlights, star cutouts, tape, a light-colored sheet

Step One: Draw some stars on a sheet of paper, or print out our star cutout template, and cut out as many as you’d like. Tape them onto one side of your sheet—the more the better!

Step Two: Find a room in your home that you can make very dark. Bathrooms are good for this, or rooms with thick window coverings.

Step Three: Place something soft on the ground for you and your kid to sit on. When the area is sufficiently comfy, your kid should lie on the ground looking up!

Step Four: Hold your starry sheet up in front of your kid. You want the taped stars to be on the side of the blanket facing you.

Step Five: Use a flashlight to shine a light on the sheet. Watching from their side of the sheet, your kid will experience a star show! Move the light around to light the stars from different angles, and play with moving the light closer and farther away from the sheet.

Challenge! If you have an extra set of hands to hold up the sheet for you, play around with puppeteering a few loose stars that aren’t taped to the sheet—they’ll look like shooting stars!

If you’re looking to modify this activity for older kids, switch back and forth with your kid to change who is puppeteering and who is in the audience!

Keep playing, and we will see you next time. Sweet dreams! Zzzzz…

New Victory Arts Break Supporters

New Victory Arts Break is funded, in part, by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.