It’s the time of year again when everything starts getting dressed up. It starts slowly with a few houses having pumpkins or haystacks and cornstalks, but then gradually builds to cobwebs, witches on the front porch and ghosts hanging from the trees. Directly after that, comes the plethora of colored lights surrounding eaves, trees and anything that will stand still long enough to have a set of blinking lights cover it. Soon Santas, elves, reindeer and nativity scenes will be seen on every corner. However, for this brief moment in time, spooky will reign supreme.
It is always fun to wander around neighborhoods, looking at how people decorate their houses and lawns. In a neighborhood I used to live in, there was one family who always made a haunted house in their garage. They did an amazing job of decorating. They would rent a hearse, put coffins in the yard, really make their home into a graveyard setting. The cost of getting into the haunted house was a piece of candy. For a treat, you got a treat. Last year, around Lincoln Square, there were so many amazing, eerily decorated homes. Quite a few of these people who decorate their property also like to dress up themselves.
Halloween is the one time of year, unless you are an actor, that you can get away with being someone else without having to explain yourself. I mean, if you saw someone walking down the street in a witch’s costume in the middle of July you would wonder what was up. Of course, there might be a Harry Potter release to explain it, though. Big movie releases allow people to dress up if they are fanatics. My brother always went to the midnight releases of the Star Wars movies, as well as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He didn’t dress up, but did comment on how many people did. When Sex and the City came out, I couldn’t believe the number of women who went to the theater in heels!
Ah, but besides Halloween and movie premiers, when can a person dress as someone, or something, else? Actually, people do it everyday. I suppose it is a little easier for women to change their looks than for guys, but still, I’ve seen the guys do it too. There are people out there, besides me that is, who show a different face whenever they feel like it. One day they might come to school in their pajamas, one day in a dress (or with a suit jacket,) another day could be a mix of partly shabby and partly dressy. Long hair can be worn loose or pulled back, depending on the mood of the wearer. Then again, this is really only the person putting on a different side of their own personality. We all have many faces and hats that we wear, depending on our moods and what we have planned for the day.
So back to the Halloween dressing up. Are you planning on being someone or something else? Last year, I noticed several people who wore costumes to school. I wore one myself, but that isn’t that unusual for me. I wear costumes often for my theater work. This year, I intend to wear a stylized toga-ish costume that a wonderful person’s wonderful mother is letting me borrow. I also intend to wear this to a beer-around-the-world party that is NOT a Halloween party. In my case, I can use wearing it as an excuse to promote Stage Center’s next production, which will be Electra by Sophocles (more on that in a future issue.) I have, in the past, dressed as someone from Hogwarts, a purple-haired biker chick, a gypsy and a jukebox. Not all of them for a play or Halloween either. Of course, I guess in a way, these are all parts of who I really am as well. Take that as you will. One thing you will never, never see me dressed as though (unless, of course, the money is REALLY good) is a clown. Clowns are just way too scary!