Dressing Up, Baby! Simply Wicked's 13 Days of Halloween

How to follow up the Women of Esoterica's (yesterday's stop on the 13 Days of Halloween) blog post?  How to finish off the tour?  How to hang with all of these paranormal experts when I'm blogging on freakin' Halloween???  I can't take the PRESSURE!!!

*Pant, pant*

I'm okay.

Seriously, though...this is a little bit like trying to take it to the hoop and realizing you're up against Michael Jordan.  So, rather than try to "hang" or "compete" or "not make a fool of myself", I'm just gonna be me, and hopefully we'll all have some fun together.

So, for my little contribution to the Halloween fun, I'm gonna talk about something that actors know all too well.  When you put on a costume, everything changes.  Your walk, your talk, your thoughts, your actions.  Throw a mask into the mix, and holy-Swiss-cheese-morals, Batman!  Costumes and masks can lower (or completely obliterate) inhibitions far faster than any mere libation ever thought of doing.

There's a reason that something gels for an actor when they get into costume (or wardrobe, as they say on a film set).  I can't recall which famous actor said they never really knew their character until they wore the shoes for the first time.

The whole tradition of dressing up for Halloween started with the Celtic Festival of Samhain ("sow-an"), which was a year's end festival filled with bonfires rituals of the harvest.  The veil between our world and the world of spirits was thought to be super thin on this night, so people would dress as spirits to "blend in".  As happened with so much else, Samhain was co-opted by the Catholic church and turned into All Hallows Even, the night before All Saints Day.  Leave it to the Catholics to not only try to take the fun out of things, but then make you get up and go to church the next morning.

There's nothing like dressing like a mischievous spirit to make us want to act like one, right?  When in Rome, do as the Romans.  Is it any wonder that trick-or-treating became a part of this wonderful holiday?  Give me sweets, or me and my puckish friends will have a little fun at your expense.

So, as you go out tonight, remember to be grateful for the harvest, try to blend in with the spirits around you, invite the good ones in, ward the bad ones off.  And gorge yourself silly on all the candy!

As part of this wonderful blog tour (now sadly over), I'm giving away two one-hour online coaching sessions for either acting or dialect training.  So, if you're an actor and wanting some lessons, or you've always wanted to act but have never had the chance, follow my blog and comment below.  You MUST leave either your Twitter handle, or your email address so that I can get a hold of you to let you know you won. :)  I'll announce on the evening of Nov. 2, so that everyone has a chance to recover from the overdose of sugar.