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This State Farm Showcase presentation of ON GOLDEN POND is a live television event that combines the best of two entertainment worlds, bringing together top talent from theater and television. Principal cast members Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and Glenne Headly all began their careers on the stage, and have continued to work in theater even after achieving great success in television and motion pictures. The play's author, Ernest Thompson, and its original producer/director, Craig Anderson, have teamed up again for this production: this time around, Thompson has adapted his play for live television and serves as director, while Anderson serves as executive producer. Two-time Tony Award winner Eugene Lee (Sweeney Todd, Candide, Ragtime), designed the set like a big-budget Broadway stage, with a house, a pond containing real water and a dock, trees, and a flower garden, backed by a huge cyclorama.
Despite its theatrical origins, ON GOLDEN POND will not be shot as a filmed play, with a stationary camera photographing the action head-on, as though from the front of the stage. Instead, live director Martin Pasetta, Jr. (Fail Safe) has positioned eight to ten cameras of various types around CBS's Stage 46, enabling close-ups and intimate shots, combined with tracking shots that follow actors around the set, up stairs, into private spaces. To add even more freshness and immediacy, the music, composed and conducted by Anthony Marinelli (2 Days in the Valley), will be performed live during the production.
Executive Producer Craig Anderson sums up the production this way: "Neither a filmed play nor a traditional television movie, this presentation combines the best of both worlds by blending the spontaneity and excitement of the theatre with the technical wizardry of television."
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Julie Andrews and Glenne Headly lead us on a tour of the set 
Julie Andrews on the challenges of rehearsing live TV
Julie Andrews chats with Will Rothhaar during a rehearsal break
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