An Example of an Actor's Resume

This Logo Made for Me by Claire Hamlin.  Note:  I'm in no way affiliated with HBO or "Game of Thrones", but I hear it is a good show.

Hi everybody, and welcome to Theater is a Sport.  Today I'm going to give you an example of an actor's resume.  I want to make it clear that there are many types of actor's resumes, and the type I'm going to show you today is geared more toward an actor with basic community theater experience who might be going to an open casting call just to see what happens, or for the senior in high school who is auditioning for acting schools and needs to bring a resume.  The more you get into the business, the more your resume will change. 

Here's an example of a resume I used recently for myself.  It is not the most glamorous resume in the world, but it will do the trick:

BOBBY KENISTON

Actor, Playwright, Theatre Educator

 

 

(207) 564----              theater.is.a.sport@gmail.com               theaterisasport.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

Height: 5' 5" Weight: 180 Hair: Brown Eyes: Hazel

SELECTED THEATRE EXPERIENCE
 THE PAJAMA GAME                                                  PREZ                                            LAKEWOOD THEATER

THE REPROGRAMMING OF JEREMY                     HANK                                      LIGHT BABY PRODUCTIONS


ONCE UPON A MATTRESS                                        DAUNTLESS                              LAKEWOOD THEATER


I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT
NOW CHANGE                                                            MAN 1                                          LAKEWOOD THEATER


ALMOST, MAINE                                                        VARIOUS                                      CENTER THEATRE

GODSPELL                                                                 JESUS CHRIST                              CENTER THEATRE

DRACULA                                                                   DR. SEWARD                                LAKEWOOD THEATER

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS                                    SEYMOUR                                     CENTER THEATRE

SCROOGE AND MARLEY                                          JACOB MARLEY                          CENTER THEATRE

CURTAINS                                                                   Lt. FRANK CIOFFI                       LAKEWOOD THEATER

THE PRODUCERS                                                      LEO BLOOM                                 LAKEWOOD THEATER

INCORRUPTIBLE                                                       JACK                                               LAKEWOOD THEATER

FAME!                                                                         SCHLOMO                                  WATERVILLE OPERA HOUSE

THE BALTIMORE WALTZ                                          THE THIRD MAN                           BENNINGTON COLLEGE
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Bobby Keniston is an actor, playwright, director, and theatre educator currently living in Dover-Foxcroft, ME. After studying at Boston University's School For the Arts, Bobby completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Bennington College, with majors in Theatre and Literature. Since then, Bobby has appeared in over 50 plays, ranging from children's theatre, musicals, dramas, comedies and even a farce or two. As a playwright, Bobby has 24 plays published with three different houses, all for the youth and community theater markets (list available upon request). He also won an award for Best Emerging Playwright at the New England Regional Festival of community theatres, sponsored by the NETC. He currently teaches drama at Foxcroft Academy. Full list of publications and acting credits available upon request.
SKILLS
Singer with a vocal range of Tenor I or 2, basic knowledge of piano, ukulele, and trumpet. Skilled with various dialects, including Standard British, Cockney, Coastal Maine, Boston, American Southern, and Irish. Responds well to choreography.


Okay, so there you have it.  As you can see, this is not like your typical headshot/resume that you may see all over the place.  For starters, instead of a headshot, I have included a small headshot picture right on the resume.  Why?  Well, I'm not pursuing a huge career as a professional , just the occasional open casting call at an Equity house.  I'm not in the union, and I do far too much community theater to give up, so I probably won't be in a union any time soon (unless something beautiful falls in my lap and I can do this full-time), so there's really no need for me to spend a ton of money on really professional headshots and resumes.  If I were trying to make a go as a professional actor right now, I surely would make the investment, and be sending my headshot and resume all over the place, but that's not the case. 

Another difference between this resume and others---  I opted to write a brief biographical sketch in the section that most people reserve for Education.  Why?  Well, it has been a long time since I was a student of acting, and, instead of pursuing professional jobs in the business right out of school, my life took me on other paths.  Hence, it might seem funny to a casting director to see I was a graduate of Bennington College in 2000 with a degree in Theater, but have no professional credits on my resume.  That is why a brief biographical sketch, I think, is better way for me to go.  It explains where my life has taken me, and somewhat shows that I am ready to finally be stepping up.  It also notates that I have still been working hard in the business in other aspects, just outside of "professional".  If you are a student applying to an acting school, use this space for Education--- I do not recommend a biographical sketch at this point for you.  And, under Education, list your high school, of course, and any kind of summer acting programs or special classes in scene study or acting technique you might have studied, as well as the teacher's name who taught you.  For example:

SUMMER SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOP,  Bobby Keniston, instructor

For someone who has done a lot of community theatre work over the years, and is trying their shot at an open casting call for an Equity House, my example is a way to have a resume that will work, and not cost you a lot of money.

