Article: The Skeleton of a Scary Story
Have you ever wanted to scare your friends around the campfire? This article will tell you how!
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literature

Everyday Arts Challenge: Q & A
When someone asks you a question at home today, respond in your very best robot voice. Can people understand your answers?
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Language

Everyday Arts Challenge: Sound Effects
You’re a movie sound effects machine for a new science fiction film. Make your best alien noises. See if anyone can guess what kind of scene you’re working on.
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Movies & Movie Stars

Arts Days: March 11, 1818: Oh, the Horror of it All
How could it be Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was only 18 years old when she started writing the book Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus?  Here’s part of the explanation: At the time she wrote it, she and her friends would entertain each other with ghost stories. Back then, Shelley wasn’t thinking about a super-tall green guy with bolts in his neck. (That’s a concept introduced by Frankenstein movies, cartoons, and storybooks.)

Truthfully, Shelley was trying to write a story warning people about the dangers of the Industrial Revolution, in which machines were taking over many jobs. Still, she used the scary idea of a person—Dr. Frankenstein—making and bringing to life a monster. Her book, published when she was 21, proved to be one of the classic examples of the Gothic fiction movement.
Literature, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Arts Days: June 25, 1903: Future Shock
Author George Orwell would often dress in old clothes and live in poorer sections of town to understand how people in different economic and social classes behaved. These experiences not only helped him write Down and Out in Paris and London, but they also influenced his sense of social justice for all.

Orwell wrote his satire Animal Farm as an allegory, with talking farm animals standing in for people. His hope was to argue the dangers of Stalin’s totalitarianism rising in the Soviet Union. In 1984, Orwell envisioned a future world in which human rights were non-existent and the government exercised thought control over its citizens. Orwell’s fertile imagination took us to some scary places even as they reminded us of the dignity of the common man.
Literature, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Arts Days: June 13, 1994: All in the Family
After receiving the prestigious Newbery Medal for her children’s science-fiction book The Giver, author Lois Lowry gave a speech to try to answer questions about why she’d written a children’s book that includes some decidedly adult concepts. Her protagonist, Jonas, lives in an imaginary world in which Lowry “got rid of all the things I fear and dislike; all the violence, poverty, prejudice and injustice.” Yet in this seemingly perfect world, citizens know nothing of the pleasure of sunshine on their faces or the comfort of being part of a family.

Lesson learned? “We can’t live in a walled world… where we are all the same and feel safe.” Lowry uses the book to focus on the theme of family responsibility and the role parents lead in supporting their children from birth through adulthood.
Literature, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Arts Days: May 18, 1897: Got Blood?
Irish author Bram Stoker did not invent the vampire, but no writer has done more to boost our fascination with a blood-drinking creature who sleeps by day and runs rampant at night. The Count Dracula character Stoker created may have been based on several historical figures, including Vlad the Impaler, a ruler in Wallachia (now part of Romania) in the 15th century. Not a nice guy, this Vlad: He’s said to have had his enemies murdered in horrendous ways and even his own people killed just for looking at him the wrong way.

Stoker wrote Dracula as an epistolary novel; that is, one whose story is told in a series of letters and diary entries “written by” characters. This kind of writing provides a shifting point of view, exposing the reader to different characters’ inner thoughts.
Literature, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Cuesheet: The Intergalactic Nemesis: A Live Action Graphic Novel
Earth faces an unusual threat—in a very unusual performance. The Intergalactic Nemesis is a live-action graphic novel, which combines hundreds of art projections, actors, and sound effects for this tale that’s part adventure, science fiction, romance, and comedy.
Playwrights & Plays, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Space, Theater

Theme: Things That Go Bump In The Night
Welcome, foolish mortals. Haunted music and monsters are just the beginning--this Halloween, look here for more spooky resources.
Folklore, Music, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Theater

Article: Keeping Up With the Addamses
Halloween decorating secrets from theater designers
Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Visual Arts

Everyday Arts Challenge: Magic Musings
You’re a wizard. What’s your favorite spell? How does it go? Draw a picture of yourself in your wizard’s outfit.
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Visual Arts, Theater

Arts Days: October 30, 1938: Fright Night
Horrified people all over the East Coast huddled by their radios and listened fearfully to the newscast of a Martian invasion of Earth. In Grover’s Mills, New Jersey, where the Martians had supposedly landed, people took to the streets with weapons, intent on repelling the invading army.

