New Victory Arts Break: New Shoes

New Victory Arts Break videos and activities are designed to have your family ready and raring for showtime before you even leave home. Here’s how to use them! All set? Then let’s get creative together and prep your kid for New Shoes with the activities below.

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The Arts Break video below was 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, and we encourage you to learn more about these vibrant communities.

Did You Know?

New Shoes is all about new adventures. Let’s learn more about this imaginative puppetry sensation from Spain.

Tian Gombau, who performs New Shoes all by himself, puppeteers the main character, Tracalet, using just a pair of shoes and a shoebox.
The story of New Shoes is based on a real-life tradition from Vinaròs, Tian’s hometown in Spain. On November 25, the day of Saint Catherine, kids receive new clothes and shoes, along with a piece of cake, to celebrate!
It’s a multilingual show! A Catalan folk song is woven through the story’s English narration, and the 4pm performance on Saturday, November 9, will be in Spanish.

Try It Out!

In New Shoes, Tracalet journeys through his hometown while on his way to the river to enjoy his piece of cake. Objects and puppets are used to embody the people and places he encounters along the way. In this activity, your kid will take their own shoes on a neighborhood adventure!

Materials: A shoebox, something to write or draw with, a pair of shoes

Grab an empty shoebox and stand it upright. On each of the four sides, draw a neighborhood location or scene.

Siobhan drew her bedroom, the corner bodega, a local playground and Times Square.

The four sides of Siobhan's shoebox with black marker illustrations of her bedroom, a bodega with a black cat, a playground with swings and a slide, and Times Square with the New Victory Theater visible on one side.

Yesenia from the New 42 Youth Corps drew the elevated subway entrance and a local tire shop in her neighborhood of Cypress Hills, and Dani drew her bedroom and Barclays Center.

Two cardboard shoeboxes standing upright with illustrations done in marker on two of their sides. Box 1 shows a sports car in front of a tire shop near a staircase up to an elevated train track, and Box 2 shows a cartoonish overhead view of bedroom strewn with furniture on one side, with a view of the Barclays Center against a blue sky on the other side.

Encourage your kid to explore using their shoes as puppets. They could try putting their hands inside the shoes and walking them around, moving them like marionettes using their laces, or just holding and manipulating them as objects.

A triptych of GIFs of tiny shoes being puppeteered three ways: with hands inside, held by their shoelaces like marionettes, and held by their heels.

Have your kid puppeteer their shoes on a journey through the different drawings on the shoebox, using the four locations as backgrounds. How do the shoes interact with each environment? Do they jump on the bed in the bedroom? Pet the bodega cat? Take in the sights of Times Square?

Make a video of your kid exploring their shoebox neighborhood with their puppeteered shoes, and share it with us on on Instagram.

Talk About It!

As you make your way to the theater, get your kid in the show mindset with some show-themed conversation starters! Ask them:

Tian’s hometown tradition of new shoes and cake takes place on November 25. What are some traditions your family has during November?
What are some things you know about your hometown and community? What places do you visit? What people do you meet?
What are some of your favorite family traditions that happen during the year?

The fun doesn’t have to stop here! Follow along with New Victory Teaching Artists in a few Arts Break videos and activities from the archive, highlighting different styles of puppetry.