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Theatre Resume
Charles Kinbote
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'm applying to the Tisch School of the Arts, and going to audition in a week. I need to have a theatrical resume with me when I go, and google isn't much help. For those of you in the know, is there some particular format that is widely accepted or more highly considered? I have tried googling "theatre resume" and variations, and while there are some I see as functional, they all seem to have some flaws with vagueness or some other issue.
Or is this entirely inconsequential and should I just list information about myself and plays, chronologically, that I've been in.
Or is this entirely inconsequential and should I just list information about myself and plays, chronologically, that I've been in.
Charles Kinbote on
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pm'd.
I've got shit to do now, but I'll come back here and post some general "rules" you want to be aware of.
e-mail, cell phone, and true identity blurred... because I feel like it. But if you want to hire me, you can always PM me... anywho, onto the help.
Sorry it took awhile, life and Mario Galaxy and all.
The "rules" that I've been taught are for professional resumes, auditions, and interviews. Good thing is, you want to treat this as event as professionally as possible. Some of these are also straight up personal preferences, tho will be more so noted.
-I really like having a headshot, aside form the one you give them, on the resume. The professional reason being, if your headshot and resume are seperated, they still know what you look like with just your resume. Also, it gets them to see another picture of you.
-Make sure the headshot and resume are 8x10. Staple them together with their blank sides pressed together. Make the long flat part of the staple on the headshot side.
-Special Skills is not always needed. Despite the resume posted above, I almost always have a special skills section. I'll get into why that one doesn't later on. The Special Skills/Training section can have a few goals.
1) To name drop
2) To show off/show them something they can use
3) Get them interested in general. For instance, one of my professors who has been working profesisonaly in the industry for over 20 years has "Bullwinkle Impersionation" on his. It's gotten some criticism, but he mostly gets praise when asked to do it. Thus, it stays. Mine usually has my improv and circus training on it.
-The reason the resume posted is not my norm is because of how I've been sending out resumes lately. I have a single word document with everything I've done worth putting on a resume. Any time I e-mail a resume to someone, I tailor the resume to fit their needs to make me seem as good as possible. I suggest you do this. Do yourself a favor and format everything inside tables, it makes a world of difference. By the end of everything, you'll know your word processor so much better than you probably do.
-No one cares WHEN you did something, just make sure it wasn't a middle school production. That is, unless you were in a commercial at 8... you get the idea
-Make things sound as good as possible. Might sound obvious but it bears saying. For instance, I am a UCF student. My resume says UCF Conservatory not only because it is a conservatory theatre program, but because it sounds alot better than UCF Main Stage or UCF Black Box.
-Fill the entire space, but don't fill the page with too much text. Repeated performance locations can be left blank when preceding that location, as seen by the empty spaces in the resume posted.
-Make the thing look nice.
-Great listener, takes direction well, and drivers license are not special skills.
-I spend time on my resume weekly, easily, and not because I'm constantly working. I'm just fine tuning. Steal or borrow whatever you want design and layout wise from whom ever you want, but at the end of the day, make sure that it's yours.
-Lead with your strongest category and information.
-Have contact information and vitals. Some of my resumes have my measurements, but only because I've done some modeling. Don't include those unless you want to persue that.
-It's theatre, not theater
-Not only give the name of the venue, but it's location.
-KISS keep it simple stupid. An agent won't spend 2 mins going over these things. Find a way to make someone want to stop to read it.
-Be prepared to do anything on your resume. If it says juggle, pack something to juggle into your audition kit. Oh, you don't have an audition kit? Get one. It's a case or bag or anything that matches you that holds multiple copies of your headshot/resume and a number of other things. Okay, you don't need one now probably, but be prepared to do anything they ask.