Soon a mob had assembled, and police were called to subdue the panicked crowd. But there were no Martians, only acting impresario Orson Welles’ overheated imagination. The entire "news broadcast" was only an adaptation of H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds, performed by Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre and airing on CBS. Radio announcers were more careful to insert disclaimers during fictional programs after the War of the Worlds fiasco.
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Theater, Popular Culture

Arts Days: September 01, 1902: Sci-Fi’s First Flight
This French silent film, which features a now-iconic image of a smiley-face moon with a spaceship poking it in the eye, is widely considered to be the first science-fiction movie. Lasting only 14 minutes, the movie tells a story of astronomers who travel to the moon and fight with bug-like aliens.

Along the way, they get a close-up view of the Big Dipper constellation (with human faces peering out of each star) and a moon goddess sitting on a crescent moon-shaped swing. Le Voyage dans la Lune, its title in French, was directed by Georges Méliès. A true film pioneer, he experimented with special effects, double exposures, fades, and dissolves. His work was incredibly innovative for the times.
Innovators & Pioneers, Movies & Movie Stars, Europe, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Arts Days: September 03, 1969: Kirk Out
The creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, had Gulliver’s Travels in mind when he pitched his idea for a new science-fiction TV show to television executives. Featuring William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, and the crew of the Starship Enterprise, the show earned loyal followers; some of whom wrote angry letters when the network put the show in an unpopular time slot.

After it was cancelled the following year, market research showed that in fact Star Trek had been profitable for advertisers, but it was too late to revive it. Still, tons of spin-off shows, from reruns of the original episodes to new programs like Voyager, have capitalized on the public’s early fascination with Roddenberry’s original concept.
Television, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Popular Culture

Arts Days: August 22, 565 C.E.: Telling Tales
Decade after decade, century after century, sightings of the Loch Ness Monster continue to be shared by word of mouth.

It’s originally told that Ireland’s St. Columba spotted a beast moving toward a swimmer in the lake. When the saint made the sign of the cross, the monster quickly retreated. Ever since, tales of a dinosaur-like creature prowling the lake’s murky depths have surfaced, even as some have used cameras, sonar, and other technologies to debunk the myth.

In this fashion, the art of storytelling carries a tale down through the centuries, regardless of whether the teller can read or write. Sometimes stories may be embellished by a speaker; other times they are surprisingly consistent from one age to the next.
Animals, Geography, Folklore, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Arts Days: August 15, 1939: The Great and Powerful Oz
The Wizard of Oz, based on a book by L. Frank Baum, is one of the most spectacular fantasy musicals Hollywood ever generated. Surely the audience gasped in delight when Dorothy opened the door of her twister-flung farmhouse for her first peek at Oz and the black-and-white image erupted into glorious Technicolor.

Between the antics of the Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man; the green fury of the Wicked Witch of the West; and the bluster of the Wizard himself before he is revealed as a fake, there is much to savor about this gem of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The film went on to be nominated for six Academy Awards.®
Movies & Movie Stars, Musicals, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Popular Culture

Arts Days: November 26, 1864: Down the Rabbit Hole
Reverend Dodgson was asked by ten-year-old Alice Liddell to write down the fantastic story he weaved for her and her sisters as they shared a rowboat ride in 1862. Dodgson complied, though it took him a couple of years to get the work done. He wrote a 15,000-word story filled with magical characters and strange leaps of logic.

Even as he offered the promised pages to his young friend, Dodgson was preparing to publish the book at nearly double its length by writing in fantastic new scenes (including a certain famous tea party). Using the pen name Lewis Carroll, Dodgson went on to publish his book under a new name—the mad-cap Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literature, Europe, Cartoons, Comics, & Animation

Arts Days: July 24, 1802: Adventure Hero
The man who wrote The Three Musketeers and other literary classics first dabbled in plays and magazine articles, many of which were well received by theatergoers and readers. In fact, some of Alexandre Dumas’ best-known works, including Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, were serialized in magazines before they were published as novels.

Dumas was a literary superstar at the peak of his career and his name became synonymous with the adventure-packed historical novels at which he excelled. More importantly, no French writer since has been read by more people around the world than he.
Europe, Literature, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Arts Days: July 31, 1965: The Magic Touch
Around the world, people of all ages are captivated by the saga of Harry Potter, the young British wizard with the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Voldemort, and legions of other characters brought to life in the seven Harry Potter books, are all from the creative imagination of Joanne Kathleen Rowling.

Many children whose interest in reading was lukewarm found it stoked by the magical adventures of Harry and his gang. They and an incredible assortment of funny ghosts and frightening villains are captured in these fantastical books.
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literature, Popular Culture

Arts Days: January 19, 1809: Master of the Macabre
Influential American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic Edgar Allen Poe was born on this day in 1809. He is credited with popularizing the short story in America, and contributing greatly to the emerging genres of detective fiction and science fiction.

