<p>How important is it to list the following items on the college resume and where do they fit in:
Dance Captain
Performing in Galas & Benefits
Technical Experience (lighting tech, etc)</p>
<p>Also I know that the conventional wisdom is to put the biggest roles at the top but does this apply when you have worked at "name recognition" theaters but in smaller roles.</p>
<p>Thanks for any wisdom or advice!</p>
<p>In shows where D had been dance/fight captain she put it in parenthesis next to her role in the show. If she was an understudy for another role she put that in italics</p>
<p>She had a separate section for technical theater where she listed training, and shows where she had worked. I don’t know if it had any impact in audition process (after all, tech theater programs are separate), but showed rounded theatrical education, so she included. </p>
<p>Check websites for school requirements with resumes. You are correct on conventional wisdom (largest roles 1st) but a couple schools (Boston comes to mind) wanted purely chronological. We had a couple different versions of resumes, and tended to carry multiples. We also had resume/headshots that were printed together, and separate, some schools wanted to make two piles. This is the kind of random stuff I would add to the spreadsheet, and it REALLY helped keep things straight.</p>
<p>Agree with too wonderful to put dance captain in ( ) next to the role for that particular credit. </p>
<p>Also agree to have a separate section for Theater Tech (particularly if she has more than one thing to list there). </p>
<p>While largest role often does come first, I think for someone applying to college (and sometimes even generally too)…I would consider the sequence listing most significant credits first. In some cases, it might be due to a larger role and in other cases, more professional or well known theaters may trump a bigger roles elsewhere (like school or community theater). When my D applied to college, I recall she listed her most significant professional credit first (though her role was also significant) before her leads in school or theater camp shows, for example. So, you don’t have to order the credits exactly with biggest role first but consider that as well as most significant theater companies, and so on…more professional first…no really strict rule here…but the ones that you want them to see or to stand out, keep near the top.</p>
<p>For Galas and Benefits…concerts, cabarets and the like…if she has a bunch, you could make a separate section for Concerts. Then again, only list ones of some significance…I would not list every school concert or some such. </p>
<p>One approach we have used on the resume is to have a separate section for “Regional Theatre.” I have also seen some resumes with a “Professional Theatre” section. This allows you to highlight what @evilqueen dubs “name recognition” theaters. Then you can highlight significant roles in a separate “Educational and Community Theatre” section.</p>
<p>Does anyone have feedback on situations in which the major roles in “name recognition” theaters are roles that an 17-18 year-old could no longer play, such as Oliver, Annie, or Mary Lennox? Does it look strange to have roles like that as the first listing on a resume even if they are lead roles in a professional regional theatre?</p>
<p>DDs is strictly chronological - but in sections:</p>
<p>Community Theatre
High School Productions
Training</p>
<p>She also has a Special Skills section. </p>
<p>We do chronological and my daughter has all three of the roles you mentioned (Annie (professional), Mary Lennox and Oliver (Community Theatres). We include all three, though they are a few years old – I think they show that she can carry a lead role even though she is a little old for them now – though at 4’10" we joke that she can play Annie until she is thirty (god help us if she ever does that one again!)</p>
<p>My D is 19 and played Mary Lennox last summer. 
Short & young looking… can work for her or against her… LOL!</p>
<p>@divamamacita I agree that including roles such as Annie show that you can carry a huge lead, and all the better if it is in a professional setting. We also can never see that show again… Although the new movie looks sufficiently different that, maybe… </p>
<p>Anyway, I was just wondering what others have done about this. We have left lead and supporting “child” roles in professional theaters on DD’s resume, but she did get a comment at a workshop that maybe she should put a date on such credits to show that she doesn’t think she could still play Annie. (??)</p>
<p>I know resumes are mostly just something we moms obsess over, anyway…</p>
<p>^ I’m FAR from the expert but I don’t have dates on D’s resume. One, there are three columns: role, show & theatre. And it would look WAY scrunchy because of these long theatre names we have.</p>
<p>And two, these kids are what? 17, 18? It’s kind of obvious that their resume isn’t padded w/ roles from 1983 - right? :)</p>
<p>@KaMaMom Yes, I agree! We have no dates, and we will leave the Annie-type roles in professional theaters on the resume at least until college, I think.</p>
<p>@evilqueen We have omitted the galas and benefits due to lack of space, but I think some colleges may explicitly ask for a more detailed resume? In general, at least for professional purposes, I believe that the advice is not to be afraid of “white space” on a resume. I’m not sure how this translates in the school audition context, though. As others have advised, it’s probably best to have multiple resume versions and follow each school’s specific instructions, if any.</p>
<p>I pulled out son’s resume. He used the same resume to upload and for auditions. Some schools also asked for an activity resume. His resume was modeled on the format suggested when he was at CMU pre-college last year. Son had no professional experience, and the resume is quite simple: Name, phone # and email, voice type the Representative roles (Role, date, where, ie high school, community theatre,etc), Training, and Special Skills. That’s it. We were complete newbies, and you probably know this, but for auditions,most schools ask that the resume be stapled onto the back of the headshot, so one page resume will work best. * Otterbein specifically instructed applicant not to staple.</p>
<p>There was a whole thread about to staple or not to staple last year!</p>
<p>Thanks for all of this advice! I think we will divide up with one section for professional/regional and one section for “educational” since D doesn’t do school shows. I am going to remove her Film/Commercial section in favor of Concerts and Galas. I think they are worth it because they are at name brand theaters I agree that dates will make it way too crowded. All of her roles are high school age so I am putting them in order of “type” and importance of theater. I don’t think I can fit in the Theater Tech but I can get the dance captain(s) in through the regular role. </p>
<p>I haven’t seen anything specific from any of the schools she is applying too regarding what should be on the resume.</p>
<p>This is one of those instances when a college audition coach’s help is so welcome! We just followed a template we were given. D has done professional , community and school productions. They are all in one section. The ppl auditioning can tell the difference just by the name of the theater. Trying to point it out to them might be superfluous… She would not have enough room on her resume for all of those sections anyway in addition to the training and special skills sections.</p>
<p>^^ I think if the professional theaters are Broadway or LORT, their names are recognizable nationally. Beyond that, I’m not sure, but certainly a college audition coach knows way more about that than I do!</p>
<p>A PA college/conservatory rep at a college fair told me that many applicants use a resume section called “professional theatre.” Also, many professional resumes of college-age performers or recent college grads have separate sections for “regional theatre” and “educational theatre.” But, as @addicted2MT points out, multiple sections leave less space for credits, training, and skills. </p>
<p>We had resume printed on back of headshot (not expensive) so as to avoid the messiness of stapling. We also had Sep resumes for schools (like Otterbein) who end up putting things in two different piles. </p>
<p>We used a template S was given at CCM summer program. If anyone would like a copy message me I will gladly send it to you. We used the same resume throughout and stapled top/bottom in middle unless the school specified not to.</p>
<p>Not sure if it is mentioned here yet but we used 8 x 10 resume paper so it was the same size as the headshot.</p>
<p>@elsaac, D’s college coach said the professional theater she has worked at is nationally known and should be front and center on her resume because those credits are very recent. She also said that the resume is (at best) secondary to the talent in the room which we all know but can’t hurt to use anything that will make her stand out from the crowd.</p>
<p>@evilqueen its true and if nothing else it may give the auditors a topic to ask questions about. My S is in a group of teenagers that perform a broadway type show at hospitals, nursing home etc…it was a topic of conversation at almost every audition because it was a little different than what they normally see.</p>
<p>Son was often asked about being a drummer, which he listed under special skills.</p>