Theater Resume Sample & Writing Guide [20+ Tips]

Theater Resume Template

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Sample Theater Resume—See more templates and create your resume here.

If you want to see more sample resumes for creative jobs, check out our dedicated guides:

• Acting Resume Sample
• Artist Resume Sample
• Film Resume Sample
• Dance Resume Sample
• Music Resume Sample
• Writer Resume Sample
• Creative Director Resume Sample
• Art Director Resume Sample
• Audio Engineer Resume Sample
• Video Editor Resume Sample
• Videographer Resume Sample
• Production Assistant Resume Sample

Here’s how to write a theater resume that steals the show:

1. Choose the Best Format for Your Theater Resume

Whether it’s a first round audition or callbacks—

You need to draw the director’s attention right away.

How to do this?

Create a theater resume perfect for a quick review. 

For this to happen, follow the best resume formatting rules:

• Begin with a professional resume header that holds your contact info and physical attributes, such as height and eye color. Under the resume header list your professional affiliations.
• Working on a musical theater resume? List your tone of voice in the header, too.
• Divide your document into easily navigable resume sections.
• Choose the best format for your resume. In most cases it’s the chronological resume layout. It will help you organize all your acting credits.
• Use a classic resume font. Showy fonts won’t get you far.
• Don’t cram your resume with text. Leave enough white spacing.
• Confused about whether to go with a PDF or Word resume? Stick to the PDF. It’s printer-friendly and it opens everywhere.

Pro Tip: Performing arts resumes are usually two-sided: one side being your headshot, and the other side the actual text of your resume. Make sure the two fit nicely together and set the dimensions of the photograph to 8x10. This is particularly important when you're handing in a paper copy of your application.

2. Write a Theater Resume Objective or Summary

What’s the next step that leads onto the stage?

Writing a great professional profile that makes the casting committee want to read on.

This is a short introductory paragraph placed at the top of your theater resume and it comes in two forms: a resume summary or resume objective. 

Here’s the difference between them:

A career summary works best for artists with 2+ years of on-stage experience. It focuses on your best rolesand key achievements.

A career objective is a better choice for beginners. It highlights skills you’ve learned and reflects your passion for the profession.

Pro Tip: If you’ve learned the tricks of the acting trade under a teacher known in the industry, mention the teacher’s name in your theater resume profile.

3. Create an Applaudable Theater Resume Experience Section

The experience section on theater resumes differs from the traditional resume job description section.

But it’s still the most important part of your application.

Tailor your resume experience section to the job offer you’re targeting and make it accurate.

Here’s how:

• Group your acting credits by category: theater, film, or television.
• Put the theater category up front as it’s the most relevant.
• List the play or movie title, the role you played, name and location of the venue or production studio, plus a director’s name.
• Within each category, begin with your most prominent role.
• List your credits in the form of bullet points.
• Cut to the chase—wordy descriptions won’t boost your chances of getting noticed.

Pro Tip: If you a fresher actor worried that you don’t have actual credits for your theatre resume, don’t worry. List scene work from the acting classes you took.

4. Make Your Theater Resume Education Section Stand Out

You’re an artist. Why would you bother to list schools on a resume, right?

Wrong.

Your formal education and training are substantial for your future theater career. Any acting, dance, and voice workshops may back up your way to Broadway.

Here’s how to make your resume education section shine:

• If you have more than 5 years of professional experience, stick to listing your degree, school name and location, and graduation year. That’s it.
• If you’re less experienced and you don’t have many stage credits, elaborate on your acting training. List your GPA, acting-related workshops, studio classes, private coaching, etc.

Pro Tip: Want to pursue an on-stage career but you have no formal education in place? See these top 25 BFA acting programs for 2018-2019.

5. Highlight Your Theatrical Skills

To get the chance to present your skills in practice, you first need to name the right ones on your resume.

Use the list below as a hint. But remember— 

On you resume, you have to include theatrical skills that are most relevant to the audition you’re going to attend.

Theater Resume—Special Skills 

• Dance (improvisational, jazz, ballroom, ballet, hip-hop, etc.)
• Singing (musical, opera, pop, etc.)
• Accents 
• Mime
• Hosting
• Strong presentation skills
• Effective communication
• Fluency in another language
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Critical thinking
• Decision making
• Problem solving
• Time management

Pro Tip: Can’t pretend voices and do the headstands? Don’t make up skills on your theater resume. The casting committee will want to verify them.

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.

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When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

6. Add Other Sections to Your Theater Resume

Want the artistic director to learn more about you?

Consider adding the following optional sections to your theater resume:

• Achievements and awards
• Grants
• Memberships
• Publications
• References
• Media mentions
• Volunteer experience
• Hobbies and interests

Pro Tip: Awards added to your acting resume should be professional. Acting class awards from college? These may offend the judges. If your award is prominent for a specific role, place it just below the related credit in the experience section of your resume.

7. Attach a Cover Letter to Your Theater Resume

But theaters don’t require cover letters.

That’s only a half-truth. 

Actually, almost 50% of employersconsider a cover letter the second best thing to give your resume a boost. (You can read more here.)

Writing a job-winning cover letter isn’t that difficult. Just follow these tips:

• Choose the right format for your cover letter.
• Start cover letter first paragraph with an interesting professional detail about you so far theatrical experience, like your biggest role or what you love about acting.
• Elaborate on your passion in the middle paragraph.
• Close your cover letter with an offer or call to action.
• Your cover letter length should not exceed 350 words.

Pro Tip: When writing your cover letter for theater jobs do not repeat your resume. Cover letters are meant to complement resumes. Not repeat them.

This is it!

That’s how you write an applaudable theater resume!

Are you writing a theater resume for the first time? You’re here because you want to tweak your old theatrical resume? Give us a shout in the comments. We’d love to talk!