I don’t have much to blog about this week so far, because yesterday I had to be at my temp job by 7:30am for a meeting. Ugh.

Instead, I offer this nugget of awesomeness, originally brought to my attention by the fabulous Wil Wheaton.

Be Furiously Happy

I love this very much.

It seems that no one else shares my hatred of toilet seat covers or my propensity to injure myself spectacularly while asleep. However, I stand by my opinions and can only hope that I don’t get a visitation of Giant Bugs From Space or whatever it was that caused the lovely black bruise and several-inch long scratch on my leg on Wednesday night any time soon.

This weekend promises to be a good one. The weather for the last few days in New York has been glorious – exactly the kind of summer weather I long for but oh so rarely get. Low humidity, blue skies and fluffy clouds, warm enough for sandals but not so hot that you’re miserable. I’ve been stuck inside for most of the week at my temp job, but I’ll be hosting the pub crawl tomorrow so I will be able to enjoy the lovely afternoon, followed by an evening at the theatre. Luckily, it’s outdoor theatre so yet more summer enjoyment accompanied by food and some sneaky wine. Vince and I are going to see The Seagull, produced by the fabulous Hudson Warehouse (who were recently featured on NY1!) and I’m looking forward to it immensely. Sunday is half work, half pampering – I’m supporting a big youth meeting at my buddhist centre, then I’m off to get my hair cut.

I haven’t had much going on, acting-wise, for a while now, but these things always seem to come and go in cycles. As I’m away for two weeks in the very near future (!!!), it’s hard to submit for much right now because I’ll be unavailable for filming. However, I decided to take the opportunity to do a couple of classes to avoid the slump. I also started re-reading Stanislavski and I’m attempting to read at least one play a month, with a view to finding some good monologues for auditions (something I have always hated and avoided doing as much as possible). I have really missed doing theatre of late, and my reasoning is that if I’m missing it, I should do some. It’s usually helpful to have something to audition with.

- Why are some women obsessed with those paper toilet seat covers? At my temp job, not a moment goes by in the loo without hearing the annoying rustle-rustle of someone wasting a bunch of trees. Why use them? What kind of things are they protecting your bottom against? Some kind of deadly disease that miraculously cannot penetrate the magical fibres of the thinnest paper sheet known to man? I just don’t get them.

- Does anyone else ever get night terrors? I never had them as a child but managed to develop them in adult life, along with grinding my teeth in my sleep. I had a classic one last night, where I leapt out of bed shrieking about something and only woke up when I was standing by the bedroom door, having given Vince a heart attack. I had also managed to whack my shin on the bed so hard that I needed to ice my leg for twenty minutes before I could go back to sleep. And that’s not even the worst injury I’ve given myself from a night terror.

- Why, when I’ve lived in the States for over 6 years, do I still think that $35 for a nice piece of clothing is too expensive, but £20 for a nice top is a decent price? My brain has never made the transition and I still sometimes have to switch things back to GBP in order to figure out if it’s good value.

- I’m in love with Birchbox, as it sends me fancy products that I can’t afford to buy but I get to use anyway. For $10 a month! Even my brain knows that’s a bargain.

- Why be Denny Different?

I have something of an admission. I hesitate to go far as calling it a confession, because most of my friends are already probably aware of this, and I don’t feel much shame in it anyway. I have never seen a show on Broadway. Yes, I’m aware that as an actor this is probably some kind of crime against humanity, but I have three excusesreasons for this:

1. It’s too fucking expensive.
2. All the discount/rush ticket offers are never at a time I can make use of them because I’m usually working or doing a show of my own
3. It’s too fucking expensive.

As a drama nerd growing up in London, I was lucky enough to get to see many amazing plays in the West End through my school or as birthday presents, so it’s not as though I’ve never seen a full-scale production in my life. It’s just that, since moving here six years ago, I’ve never had the money or time to see anything on Broadway.

Of course, the Disney-fication of Broadway has not helped, as I’m not the world’s greatest musical theatre fan to begin with. Big shiny Disney shows aren’t exactly geared towards me. However, there have been some fantastic plays produced recently that I would have loved to go and see, but never quite got around to it. It’s hard enough getting to shows that my friends are in, and paying for the $15 ticket price, before I get to finding money for $100 tickets.

