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Should I Adjust My Resume for Auditions?

Today's Ask an Agent question is such a good one. Your performance resume really does tell a story! I love Anthony's response, which you can find below. Writing a resume for auditions can be overwhelming… so I created a template for you to fill out at www.howtowriteamusicaltheatreresume.com

QUESTION:Hi Anthony, I'm going into an audition for a soprano ingenue and I have loads of belty character work on my resume for auditions. Should I adjust my resume so that it reflects the role for which I'm auditioning? 

ANSWER: FROM ANTHONY BOYER – AGENT DDO ARTISTS AGENCY.

This is a great question!
Resumes are like this great mystery of the acting world, but they don't have to be. I can't tell you how many times I've asked a client why they have their credits listed on their resume the way they do. Inevitably, the answer is always, “They're in the order in which I played them.”
A resume is a chance to tell a story about yourself to someone when you're not there to do it yourself. Yes, your most-recent credit should be near the top; there is some sort of chronological aspect to it. If I think I saw you in something recently and I don't see it in the top three credits or so, I'm probably moving on. But, there's no reason it has to be strictly chronological, especially deeper into the resume.
I'd rather see a resume that tells a better story: I started off with ensemble credits, culminating in a dance captain position at a prominent regional theatre. Then, I followed that up with a few smaller characters (again, building in theatres and shows,) and then I booked a lead role at a smaller theatre. If that lead role was the first thing you ever booked, so you put it at the bottom, what am I seeing when I look at your resume? It looks like someone who had some success early, but who has been sort of “wandering the desert” ever since (and please don't take this as a knock on ensemble work, but even that should build in the prominence of the theatres.)
In the same way, we can omit some credits. If you're auditioning for a soprano ingenue role, why not move things around? Why not tell our story in a way that we “prime” the creative team by dropping some of those character/belt roles, and putting the credits that suggest soprano ingenue at the top?
Remember, our resume is telling a story. Auditioners' eyes are naturally going to fall at the top of your credits. Those first three or four credits are going to have the most impact, so let's use those to tell the story we want to tell.
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I love it! What story are you telling with your resume?
If you'd like to ask Anthony a question, please visit www.AskanAgent.today to submit your question now.
#spreadjoy
Molly Mahoney Shimmer and Shine