I am found myself in the job market for a couple of weeks . . . I was looking to fill what I thought was a large gap at the end of my season next years (It's odd when you hire yourself for your department . . . I get to pick and choose). So, I thought to send a few resumes out - since I haven't really sent it out in about five years. I picked an chose a couple of theaters based on location (Southern California), type of work they do, or a lot of people know I have worked with over the years work there. I got a very positive response - no job offers - as we are still quite a bit out - but it was nice to get some feedback.
As someone who receives resumes as well, cold-calling and blasting your resume only really work if you HAPPEN to hit when a job is open - otherwise it just gets filed away. (Even if I have 40 resumes sitting in my file, I will still post a job because I don't want to waste the time in contacting all 40 to see if they are available for a specific project.)
I have found the personal touch is the way to go - use your connections - OR, let's say you are visiting some friends in new location, see if you can meet up with production managers or production stage managers at theatres, have coffee, chat them up - I find that the the SMs who do this - who are at the appropriate level stand out completely in my mind. I feel like I know them more then any other resume sitting on my desk, and, after one hour of chit-chatting without the pressure of an "interview", I actually do have a good sense of who they are and what their style is.