Question:
For those of you who are amateur actors as opposed to professional:
Do you have a printed resume for use at auditions? Is this considered
unsufferably pompous, or not? And if you have one, how much experience
did you accumulate before you decided to write a resume?
If you do have one would you mail me a copy? I'm thinking about doing
one for use next time I audition for a director who doesn't know me.
Answer:
- You used the right phrase.... 'a director who does not know me'. I only
use a resume when I am auditioning for someone who has never seen me before.
I have been acting and singing for about 10 years and have done about
20 shows, so I will have different resumes for different occassions. If
it is a straight play, I will mention more of my straight play/work and
also my leads in musicals. If it is a musical, I will do the reverse.
It is also important to include any training you have had and if you
are in study now. The one major rule I ALWAYS follow is to keep it all to
one sheet of paper, one side. It makes it VERY easy on the director. (As
someone who has done casting, I KNOW how important this is.)
If you areauditioning for someone who knows you, use your best judgement.
If they know you well, the often do not need to see your resume and it
just gets in the way.
Here's a sample resume that we like to see....
JOE ACTOR
123 Any St.
NY, NY 99999
5'10" Brown hair
150 lbs Green eyes
Theatrical Experience -
Death of A Salesman Willy Loman June 1992
La Jolla Playhouse
King Lear King Lear February 1992
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland
A Christmas Carol Scrooge Nov-Dec 1991
American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco
Hamlet Polonius August 1991
California Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley
Musical Experience -
A Funny Thing Happened... Senex April 1992
Bob's Dinner Theatre, Augusta GA
Les Miserables Therenidier May 1991
Buffalo Theatrical Association
(and so on....)
Other Related Experience, Training and Talents -
Toured with Up with People, all of 1990.
Perfect pitch
Juggling
Currently in vocal study with Mr. I.M. Singer of NY.
Currently in acting study with Ms. L. Hotshot of Actor's Workshop.
- Some companies like to know the name of the director on the shows you
list on your resume. The best thing to do is to call up the company
you are going to be auditioning for and ask them if you should provide
a resume and if so, what info they want on the resume. You may also
want to ask if you should bring a photo of yourself.