Poe's work is considered part of the American Romantic Movement, but don't be fooled by its name; Poe's best known publications are also classified as Gothic, or literature that combines romance, mystery, and horror, and many of his stories feature themes centered on death.

Poe was also the first well-known American writer to attempt to make a living through writing alone, a decision that resulted in a financially difficult life and career. Even his most famous poem titled "The Raven" was published for nine dollars.
Innovators & Pioneers, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literature, Poetry

Arts Days: June 01, 1938: A Superhero is Born
To readers’ delight, the Action Comics June 1938 issue featured a cover illustration of a certain dark-haired, muscled fellow lifting a car over his head. This was our first peek at Superman, also hailed as “The Man of Steel,” a handsome young man clad in blue tights, a red cape, and a yellow shield bearing the letter “S”—a costume that hasn’t changed all that much in the decades since.

One year later, Superman had a comic book series named after him. Readers, movie buffs, radio junkies, television viewers, and others—have never stopped devouring stories of Superman and his alter ego, Clark Kent.

The character was created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, who imbued Superman with a mission to rid the world of evil using his superhuman strength, X-ray vision, and ironclad moral code.
Cartoons, Comics, & Animation, Popular Culture, Science Fiction & Fantasy, America

Arts Days: May 28, 1908: The Man With the Golden Pen
It’s hard to imagine that Ian Fleming, the writer who dreamed up the suave secret agent James Bond, also wrote the children’s classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. These literary creations could hardly differ more.

“Bond, James Bond,” is the clever, debonair spy who uses a mind-boggling array of gadgets, weapons, and wildly expensive sports cars to fight lots of different bad guys and gals. Need proof? Check out The Man With the Golden Arm, Goldfinger, or Dr. No, among many others.

Chitty Chitty tells the story of a family whose car has amazing transformative powers. This car can fly, morph into a boat, and bail them out of all kinds of trouble. Well, maybe there is some connection between Fleming’s best-known flights of imagination. There can be little doubt Fleming’s time working for British intelligence inspired his creative writing.
Literature, Popular Culture, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Arts Days: May 25, 1977: The Force at the Box Office
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...”

Almost as soon as those ten words began their crawl across movie screens around the U.S., a pop-culture phenomenon was  underway.

The first movie, A New Hope, was later revealed to be Episode IV in a six-episode series that tells the compelling story of good triumphing over evil. A simple-yet-complex science fantasy epic sprung from director George Lucas’ imagination, Star Wars—with its sequels, prequels, books, games, TV shows, and the toys it spawned— has become one of the most successful movie franchises of all time.
Movies & Movie Stars, Popular Culture, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Stunts & Special Effects

Arts Days: May 06, 1915: A Reel Visionary
Whether directing films or acting on stage, George Orson Welles’s theatrical talents were unsurpassed. It probably helped that he was a creative child: He painted, played the piano, and performed magic tricks.

When Welles was a young man, important connections advanced his career. Playwright Thornton Wilder introduced Welles to directors who gave him his first stage roles. He also made a name for himself writing, acting in, and directing radio plays. His radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in 1938 terrified listeners convinced that aliens were actually invading our planet. And then there were movies like Citizen Kane and many others now deemed American classics.

Welles also pioneered new filming techniques, such as using “deep space,” in which scenes in both the foreground and background stayed in focus. Using this method, action can take place in two parts of a single frame. He also would place the camera near the floor to shoot up at a person so he appeared to loom above, larger than life.
America, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Theater, Movies & Movie Stars

Arts Days: April 22, 1935: Monster Love
This 1935 horror film opens with an actress playing Mary Shelley, the woman who wrote the book from which the Frankenstein movies are based, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. “Shelley” is explaining what happened when the Monster tells Dr. Frankenstein he wants a mate. While this was a subplot in Shelley’s book, the makers of this movie managed to get a whole motion picture out of it.

The actress who played Mary Shelley—and who played the bride, too—was Elsa Lancaster, and her role vaulted her to stardom. The Monster’s loneliness in the first Frankenstein movie makes us feel sympathetic toward him, and in The Bride of Frankenstein, we also feel a little bit sorry for him when the Bride rejects him shortly after being brought to life by Frankenstein. Still, when he goes on to kill everyone around him and destroy Frankenstein’s laboratory, we’re reminded that this is no ordinary love story.
Tragedy, Popular Culture, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Movies & Movie Stars