Note:  be honest in your special skills, and mention things that might come in handy on stage, or just really interesting skills that you have that might get attention.  Also, make sure your resume is not longer than one page.  Seriously. 

Hope you all have found this helpful!

Happy auditioning, and remember--- theater is a sport! 

THEATER STORIES, VOL I: BOBBY KENISTON AUDITIONS FOR ACTING SCHOOL (AUDITION ADVICE, PART 2)



High School Musical production of "Once Upon a Mattress".  I'm the Jester.

How many of you high school seniors out there know, just KNOW beyond any shadow of a doubt that you want to be an actor, either for the stage or for the screen (or, of course, both)?  That's all I ever wanted growing up.  From the age of 10 and beyond I was addicted to performing, and the very notion of Bobby the Actor felt inseparable for Bobby the Person.  I read tons of plays, books about acting, biographies of Brando (oh, how I loved the stories of his early days on the Broadway stage in "A Streetcar Named Desire").  My only dream in the world was to be an actor like that, an actor who moved people and even changed people.  It was a foregone conclusion and everyone knew it, even the people who couldn't stand me--- Bobby was going to be an actor.   And, with any luck (and, I thought, why shouldn't I be able to have that?), a pretty famous and successful one.  After all, it wasn't about the fame or the applause.  It was about the process, it was about how I felt completely at home stepping on a stage (I still do), it was all about the creation of it all. 

Does this dream sound familiar to any of high school seniors out there?  Any of you who might have sufered under the label of "drama geek" or worse for quite some time, but plowed forward in the knowledge you were on the right path? 
Good.  I hope so.  Because there is nothing wrong with that dream, and it is a dream that is attainable, though not without severe focus and drive. 

The first step for many of you may well be applying to acting schools. 

One day I might write a blog about why these days I might advise promising young actors to study a broad array of subjects instead of sticking to a conservatory education, but not today.  Today is all about how I auditioned for and was accepted into Boston University's School For the Arts conservatory. 

I won't lie to you... I was scared my senior year of high school.  I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt how I wanted to proceed.  I even knew it was Boston University I wanted, more than Syracuse (where I sent a ridiculous videotaped audition, but nevertheless was accepted), more than NYU, more than anyplace else (except maybe DePaul in Chicago, but I couldn't make it to any of their auditions). 

I was scared because I was from Dover-Foxcroft, ME, a small town, and I only had a resume of community theater and school theater credits.  Also, I was very short.  And, my resume wasn't a professional resume, but a sheet of paper with a senior picture stapled to it (which, in all fairness, was considered an "acceptable" resume for the BU audition).  I knew BU's School for the Arts was (and probably still is) very selective.  I had read something like only 40 students out of 1000s who audtioned were acceped (actually, my year, the freshman class wound up being 65 I believe, one of their largest, with four five of them being from Maine).    What if I was not one of the lucky ones?  My academics were not going to save me and get me into the program (I was rather brainy in high school). 

And I was short.  (Yes, still am, but it bothered me a great deal when I was considering acting schools... I wanted to be at least 5/8", Brando's height).

Still, I knew my desire was high, and believed that it was possible I wanted it more than others, and that the Universe would help me make it happen.  So I got an audition date, and my parents rented a motel room and two bus tickets (one for me and one for my dad), and off we went.

The weeks leading up to the audition were nerve-wracking to say the very least, and filled with self-doubt and a million awful "what if" scenerios.  I had to prepare two monologues, one classical and one contemporary.  BU's packet came with samples, but I didn't want to use any of them... they didn't click with me.  For my contemporary piece, I chose a monologue from "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad", a piece from the character Jonathan, who has a heavy stutter.  For my classical monologue, I chose a monologue from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream", Puck, of course (though not his ending monologue, but a different one, telling the story of affixing the donkey head to Bottom). 

