Mr. Rickman!

This is the story of how my twin cousin Jennie and I met Alan Rickman. Yes, he was awesome, and yes, it was amazing. I'll begin that morning, Friday, October 28, which was my first day visiting Jennie in New York City.


Twin cousin - \'twin 'cuz in\ noun - cousins born on the same day, a few hours apart.

Our daytime destination was Central Park, but our first stop was the Public Library. You know, the one that's haunted in Ghostbusters, and the one in which Carrie from Sex and the City (almost) gets married.

                                     Apparently the lions are named Patience and Fortitude. We decided Bob and Harry was better.

The library was having a centennial exhibit, which contained some really interesting items. There was Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence with scribbled notes by Franklin and Adams, Virginia Woolf's diary with an entry the day before she committed suicide, Jack Kerouac's harmonica, and the original dolls from A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories.

Then we were off to the Park. Tall buildings fascinate me, although I can understand why New Yorkers are starved for anything green. Like monstrous trees, the towers of glass and stone give shade. They even provide comfort, as if they were guards of the small human pedestrians.

Before we moved into the park we stopped for a Belgian waffle from a cart. They use a delicious spread that looks like peanut butter, but is actually ginger flavored! Whipped cream and powdered sugar top it off in a warm and sweet, but precarious mound.

We wore coats, but in the sun it was perfectly warm. We strolled up and down the gravel paths, laughing at gray squirrels and pigeons. We gazed at Belvedere Castle across the pond, fairy-tale like on a small cliff. Under a bridge a man played saxophone, and the round tunnel created a deeper, soulful, echoing sound. The pond by the boathouse had a courtyard with fountains and relief carvings of birds and impish faces. Musicians played in the sun, their eyes closed against the glare or in concentration.

Our last stop in the park was the Egyptian obelisk! Names of pharaohs and gods looked like drawings in the sand on two of the sides, where wind and rain had smoothed over the carvings. One side however still had deep grooves of birds, eyes, ankhs, and other symbols. We rested in the peaceful little courtyard before heading out of the park for lunch.

 

Also, we went to Narnia, but that's a story for another time.

We had lunch at Alice's Tea Shop, which was covered in quotations from Alice in Wonderland, and murals of a very ragged looking Alice, and a Cheshire Cat with the largest grin I've ever seen. We had scones, rose tea, and mushroom soup, and envied the little girl next to us who got to wear pink fairy wings.

Feeling full and sleepy, we retraced our steps towards the Park, and went in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We studied the faces of Greek and Roman statues, marveling at the curled hair, then peered at the satyrs reveling on a sarcophagus.

The Medieval rooms were incredible, filled with wooden statues of the Virgin and Child in flaking colors, holy water fonts shaped like unicorns, and rosaries with beads as big as Faberge eggs, that opened to present carved ivory or wooden scenes of the life of Christ.

My favorite room was an atrium with high ceilings, windows along one wall, and pale shining floors. Various sculptures lined the room, including Cleopatra, a golden Diana poised on one foot, and a woman wrapped in vines reclining in midair. We moved on to the Arms and Armor section, examining the elaborate swords, guns made by Tiffany and Co., and Henry VIII's copious battle armor. Finally we explored the two Egyptian temples in the museum, with narrow passageways painted with the still, flat figures and lined with secret doors leading to gods' shrines.

By this time we realized we were quickly approaching the hour that the ticket office opened for the play we wanted to see, called Seminar, and starring Alan Rickman. Thus began a wild ride in which we pushed our way past shoppers, hopped on and off the bus, descended into the tunnels below Rockefeller center, and ran up and out, and then crossed Time Square at the fastest pace anyone has ever crossed it. We made it to the Golden Theatre to find that there were only 4 people in line ahead of us. Laughing and relieved, we bought our tickets and headed off to spend the rest of the evening before the play eating pizza, people watching, and visiting the Disney store, complaining about how the dolls were different from the ones of our childhood.

And now, to gush about Alan Rickman.

I am a serious Harry Potter book and movie fan, so of course there was the Snape factor:

Then there is Col. Brandon, to whose awesomeness the Sense and Sensibility Gang of 2009-10 can attest:

"Give me an occupation, or I shall go mad."

And if you're a real Die Hard fan of Alan Rickman, there's Hans Gruber:

"And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.

The play was excellent, and I'm not just saying that because I was already a fan of the actor. Basically, Seminar is about four struggling writers who hire Leonard (Alan Rickman) to critique their first novels. And he lets them have it. For an hour. And the audience laughs because they're so thankful he's not telling them in his slow, menacing voice that their souls are "desiccated." In the final scene of the play we were treated to a view of the apartment where Leonard lives, where books are piled from floor to ceiling, we got to watch Alan Rickman running around the stage and leaping over couches while chasing another character, and our jaws dropped when he poured out his heart and offered to become the "Mephistopheles" of one of his students. One disclaimer: as Jennie said, the play was a little more "raw" than we expected. Definitely not for kids.

Now the mad rush to line up behind the metal barriers by the stage door to wait for the actors. The younger actors were very nice, and signed our playbills. A few of our fellow theater patrons were a little too enthusiastic...one teen and his mom were standing in the middle of the sidewalk blocking everyone's way so he could accost Rickman. One girl had brought a copy of the Goblet of Fire for him to sign, but the security guard said he was only signing playbills (I can't blame Rickman; he probably gets tired of Potter fans.)
 
Finally the man of the hour came out:

He signed a few playbills and took a few pictures, and then his guard opened his car door for him. Distressed, the rest of us called out, "Mr. Rickman! Mr. Rickman! Please?"
He paused, and thankfully stepped back and came over to us. We told him how much we liked the show, and asked if he would sign our playbills. Unfortunately, he didn't say anything to us. He mouthed "thank you," and "yes" when we asked if he would take a picture with us, but we never got to hear that famous voice speaking directly to us. As Jen said, this seemed brusque. However, the man is in his 60s, he'd been running around and yelling all night, and he was probably just tired and grumpy. Besides, who knows if we could have withstood the sheer power of Alan Rickman's voice turned directly on us?

In the end we were content, and we went back through Time Square lit up as bright as noon, happy with our day.

Oh, and one more thing: we saw Samuel L. Jackson.

I swear, that's him! He was in a play that was next door to our theater.

I will post soon on the rest of my New York trip and Halloween!
And thank you to Jen for taking awesome pictures!