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VPP play a reunion for iconic TV WaltonsBy Cathy Dobson, Sarnia Observer
Friday, August 3, 2012 8:22:13 EDT PM
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ImageShack.usMichael Learned and Ralph Waite started rehearsals Friday for Love Letters, which opens for previews at Victoria Playhouse Petrolia on Wednesday, Aug. 8. The two actors, beloved to viewers for their roles as Olivia and John Walton in the 70s TV show The Waltons, are reuniting on stage for the Pulitzer prize nominated play about a lifelong relationship between two friends. "I think there are a lot of parallels between Michael and me and the two characters in the play," said Waite. "We have a deep friendship that's gone on forever." Learned holds her dog, Daisy, who is on the road with her. CATHY DOBSON/THE OBSERVER/QMI AGENCYMichael Learned was busy stuffing a fan letter back in a flowery envelope as she settled down to lunch at a Sarnia hotel Friday.
Thirty-one years after they portrayed the iconic television couple Olivia and John Walton, fan mail continues to arrive daily for Learned and co-star Ralph Waite.
“I still get a lot of letters, especially from Germany,” said Waite, still looking dapper at 84 years old. “I don’t know why the Germans are sending me so many letters these days. Maybe the show is showing there a lot.”
When Olivia and John Walton were on screen every week with their television family, Learned and Waite regularly received boxes of letters.
“I read every letter but couldn’t possibly reply to them all,” said Learned, now 73. But one written by a 13-year-old Calgary girl caught her attention.
“She was a good writer and she had spunk,” said Learned. “Her letter touched my heart so I wrote her back. We’ve been friends ever since.”
Learned is looking forward to her Calgary friend coming to see her onstage next week in Petrolia while she performs the Pulitzer prize nominated play “Love Letters” with Waite.
David Hogan, artistic director at Victoria Playhouse, asked Learned if she’d consider doing Love Letters at VPP after working with her two seasons ago in Sarnia.
“I love the play and I love Michael,” Hogan said. “I called her up to see if she’d ask Ralph to do it with her and she called back in 20 minutes.
“It’s huge to have their star power.”
Michael and Waite performed Love Letters once before together, at a charitable event for one night.
But they have not worked together since the Waltons, apart from a brief play in Westport years ago.
Tickets for VPP’s Love Letters are moving fast and matinees are already sold out.
“I know a lot of people are coming to see Olivia and John Walton,” Learned conceded. Does that bother her?
“I made it very clear a long time ago that I’m not Olivia,” she said with a laugh.
“I doesn’t bother me,” said Waite.
“The Walton’s is just part of my life. I think people have a genuine fondness for the two of us,” said Learned. “When I was here before, people would come up to me with tears in their eyes. It was so moving.”
“I know we were a part of many people’s childhood,” said Waite. “I’d get letters from people who didn’t have a father and they said they looked to John Walton as a father figure when they were growing up.”
Rehearsals for Love Letters started Friday afternoon, and Learned and Waite said they will easily be ready when the curtain rises on Wednesday.
Love Letters does not require memorization. Both actors read letters written between the characters over the course of 50 years.
The letters tell the poignant story of the relationship of Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. He gets stuffier through the years. She gets more neurotic.
“It really works,” said Learned, warning that her character uses many lines that Olivia Walton would never use. “Let people know they will laugh, but it’s more sophisticated humour.”
Love Letters by A. R. Gurney at VPP in Petrolia previews Wednesday and Thursday, then runs from Aug. 10 - 26.
Call 519-882-1221 for tickets or visit
www.vvp.ca.
