Resume Workshop

Sample resumes are a dime a dozen on the internet.  I just put one together myself, for John Doe.  I made his address and phone number up off the top of my head, which means that they might belong to people I've never heard of.  Anyway, here it is:  

 

Now, when making a resume, these are the things you should keep in mind:

I've color coded the important areas, and I'll explain them below.

Circled in red is the area where your name and address goes.  As I've already said, it's very important make sure your contact information is up to date.  Only put the numbers of phones you answer frequently, and put your email address if you check it frequently in this area as well.  

Circled in blue is the area where personal information like hair hair and eye color belongs.  This is unusual for a resume, but for a theater resume it helps the director identify you later, and may influence casting.  This also where you list your vocal range, if you sing and/or are auditioning for a musical.   

Circled in yellow, purple, and pink are the areas for the productions you've been in, and who directed them.  Next to the director's name you might want to put the theater you worked at, and the date as well.  This is something I've seen handled many different ways on many different resumes.

As for what order to put shows in, you will either want to put the most recent one first, or the largest role first.  This is your choice.  It's wonderful, however, if the first show you list is both.  On John Doe's resume, for instance, he has gotten consecutively larger parts in each show.  This looks great to a director.

Something else which looks good to a director is if you, like John, have been in a number of shows for the same director.  This shows that other directors have found you easy to work with.

Circled in brown are the skills and training areas.  You might want to make this one entry, or divide it.  I've seen resumes done both ways.

Dancing and combat skills are always nice things to have on a resume, but know that in the skills area, you can put all sorts of things, even skills that don't seem like they are related to theater.  I usually choose not to, but you can.  For instance, I can technically horseback ride but since I don't really want to know how or why a director could work that into a show, I leave it out.