An evening of fun and mystery! Performers from all across the country that share a love of storytelling and the Halloween season shared tales of spooky and ghostly encounters. Guests joined us in a virtual theater themed with ravens, haunted portraits and a bubbling cauldron of witches’ brew!

The hosts for the evening, Amy Mitchell and Samantha Rowe.

Our witches enjoy their potions as they invite guests to the evening event.

 A hauntingly beautiful silhouette puppetry opening created for the event by artist, Erin Huber. You can learn more about her process in this diary entry “A Sense of Adventure”.

Owner Skye Rust takes us on a bewildering tour of Woolly Mammoth in Chicago…a captivating curiosity cabinet of odd, amusing & eclectic items resurrected from the past.

A trio of witches prepare a special cocktail of potions as they tell the tale of the “Legend of the Dragon”. California author, Karen Michelle Nutt of KMN Books, wrote a short story detailing the legend ... you can follow along with her and the other witches to make your own cocktail, including the ominous and yet beautiful shimmering purple “Doubt”.

 Tania Yager of Twistedheart Puppetworks shared her short story silhouette animation titled “The Nachtmara". Strangely sweet and chilling, inspired by German folklore and fantasy...you really won't want to miss her amazing creation!

 Eclipse Nightwing the Dark Unicorn, performs two captivating tales by Anaheim author, Amy Mitchell, “Lady Amherst” and “A Land of Great Inventions”. These two haunting accounts are perfectly fitting for the Halloween season, as they weave us through peculiar themes of endearment and deception.

What Hallows’ Eve show would be complete without real accounts of ghosts, “around the campfire” style. Ghost stories are a shared human fascination as old as time, touching upon the most enduring mysteries of our universe. Tucson Ghost Company gave us a tour of their favorite haunted site in this alluring Arizona city steeped in Old West history. Owner, Becky Gydesen is our personal guide through the classic landmark Fox Theatre and the haunts commonly encountered there.

Memento Mori in Los Angeles, is a place of the fantastical, and all things peculiar and strange. They also created a one-of-a-kind art prize giveaway for one lucky guest made of an Alpine Black Swallowtail mounted on a full moon charged Opal Aura Quartz set inside a glass dome…an item created uniquely for this event!

The one-of-a-kind prize from Memento Mori.

To close the event, we all watched a classic episode of “The Twilight Zone” together titled “Kick the Can”, which we believe captures the spirit of what we strive to bring to our audience at Museum of Make Believe. It’s a lovely story of an elderly man named Charles Whitley who is living at Sunnyvale Rest, a home for the aged. The old man believes he's found the secret of youth in a simple children’s game, “Kick the Can” ... and that maybe, the fountain of youth isn't a fountain at all. Maybe, it's a way of looking at things ... a way of thinking. We created these special cans just for guests who attended the event as an ever-encouraging reminder of their own youthful fountain of thoughts. After the episode finished we shared with guests this special surprise with the reminder to kick often for magic!