ciara the techie.

Mary Robinette Kowal on twitter:

“Me, talking a writer down from imposter syndrome: How long have you been writing?

Them: Three years.

Me: And how old are you?

Them: 28.

Me: Okay.  So you’re a level 28 human and a level 3 writer.  How good were you as a level 3 human?

Me: “Mom’s just been calling me her kid or her child.”

let’s just start with what the hell fuck

no seriously what the hell fuck

we do e v e r y t h i n g

assembly? yeah let us just set out 700 odd chairs, somehow get our equipment that doesn’t work to magically work during that event whether one of us has to hold the wire in ~the place~ for the entire thing or not.

one time during a lunchtime showcase a kid kicked a speaker, yes, he kicked a speaker to look metal during his screamo performance

let me tell you he got a piece of my damn mind

he didn’t i can’t do that i would probably die if i did

no matter how many times we tell people if you are using a wireless mic PLEASE do not go infront of the speaker the feedback noise will happen

they do it anyway

it’s a nightmare chorus from the audience going “can the people on sound actually do their job?”

YES I CAN OKAY

enough cables? hell no, half of hours don’t work anyway or have been stolen by fellow students

( thanks guys real cool )

so annual musical rolls round early may and the ninth circle of HELL decides to open up it’s doors

i’m talking like actors yelling because they accidentally broke mics

us yelling because the actors are yelling

having to run on stage with a handheld temporary mic because a microphone broke MID PERFORMANCE

a funeral at some point probably

lighting board glitched out, temporary blackout for a solid 2 minutes

missed a sound effect cue, aaaaah yeah i think you can guess what unfolded

everyone ignoring our “please tell us a week in advance” rule and expecting us to do these extravagant set ups in less than a day

there are 7 of us who actually do stuff in the team the rest just dont show up

2 people doing a 10 person job? hhhhhhhH

i no longer have emotions, i have transcended stress

right so we finally convinced the school to give us a keycard that lets us around the school but we only have one,,,,, 

the tech team has 16 people in it ( when everyone shows up )

when we set up for events we need more than one

yet the head students get given 7 key cards

i GET that we aren’t professionals but seriously it’s frustrating

so myself and my friend were both running for head tech 2018 and we compromised and became co-head techs because we work well together

i’m glad we did because shit what the fuck

mine and my co head tech’s hours from this year were logged at 250, thats the amount of hours we remembered to log, there is probably another 50 we didn’t log

we weren’t even head techs at this point

sometimes it felt like the school had forgotten we were students first and foremost

it got to the point where if i actually was in class, the teacher called it a miracle

i missed a lot of class

one more thing

His openers started off innocent enough.

Then, he started to push boundaries.

And as you can see, it has spiraled out of control since then.

THEY JUST KEEP COMING

People think it is an easy job unlike acting, but everyone involved in the show ends up spending all their time in rehearsals

They do their job in the darkness, I mean how can they see anything?

They have to always be aware of actors, who might rush through backstage to get changed or something

“Who was in charge of that chair that is still oN sTaGe?”

They have to keep track of the time, as blackouts are short

“OMG I just made that actor move to the wrong spot on stage by putting set at the wrong angle IT’S MY FAULT” - just an everyday thought

They have to squeeze in tiny spaces when the entire cast is waiting behind the curtain

When ONE gets sick, the whole algorithm of moving set has to be changed even for one rehearsal

There is never enough of them backstage but you cannot have more because of the space

They are always there to help everyone backstage by fixing a dress or finding a prop and it is CUTE and SWEET

“NO YOU DON’T HAVE TO MOVE THE TABLE, I DO THAT”  

The amount of squeezed arms and feet overrun by a really heavy set is terrifying 

They are not mentioned pretty much anywhere WHY

They make stuff like FLYING ON STAGE happen

They are truly the ninjas of theatre

hey there! I have talked to this before but it’s been awhile so like a conga line of polar cubs, it bears repeating. (get it?)

So here’s my resume…obviously i removed my phone number and the contact info of my references, but you get the gist of it.

So the main difference between a theatre resume and a Muggle resume is that you list what shows you’ve worked on, your position, the theatre company and your director/supervisor. It’ll vary a little bit based on what you do in theatre (for example, if you work in a shop for a couple of years, you may want to list that more like a typical job, but if you work show to show, this format works a little better.

Make sure your name and contact info is nice and big at the top. I feel like we’ve moved away from putting a physical address on resumes, but I could be wrong about that.

I have it broken down first by position, and then chronologically, but in theory you could have it in order of what’s most important to you, or clump them all by company (as you can see, I’ve worked at Theater At Monmouth a lot and I could group all of those together same with Phoenix Theatre where I interned for a season)

I’ve also added when I’ve been a Take Over SM/ASM, or just ASM in rehearsal, as I’ve found that’s useful info to have, since at least in my market there’s a lot of opportunities to take over ASM or SM tracks so it’s a good skills to have.

I’ve also put a list of related experience…this isn’t all of my work history (things like, Starbucks/Target and working for a summer school didn’t make the cut) just stuff that is relevant because it’s in theatre. This is stuff that is punched up on my muggle resume.

I also have related skills, that’s pretty self explanatory…if you have the space, put all kinds of stuff on here: dance experience, instruments you play, scuba certification, experience driving a 15 passenger van or a box truck, lifeguard, Eagle Scout, you never know what might be useful and what might spark a conversation in an interview. (I have a friend who has “can kick self in face” on hers…and she can do it!)

Education…pretty basic. I would put certifications here too if I had any but oh well!

And then references…make sure you get good ones, and rotate them out from time to time.

Hope this helps!

I’ve compiled a good example of two of my previous resumes here  (piggybacking off a post from @thankyoufive). But here’s my current format (it has skipped a few versions since the last post):

Sometimes if you’re a a freelancer you can also do a half and half resume where you list companies you’ve worked for and then “Related Freelance Experience” in the same sort of format that @housetohalf has above. Although I would add at least a year to jobs listed because people wanted to know how recent your experience is. 

Some important things about theatre references:

The whole theatre industry is like five people so listing supervisors is damn important. 

Education section only matters enough to show people you have a degree so it doesn’t go near the top unless you’re applying to work at a school.

Put your damn references on your resume. Do not put it on a second page, do not say “available on request”*, put it on the resume. Because again, theatre is like five people. And also some people don’t want to have to send you another e-mail asking for them, they want to start following up now. *: The only exception is my resume I have on my website doesn’t have references because I’d prefer not to put my references’ information just up on the internet for anyone to use. 

Skills section is VERY important. A special certifications/awards section is also a good thing to have. (I may be adding an awards section to mine soon, we’ll see). 

You DO NOT need your address on your resume. Theatre is a transient industry, and we live in a digital age, the only time they’ll need your address is after they’ve hired you. 

Unless you’re an actor, seriously, I would say do not put a headshot on your resume.