<p>I was wondering what y'alls thoughts were on what to put on a resume for a BFA musical theater audition. As of now, my resume goes in this order:</p>
<p>Name, height, weight, eye and hair, vocal part, phone and email
Film
Stage (performance)
Stage (technical)
Education
Work Experience
Awards</p>
<p>and then 'Training:..." with the list of people I have studied with in master classes or at school and what I studied with them </p>
<p>and then my accents, languages, unique abilities etc.</p>
<p>Do you think I should take out my tech work or leave it in to show that I am involved in more than just acting? What about the film roles?</p>
<p>Minor changes -- I'd suggest that you put stage experience before film, and training before work experience and awards. Keep it simple and as uncluttered as possible. </p>
<p>But don't obsess over your resume -- how you present yourself at your audition is much more important. I know a number of students with very few credits who have been accepted to very good schools -- on the basis of a fabulous audition.</p>
<p>For what its worth, my D modeled her audition resume after four examples provided to her last summer at MPulse, Michigan’s high school summer program. The examples were each pretty similar, sort of minimalist and each one page (could fit on the back of a head shot). The contents deal only with experience and training directly relevant to musical theatre. They contain three sections: Dramatic and Musical Theatre Roles, Training and Related Experience. The Roles section contained four columns: The show, the role, the year produced and the company or school that produced it. The training section is where she listed musical theatre summer programs, MT classes and private voice, acting and dance lessons as well as the instructors. Related experience is where she listed things like tech, choir, band and piano activities albeit very briefly. Of the four examples, only one listed things like hair color, height, etc. My D decided not to list them. She also chose not to list education, in part to keep it to one page, though the college graduate examples did.</p>
<p>in my opinion, do whatever makes the most sense for the experience you've had (everyone's got different credits), but make it as clear and legible at a glance as possible-- this would mean very clear categories, columns with logical organization, etc....and DEFINITELY one page only. even if you have to shrink the margins.</p>
<p>What if your resume sucks haha?
Like for instance I've just recently gotten back into musical theater because I never thoughtI could do it...like...all of high school.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, don't fabricate anything! Your audition performance is much more important than what's on your resume. College audition panels are very skilled at seeing your potential -- so make sure you are 100% solid on your songs and monologues.</p>
<p>I agree completely with onstage! Put on your resume what experience and training you do have. Don't ignore choral singing experience, band experience, forensics, etc...</p>
<p>We do not have forensics where I live. However, my niece, who is now in a BFA in Acting program, did forensics at her high school (in Alaska) and won awards in competitions in her region. These are competitions with your school team but have individual events such as public speaking, ACTING, reading and interpretation. Even within Acting, there are different categories I think, such as Duet Acting, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Improv, and so on. I think Kat was encouraging the young poster here that if he didn't have many theater credits at this point in time, to make sure to include things like choral groups or if he may have been on a forensics team (which may have had acting competitions) to include that on the resume.</p>
<p>By the way, some colleges also have forensics teams.</p>
<p>Forensics is public speaking, or oratory. It's very popular with drama types who want to improve their presentation skills. There are competions in varous sub categories, such as dramatic reading, humor, poetry. Kids can advance to national levels & win awards.</p>
<p>OK thanks everyone, I will crawl back under my rock now :) - I guess I watch too much CSI...I had a totally different interpretation in my head that definitely did not make any sense...</p>
<p>FWIW, MTgrlsmom, I was scratching my head over the reference to "forensics" myself! I suspect that we were thinking of what is referred to as "forensic science," (often shortened to forensics) which (according to dictionary.com) is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to the legal system. For a second there, I thought a lot of MT kids were somehow interested in taking DNA samples at crime scenes ....</p>
<p>On a side though related note, what is actually really peculiar is that D is very interested in psychology, even though her main passion is musical theatre. When I asked her how the two really connected, she explained that delving into psychology helps you better understand a persons personality/actions when you are creating a character on stage. Her interest is two tierd as she is also interested in forensic psychology (likely fueled by her interest in CSI and Law & Order), understanding a victims feelings and related actions in particular.</p>
<p>MTgirlsmom - my D took a psychology class last semester; she said it was a total waste of time, because it was just a repeat of a section of her acting methods class!</p>
<p>onstage - and the red thread continues...I remember hearing acting classes also produce great lawyers (with a 'couple' of extra academic classes) ;).</p>
<p>well -- it looks like the "forensics" question has been answered before I had the chance to log back on :) -- Yes, I was encouraging the poster to look at the experiences he has had and include those on a resume. Sometimes young people don't think of experience outside of being in theatrical productions as valid for a resume... eventually one would want to remove the non-theatrical (or film, tv, etc...) work, but at this stage of the game, all experience may be relevant.</p>
<p>As a long time lurker my daughter and I have learned so much from all of you. Thank you everyone for sharing your wisdom! My D heads out for her first audition this weekend, and she has a question about her resume. We live in the LA area and she does have an agent and manager - not alot of film work with the writer's strike continuing, but nevertheless she wonders if this should be included in her college resume since it is a recognizable agency. Suggestions?</p>
<p>I'll offer my personal opinion and experience but this does not equate to a "should" or "should not". </p>
<p>When my D applied to BFA programs, she also had a well known NYC agent. She did NOT put the agent name on the resume used for college auditions. She only uses the agent name on resumes for use at auditions where she'd have the agency's involvement. For instance, now while IN her BFA program, if auditioning for a school show, she doesn't have the agency and contact information on the resume she gives at those auditions. Rather for BFA auditions and for non-agent submitted work, her resume version has her own cell phone number on it. In my opinion, of the purposes of BFA auditions, I would not have the agency representation on it. However, if your D has professional credits, those will speak for themselves.</p>