So I know this is quite a specific question. I am a big theater kid at my school and the majority of my leadership roles/awards are within my school’s theatre department or are in some way related to theatre. Since common app only allows me to list 10 activities, and I have plenty NON theatre related activities that I would like to list as well. Please give me advice on how best to phrase the title and descriptions of these positions so that I can keep them concise and still list everything I need to. Keep in mind I want to highlight that I have a large involvement in performing arts just for leadership/passion reasons, but I will be applying with the intent of being a business major.
Here are my main activities I’d love to try to fit in without taking up six activity spots:
-President of my theatre program/International Thespian Society chapter (11th-12th)
-Lead choreographer (10th-12th)
-Assistant director (11th)
-Marketing/Publicity Co-Director (11th-12th)
-Stage Manager of one musical (11th)
-Lead in a play (11th)
Thank you for any help!!!
I’d combine lead choreographer, stage manager, and assistant director into one.
If you need more room, drop the lead in the play entirely.
I’m also going to flag a moderator to move this to the appropriate forum 
Just suggestions from a parent not a pro:
Keep the marketing one as its own line - play up how you increased awareness, attendance - as it will show the business side. If you can site specifics - like tickets sales increased X amount etc that would make it stronger. Made X $ if you sold tickets and funds went to assist X. Added another show due to demand or developed an online campaign, poster contest, moved ticket sales to online platform etc - I know you didn’t do all these things, but what did you do in this position to help awareness and get people in the seats?
Can you group your lead choreographer, assistant director and stage manager into one spot with descriptions specific to each.
Make sure to state strong facts about what you did as the President over 2 years.
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How many do you want to get down to?
I agree with the above - President and Marketing should stay as individual items. They show leadership and responsibilities that are applicable anywhere.
Everything else could be dropped if you have enough other strong activities.
The next one to include could be something like “Creative Leadership” and discuss choreography, direction, stage management.
A lead acting role isn’t as meaningful for a non-theater application, though it does show another aspect of your interests and skills. Including it would depend on the strength of your other entries.
oops!!! i honestly didn’t know there was a wrong/right section to post. i’ll try to do better next time. thx for letting me know!!
THIS IS SO HELPFUL!!! Thank you so much for your reply, I will be taking this into account when I begin entering it into my app tmrw. How exactly do I combine the choreographer, director, and stage manager into one? Stage manager/asst. director were only for one individual show whereas the choreographer role has spanned over 4 years. thank you again!!!