People asked me if I wanted to practice in front of them, and I turned everyone down.  I don't know why, but I decided that the only people who were going to see my audition pieces would be the people I was auditioning for.  Again, I am not recommending this, per se.  I was a weird guy.  Most people would probably want feedback from others before such an important audition, but, for some reason in my going-on-eighteen-year-old head, I wanted to either fly or fail on my own choices and merits, without any influence from anyone who was not me. 

I praciticed in the mirror a lot.  I worked tremendously hard on the stutter, making it seem as real as I could, like it took the entirety of my upper body to finally force the words out of my mouth.  I also worked hard on being "magical" for Puck, and for making the language seem like it was really coming out of my mouth.  Or, at least I did my best.

So my dad and I get to Boston in the late afternoon before my audition.  Our hotel was in walking distance from the School for the Arts.  I had very little with me.  I had decided to wear black for my aution, black pants, black t-shirt (yeah, I know, I know, but I was a kid from a small town who didn't know at all what to wear, and this all-black made me feel kind of comfortable and fairly confident.  I liked wearing black). 

The night before my audition in the hotel room my dad and I were sharing, I somewhat broke my promise to myself.  I let my dad LISTEN to me recite the monologue from "Oh Dad, Poor Dad", but wouldn't let him watch me, and I kept Puck a secret. 

So, the next morning, I walked to the School for the Arts with my dad, wearing my black and clutching my cheap resume, and found myself in a waiting room with other nervous would-be BU students, some of them talking about attending specialized drama camps, and even one kid talking about some touring company he had been a part of.  I immediately felt I was out of my league, looking at the others with their professional headshots in their hands.  I thought my chances were probably zero to negative 50. 

And, yes, I was the shortest guy in the room.

I thought I was going to be auditioning for 3 or 4 people, but it turns out I was put into a room with an audience of one, a woman named Eve who, I believe, was the assistant dean, or something of that nature.  I can't truly remember. 

She was very personable and seemed kind enough, but she did have an air of professionalism about her as well.  She had me begin with my contemporary monologue.  So I dove in. 

After about twenty seconds, she stopped me.  "Uh, Robert," she said (Oh, God, why didn't I put Bobby on my resume?  I hate being called Robert), "Could you finish the monologue without the stutter, please?"

The stutter had been one of my major keys to the character.  I had practiced over and over and over and over and over, with the stutter.  But, of course, she was in charge.  "Sure," I said.  And I went through the monologue with the same body language and didn't (I don't think) stutter again (except for maybe one tiny one).  When I finished, she merly said, "Thank you, that was a nice adjustment, Robert.  And your classical?"  And I went into my Puck monologue, and she didn't laugh once (but, then again, even though it was a part of BU's packet, she'd probably heard it a bunch... it wasn't all that obscure).  When I finished, she said, "Thank you.  Do you have any questions for me?"   "No," I said, because I didn't think I could scrounge up a coherent one for at least an hour.  "Thank you for coming," she said, then told me they would be in touch with their decision. 

I walked out of the office, and my dad and I started walking back to the hotel.  We were getting on a bus in just a few hours.  "How'd it go?" my dad asked.  "I did my best," I said, which was true, but in my mind, I was thinking, "I don't think I got this.  What am I going to do?"

Older and wiser, I have learned that one should probably never do a major audition, whether it be for school or any other professional placement, with a monologue featuring a character with any kind of speech impediment.  This never crossed my mind.  I just liked the monologue and thought I could do well.  I understand that Eve stopped me not because it wasn't right for the character, but so she could hear me SPEAK.  I also understand that my making the adjustment was probably a big bonus point in my favor. 

I never mean to be iconoclastic, but I guess, somewhat out of ignorance on my part, it kind of happens.  Becaue I got it. 

And yes, it was a happy day, probably the happiest day I had ever felt up until that point in my life.

So, I realize I'm telling you my theater story that probably contains advice that wannabe acting students should, in all liklihood, avoid.  Except for a few:

1.  Don't presume that who you are or where you're from means that you are less talented than anyone else,
and
2.  All black is always classy.

Thanks for reading my memories on this important time in my life.

Come back to Theater is a Sport tomorrow for an awesome interview with the wonderfully talented and prolific playwright, Pat Cook!  I'm so excited he agreed to be my first official interview for this blog!  You won't want to miss this one!

So, until tomorrow, remember--- theater is a sport.