New Victory Arts Break: Merry Mayhem

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 Merry Mayhem with the activities below.

< Explore All Arts Break Activities

New Victory Arts Break videos are filmed at the New Victory Theater. We acknowledge that New Victory 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?

Circus Oz has been putting their signature contemporary twist on circus since 1978, bringing acrobatics, comedy, clowning, slapstick, satire and live music to audiences all over the world. Learn more about them and their holiday performance below, and watch the video trailer to get a sneak peek at the colorful chaos of Merry Mayhem.

• The ensemble of circus performers in Merry Mayhem is both multitalented and multigenerational, with ages spanning five decades!
• The costumes in Merry Mayhem include brightly colored dresses for all the performers, designed to make performing certain circus skills even more challenging.
• Merry Mayhem will be Circus Oz’s sixth time wowing New Victory audiences for the holidays—they were here in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2012—so it’s only fitting that they’re helping us celebrate our 30th birthday!

Try It Out!

Inspired by the whimsy and comedy of Circus Oz, practice your clowning skills with a silly walk in a wild costume, accompanied by a friend’s musical talents.

Siobhan and Zack had a great time playing together—a silly walk with some quirky sound effects is a recipe for universal laughs! Follow the steps below to perform your own preposterous promenade set to an eccentric soundtrack.

1. Dig through some clothes you have at home and work together to make a silly, needlessly complicated outfit for your kid.
2. Once they’re all dressed, challenge them to move across the room, imbuing every step with absolute absurdity. Encourage them to play with pace, direction and levels—speedy backwards tiptoes, a slow sideways crawl, a back-and-forth hippity-hop!
3. Now it’s your job to provide the accompaniment! Find some instruments or household items that produce fun sounds and, for every step or move they make, play a different sound.

Take turns being both the silly mover and the inspired accompanist. You could even turn your performance into a short, comedic video to share with family and friends!

Talk About It!

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

• What is your favorite act to see in the circus? If you were a performer, what would your act in the circus be?
• If you ran your own circus, what kinds of costumes would you and the other performers wear?
• What does comedy mean to you? What are some things that happen in everyday life that you think are hilarious?
• If you were to give someone a funny or whimsical gift this holiday season, what would it be?

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 that will help you hone your comedy, circus and performance skills!

Who’s that?! Roll the dice and create a wacky costume for your next character with Alberto Denis.

Hup! From safety basics to powerful poses, go on a partner acrobatic adventure with Gyana Mella.

Ta-da! Wow your friends and family with a bag of silly circus tricks from Hassiem Muhammad.