Your prescreen resume checklist

1. What programs ask for

What four programs’ own pages said in October 2026, in brief. Check yours: these are examples, not a rule, and each program changes its page every year.

• Syracuse University asks for a resume of every production you have been in, with when and where it was produced, and a photo of you alone, which need not be a professional headshot. It gives a priority deadline of November 1 for the application and prescreen, and a final deadline of December 1; submitting by the priority date gets you an earlier decision.
• Emerson College asks for a one-page theatrical resume and a headshot or a selfie.
• The University of Michigan asks for a PDF of your resume covering your music, theatre and dance training, and a recent photo, which can be taken on a phone.
• Texas Tech asks for a headshot and a theatre resume of no more than one page.

2. The checklist

• Read the program’s page for this year. Note what it asks for, the file type, and the deadline.
• One page,unless the program asks for more. The Ohio Northern guidebook’s rule for audition resumes is one page, and it is the safe default.
• Upload a PDF, not a document file: it looks the same on every screen.
• Keep your name in the file name,so it is still yours when it is downloaded with a hundred others. MTResume already names the PDF that way, such as “Riley Quenby - Resume.pdf”; rename it only if the program asks for a pattern of its own.
• Use the name on your application, and contact details the program can reach you at. Follow the program on whose email and phone to list.
• Count what you have done: school shows, community theater, summer programs, readings. Strongest first within each section, and nothing you did not do.
• Name your teachers in voice, dance and acting training, and how long you studied with them.
• Give your voice type and range if you sing. See how to list voice type and range.
• Keep special skills honest, with levels you could demonstrate tomorrow.
• Check every spelling:show titles, theaters, and above all directors’ and teachers’ names.
• Open the PDF on another device before you upload it, and read it once more there.

3. When a program asks for dates

An audition resume usually leaves dates off credits, and MTResume follows that convention: it prints no dates. Some programs want them anyway. Syracuse, above, asks when and where each production was produced. If yours does, add the year after the theater or school, such as “Lincoln High School, 2025”, so it prints in that column. Do the same for every credit, so the page stays consistent.

4. The photo

Send what the program asks for. Several of the pages above say a clear, recent photo of you alone is enough, and Emerson accepts a selfie. Good light, a plain background, and your face filling most of the frame matter more than a photographer.

Questions people ask

Should my prescreen resume be different from my audition resume?

Only where the program says so. If one program asks for dates and another does not, use Make a copy on My resumes (the free plan keeps two resumes), add the years to the copy, and send each program the one that follows its rules.

Do I need an 8x10 resume for an upload?

Not unless the program says so: an upload is read on a screen. The 8x10 page matters when you print it for the back of a headshot at a live audition. MTResume’s PDF is 8x10 either way, and it reads the same on a screen.

Where do I make it?

In MTResume, free and with no account needed to start. Download the PDF, check it against this list, and upload it.