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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Creating a Brief Portfolio and Resume for College

« on: Aug 27, 2015, 08:33 pm »

Thanks everyone!

I agree that making up paperwork is not the best way to go for my portfolio. I have made some templates for documents that I know will be completed early on in the show process (contact form, rehearsal schedule, and rehearsal report sheets) that I will have filled out for the fall production before my portfolio deadline.

I will not have any interviews unless the school I am applying to has room for one. I am using my portfolio as an artistic supplement, which I will be submitting to some selective colleges in the fall. I am not applying directly into a theater program, but using my theater work as a way to add more about myself to my applications and help me stand out. My director will also be writing a letter of recommendation to submit along with the portfolio. I think that it would also be helpful to add small captions to each image of paperwork explaining why I made it that way and how I used it, so that I could show more understanding beyond what just paperwork can demonstrate.

To clean up my blocking and calling script, I want pick out the two most complex pages of each and go over my notes from the show to darken them and make them more legible. They won't expect me to have it all done digitally like the example MatthewShiner posted, will they?

Thanks again everyone!

 

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Creating a Brief Portfolio and Resume for College

« on: Aug 26, 2015, 10:18 pm »

Thank you so much! Your replies have been very helpful.

My current portfolio is now: 1 page of prop list, 1 page of attendance list, 1 page of scene shift plots, 1 page of contact info, and 3 pages of blocking.

I want to add my call script in, but I don't know the best way to clean it up. Right now all my cues are on colored flags stuck into my prompt book right along with all my blocking and other scene notes. For the purpose of making my call script look polished should I erase the blocking from the page I choose so it looks cleaner, or should I type my cues into a new page of the script (not very hard to find a Romeo and Juliet script for free online) and print it out. I know this isn't what I did in reality, but during a show nothing looks polished anyways.

I was thinking that I could also add diagrams of scenes that I drew to help the stage management team with scene changes during rehearsals and run crew when they came in. They are drawn on a page to scale with my schools stage, which we marked with numbers and lanes to make blocking easier.

If I include everything I mentioned in this post, I still don't have 10 images (the max is 15, which I would like to me close to). I will be stage managing the fall production and my director knows about my portfolio work, so she may be able to give me extra tasks and paperwork to make in order to fill my portfolio better. What kind of documents would you recommend making? I can be more detailed now that I am going into a show with my portfolio in mind.

For Maribeth - I have not ASMed before. I have only been on run crew and stage manged, which sounds weird but the director knew I would work hard do a good job, so I was able to stage manage without being an ASM prior.

Thanks for your help!

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Creating a Brief Portfolio and Resume for College

« on: Aug 16, 2015, 03:03 pm »

I will be a high school senior next year, and a lot of the colleges that I am looking into allow students "dedicated to the arts" to submit an artistic supplement to their application. This is something I am interested in doing for my work as a stage manager.

I've read some other threads on creating portfolios and resumes, but I'm hoping I can get a more specific response by creating my own thread.

The instructions are to create a portfolio of 5-15 images displaying examples of prompt book, shift plots, prop lists, and other materials. My problem is that, as of right now, I have only stage managed once. I will be managing two more of my school's productions next year, but they won't be completed until after college applications are due. I may have some pieces to include from the fall production, but the show doesn't run until late October and applications are due as early as October 15th.

Considering that I only have one completed prompt book (from Romeo and Juliet, my junior year), what kind of materials should I polish and highlight to create a compelling portfolio?

Here's what I have so far:

A polished prop list, typed in excel listing the props needed for every scene of the show and where they need to be placed/which actor has them

A polished attendance list, also typed in excel with every actor and crew member and their role in the production

I am working on making a typed scene shift plot list

I also want to type out my contact/info sheet detailing all cast/crew members

From what I have so far, I think a one page excerpt from each will be enough. I don't think a review board wants to see a three page prop list.

As far as blocking goes, how many pages should I include? I was thinking anywhere between 5 and 10, but I don't want my whole portfolio to be blocking. Some pages show blocking and notes for nearly the entire cast, such as the opening street brawl scene and the Capulet ball.

I'm also stuck on what to include in my resume. I have stage manged once (so far) and have been on run crew three times. Would I detail what I did for each show to fill a resume? I also did lots of set construction and prop work for all the shows I have been involved with. What do you think I should include to create a professional and detailed resume (without being too wordy)?

I appreciate any advice/critique you can give me!