Television is one of the most significant and notable inventions of the Twentieth century. Over the years, people have seen an overabundance of glitz and glamour on television. Homo sapiens used to turn on televisions in their living rooms to enjoy their TV dinners while watching the early movie, now we are pulverized by news and fluff. But what is really going on behind the camera? Stage manager Daniel Morgan gives you his insight into how the production crew works together to run and direct a show. From the shadows of the set, he shares newsroom shenanigans, attempts to explain the producer’s indecisions, and offers up tasty vignettes of the talent’s foibles. Finally, Morgan reveals the true nature of broadcast television and how it works (sometimes). Last Stage Manager Standing exposes the trade secrets and the politics behind the television industry. Working with some of my colleagues that ran the show was like a typical day in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Television is one of the most significant and notable inventions of the Twentieth century. Over the years, people have seen an overabundance of glitz and glamour on television. Homo sapiens used to turn on televisions in their living rooms to enjoy their TV dinners while watching the early movie, now we are pulverized by news and fluff. But what is really going on behind the camera? Stage manager Daniel Morgan gives you his insight into how the production crew works together to run and direct

In every theatrical production, a single indispensable person is responsible for ensuring that scenery, lighting, actors, directors, sound artists are in sync. Stage Manager: the Professional Experience takes the reader through all aspects of the craft of stage management, from prompt books and laptops to relationships and people management. It offers an extensive discussion of what makes a good stage manager, and takes the reader through each phase of a production from getting hired, to auditions and rehearsals, to the run and closing of the show. Using interviews with other professional stage managers, the author provides a practical, experience-based guide for students and aspiring professionals alike. The stage manager's role in each phase of the production is covered in detail. Working relationships, organizational tools, plans, charts, lists and forms, running auditions, cueing, touring, and the stages of rehearsal are just some of the many topics covered. An overview of the stage manager's working week provides a clear view of the many details involved in the smooth running of a production. A comprehensive working vocabulary offers an excellent reference for anyone working or hoping to work in this field.

From the author of the award-winning The Master Switch, who coined the term "net neutrality”—a revelatory, ambitious and urgent account of how the capture and re-sale of human attention became the defining industry of our time. "Dazzling." —Financial Times Ours is often called an information economy, but at a moment when access to information is virtually unlimited, our attention has become the ultimate commodity. In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of efforts to harvest our attention. This condition is not simply the byproduct of recent technological innovations but the result of more than a century's growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. Wu’s narrative begins in the nineteenth century, when Benjamin Day discovered he could get rich selling newspapers for a penny. Since then, every new medium—from radio to television to Internet companies such as Google and Facebook—has attained commercial viability and immense riches by turning itself into an advertising platform. Since the early days, the basic business model of “attention merchants” has never changed: free diversion in exchange for a moment of your time, sold in turn to the highest-bidding advertiser. Full of lively, unexpected storytelling and piercing insight, The Attention Merchants lays bare the true nature of a ubiquitous reality we can no longer afford to accept at face value.