Theater resume template, with acting and musical theater examples

Acting or musical theater: which do you need?

If you will sing at the audition, or you are applying to a musical theater program, use the musical theater version. If you will not sing, use the acting version. The layout is the same either way, so switching later means adding or removing a few lines, not starting again.

What they share: one page, credits in three columns with no dates, training named with teachers, special skills you can actually do, and no objective, references or home address.

The template, top to bottom

Copy this order. Leave out any part you have nothing true to put in.

1. Name. The largest line on the page. If you belong to a union (Actors’ Equity, SAG-AFTRA), it goes directly beneath your name.
2. Contact. One email address and one phone number you answer. Under 18, list a parent or guardian’s instead, introduced with “Contact:” and their name. Never a home address. Once you have an agent, their details replace yours.
3. Vitals. Height, hair, eyes, and the age range you play (“Plays 18-25”), never your age. If you sing, your voice type and range, such as “Mezzo-Soprano (F3–E5)”.
4. Credits. SHOW / Role / Theater, one credit per line: the show title in capitals, the role you played, and the theater with the director. No dates. Stage first, then film and television if you have any. Put your strongest credits first, or your most recent first; pick one order and keep to it. Marisol’s second credit reads: INTO THE WOODS, Little Red Ridinghood, Linden Hollow High School / Jonah Whitcombe.
5. Training. Each school, studio or program on its own line, with what you studied, with whom, and for how long when it was years rather than weeks. A degree in progress goes on the school’s line.
6. Special skills. Last on the page. Only what you could do in the room today, grouped by kind (Dance, Music, Dialects, Languages, Sports) with a level where it helps: “Spanish (conversational)”.

Awards, if you have real ones, take one line each above special skills. An objective, references, computer skills and your birth date stay off. So does anything invented: “Never lie about your experience,” says the Ohio Northern guidebook, since the director may have been in that production.

Questions people ask

How long should a theater resume be?

One page, never two. If it runs long, cut your weakest credits rather than shrinking the type. The guidebook: “Don’t make the type smaller than 10 point, if you have that much experience, edit it down.”

Do I put dates on it?

Not on credits. They are not a job history, and dates only invite the question of what you did in between. The one date you may see is a degree in progress, with its expected year on the training line.

What if I have no experience yet?

List what is true: school and community shows (ensemble counts), classes, choir, and skills you can do. Training carries a beginner’s page. See a resume with no experience, with a short example.

Can I print it on regular paper?

Yes. MTResume makes a Letter-size file with trim marks: print it at actual size (100%, not “fit to page”) on ordinary 8.5x11 paper and cut along the marks to 8x10. Or print the 8x10 PDF on 8x10 paper. Both files are free.

Does my photo go on the resume?

Your headshot is its own 8x10 photo, and the resume goes on its back, stapled at the top and bottom center so it cannot twist loose from one corner. MTResume’s Pro plan can add your headshot as a second page of the PDF, but a printed headshot from a photo lab is still the norm at auditions.

Is this template free?

The two example PDFs are free to download. Building your own resume in MTResume and downloading its 8x10 PDF, or the Letter file, is free too, with no account needed to start; a free account keeps your work across devices. Pro, a paid plan, adds more resumes, a headshot back page, a headshot library and reels; performers 18 and over can also publish a public page.

What about a stage manager or designer resume?

Those follow a different format: Ithaca College, for one, publishes a separate template for design and management applicants. MTResume does not make those resumes yet; this page and its examples are for performers.