Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 6, 1993 TAG: 9302060322
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICIA BRENNAN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
LOVE STORY CONTINUES
WHEN we met Sarah Wheaton two years ago, she had traveled from Maine to Kansas to become the bride of widowed farmer Jacob Witting and stepmother to his young son and daughter.That gentle story, "Sarah, Plain and Tall," set in 1910, drew 50 million American viewers and became the most-watched Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation in the series' four decades.
On Sunday the family returns in a sequel called "Skylark" (at 9 p.m. on WDBJ-Channel 7), again underwritten by Hallmark - its 176th presentation - and blessed with the high production qualities of the original film.
The cast and most of the crew who worked on "Sarah" returned for "Skylark." Star Glenn Close and William Self are again co-executive producers for Patricia MacLachlan's screenplays, filmed in Kansas and Maine.
"When everyone came back, it was just like a reunion," said MacLachlan.
"Sarah" was based on MacLachlan's 58-page book of the same title, which won her the Newbery Medal for children's literature. But "Skylark," set two years after "Sarah," is not yet a book, although MacLachlan intends it to be.
"This is all backwards," she said. "The reason it's a movie first is that the cast all wanted to do this. That was very touching, somehow, to me, so I had to come up with an original screenplay. I'm now writing the book from the play, which you would think would be simple. I certainly know these people well. It's like writing about relatives you never knew."
Sarah Witting was inspired by one of MacLachlan's relatives, who traveled from Maine to marry a man in Kansas, she said. The rest of the story springs from MacLachlan's memories of family stories and her own creativity. "You draw from your family's history," she said, "but fiction and truth become merged."
"Skylark" introduces four characters not found in "Sarah." One is Sarah's brother William, played by James Rebhorn, and the others are three maiden aunts, played by Lois Smith, Elizabeth Wilson and Tresa Hughes. "I have always had interesting aunts," said MacLachlan.
In "Skylark" the Wittings, like other Kansas farm families, are suffering under a drought so severe that wells are going dry and crops are dying. Sarah's and Jacob's friends, Matthew (Jon De Vries) and Maggie (Margaret Sophie Stein), pack their belongings and their children into a wagon and leave.
Then the Wittings lose their barn to fire that cannot be contained on the tinder-dry prairie, and finally, their well too has no more water. Over Sarah's protests, Jacob insists she take young Anna and Caleb (Lexi Randall and Christopher Bell) back to Maine, at least temporarily. He stays behind. The children are delighted with the seacoast and Sarah's delightful and loving aunts, but the separation tests Sarah and Jacob's commitment to each other.
" `Skylark' is really about the deepening relationship between Sarah and Jacob," Close said. "In some ways, it's subtler and more richer. `Sarah' was really a children's love story. `Skylark' is an adult's love story."
The story also enriches Christopher Walken's character, Jacob Witting, who seemed almost taciturn in "Sarah."
"He's blossomed in `Skylark,' " Close said. "In the original, he was this repressed and dour man. The thing I love about it, he realizes that she has made a difference in his life."
Walken, she said, "was adamant that he didn't want to repeat the first one."
So MacLachlan let Jacob Witting's personality emerge, albeit under difficult, even disastrous, circumstances for a prairie farmer.
"He loves the part," MacLachlan said of Walken. "In many ways, he made it his own. I love it when he says, `I have a life. I'm a happy man.' I also really love the scene where they dance at her birthday party during the drought."
The story was filmed at the same farmhouse near Emporia, Kan., that served as the set in "Sarah." In the interim, the owners had removed their old wood stove and icebox and installed a modern kitchen. But when the sequel got under way, the new kitchen had to go. For four days, a construction crew tore out the new appliances, cupboards, sinks and countertops and replaced with with the old fittings for filming. After the movie was finished, the crew replaced the owners' 1992 kitchen.
"The thing that was the real challenge," Close said, "was that we only had 24 days to make it in. It was like making a feature film."
Now, both Close and MacLachlan say they hope to do a third "Sarah" story to complete a trilogy.