This weekend, however, I was very lucky to see some of the best in classical theatre for the Rachel-friendly price of $0. The Royal Shakespeare Company are in New York for the summer, and are doing five (yes, five) Shakespeare plays at a purpose-built theatre in the Armory on 66th and Park Ave. They have replicated the RSC’s home in Stratford inside the Armory, and it’s a sight to behold. There was a preview show of their Romeo & Juliet yesterday, and as it’s a kind of final run-through before opening night, with the tech crew still finessing lights, they let those in the know in for free so the actors have an audience to play to. One of Hank’s old friends from his drama school days in London is in the RSC company and gave us the heads up at our gig on Saturday night, so I dragged myself out of bed before I really wanted to because there was no way in hell I’d miss some free RSC.

The production is lavish and beautiful, with some standout performances (the Nurse and Mercutio were my two favourites) and really wonderful moments. The production concept is an interesting one – it doesn’t completely work (in my humble opinion) and could be a little clearer in its intention, but the quality of the acting and the understanding of the text is superb. R&J, up until all the killings start, is a very funny script and they played those laughs brilliantly, avoiding mawkishness or foreshadowing the coming tragedy. That made it a pacey and enjoyable production, that takes a huge turn into darkness with the death of Mercutio. There were a couple of very English in-jokes in the show too, which provoked a huge laugh from me and hardly anyone else. One of the actors I met commented afterwards that they are always pleased when those get a laugh, as it means they know a Brit’s in the audience.

The other thing that made me really enjoy the show, for purely personal reasons, was the glorious range of accents. There was London, Northern Ireland, Scotland (two different Scottish accents), Birmingham, some kind of Dorset/vaguely South Coast accent, Welsh and a smattering of nondescript Southern accents. The thought crossed my mind that the Northern Irish Mercutio & mega-Scottish Tybalt might have been hard for some people to understand, but I was loving it – it’s rare for me to hear so many different examples of awesome British accents in one place these days. I could almost have been seeing the show at home in Britain.

They will be doing more of the free previews for their remaining shows this summer, and I’m determined to get to as many of them as possible. I highly recommend doing the same if you’re able to – the RSC is an incredible company. It’s also inspired me to want to put the time and money into seeing some more large-scale theatre, so I’ll be starting to save my pennies and look for ticket deals to the few shows I’m interested in. If anyone can get me free tickets to War Horse, I’d be much obliged.

I’ve got three weeks left until my trip home to London. To say I’m excited about it is a slight understatement; every so often I start doing a stupid dance and singing ‘three weeks till my holiday’ to Vince in an annoying manner. Particularly as he isn’t coming on the trip with me, I’m sure it’s extra irritating for him.

I’m extra excited because this trip is all about catching up with friends. Almost every time I go home, it’s Christmas/New Year and I have to do a mad dash to try and see anyone other than family. It always becomes a frustrating exercise, as everyone has commitments at that time of year and the time goes by all too quickly. The end result is that there are very good friends of mine from school and university who I haven’t seen in close to four years. This is wrong.

I also haven’t been home in the summertime since 2006. To see London in full summer bloom is glorious when you can sit outside in a green space with a cold drink and enjoy it (plus I’m missing two of the hottest weeks in New York, when it gets into ridiculous temperatures and humidity. London will seem breezy in comparison). I have plans for a nice long walk around town by myself one day, pottering in the shops and enjoying a gluten-free beer at the Jerusalem Tavern, one of the only bars I can find in London that serves GF beer (seriously, London, NY has you beaten on this one. Get it together). I get to go to one of my best friend’s weddings, which I was sure I was going to miss, and I’m also doing a few family things, so in all it should be a really fantastic couple of weeks – my longest in Blighty since I moved. I’m gutted that Vince can’t come with me, but he has to star in a show, so I guess he’s off the hook.

Between now and then, I just have to earn enough money to cover all my bills while not working for two weeks – which luckily it looks like I will be able to do – and write endless lists of what I’m going to pack and what I need to leave space for in my suitcase to bring home.