Poe: Dreams of Madness

By: Allyssa Hynes
​October 23, 2026

It's nearly midnight, and Edgar Allan Poe cannot sleep. As dreams and memory blur into waking nightmare, the father of detective fiction, science fiction, and psychological horror is haunted by the characters and stories that made him a legend — The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, and more, all given breath onstage. Guided by a mischievous Raven, this gripping adaptation reveals how one troubled genius reshaped American literature forever.

​Poe's Literary Legacy
Edgar Allan Poe's fingerprints are all over the genres we take for granted today. His 1841 tale "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" introduced C. Auguste Dupin, a brilliant amateur detective solving crimes through pure deductive reasoning — a blueprint Sir Arthur Conan Doyle openly credited as the model for Sherlock Holmes. Jules Verne, meanwhile, was so captivated by Poe's tales of scientific speculation and exploration, like "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," that he wrote his own sequel to it and cited Poe as a formative influence on his adventure-driven approach to science fiction. H.G. Wells inherited Poe's gift for grounding the fantastic in psychological and scientific plausibility, carrying forward his atmosphere of dread and his instinct for turning big ideas into deeply human stories. Together, these three writers helped build the detective story and science fiction as we know them — genres that might not exist in their modern form without Poe's restless imagination.

Recommended for grades 5-12
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The jumping mouse

By Debbie Roy
​February 12, 2027

Inspired by Native American storytelling tradition, this gentle and moving one-act play follows Little Mouse on a journey of discovery. Guided by Grandfather's wisdom as teacher and narrator, Little Mouse ventures out into the world — encountering a river for the first time, showing compassion to a dying buffalo, and learning to trust in his own courage along the way. Through each challenge, he grows braver and wiser, transformed by his willingness to help others even at his own expense. A timeless tale of curiosity, sacrifice, and self-discovery, The Jumping Mouse honors the enduring power of oral tradition to teach, inspire, and pass wisdom from one generation to the next.

​A Story Rooted in America's Foundation
The Jumping Mouse draws from a rich tradition of Native American oral storytelling — a practice that has shaped this land for generations, long before it became the United States. Beyond story and myth, Native nations contributed directly to the country we know today: cultivating crops like corn, beans, and squash that fed a growing nation; establishing trade routes that would become American roads and highways; and, through the Haudenosaunee Confederacy's system of representative governance, influencing the democratic ideals debated by the nation's founders. Native Americans have also served in the U.S. military at extraordinary rates, including the Navajo Code Talkers whose code proved unbreakable during World War II. As we celebrate America's 250th year, The Jumping Mouse honors this enduring legacy — a reminder that the American story has always been shaped by many voices, and that Native tradition remains woven into the nation's very foundation.

​Recommended for grades K-4
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