How to write an acting resume?

Listen, a working actor's resume is not a place to explain your lack of experience. If you don't have it, you don't list it. You do not put casual phrases like "None Yet . . . Just Starting in Hollywood" under categories in which you have no experience; you simply do not list those categories. And I say this having worked with child actors with thin resumes (admittedly, in Los Angeles). Having said all this, don't feel awkward. You've got to overcome this and give what you clearly love to do a shot. Everyone's afraid, it's what you do with the fear that matters. You think the cool kids aren't shitting bricks? Call this person back and tell them you don't have much of a resume but are still really interested in taking the class. Don't be afraid to show enthusiasm. This is hands-down the best way to get people to respond to you. If you get stared down by this "tight-knit community," so the fuck what. Try to make friends with some, and fuck the haters. I know some extremely successful VO artists and trust me when I say they aren't the "popular" kids - whatever the hell that means. Whether this class is right for you, I dunno. 95% of masterclasses are a joke if you want my honest opinion. But you should definitely continue to pursue free opportunities like this with enthusiasm. And connect, connect, connect. Don't be shy about needing things.

You don't actually want to take this class. The acting technique they are teaching is not very good for commercial or voice over work -- it stresses realism over presentation (voice and body work). I've been trained in Stanislavski - it's a great technique for deepening the emotional connection to a role -- but sometimes at the expense of presentation polish (realism over looking/sounding good). It's also not a beginner technique -- I had three years of training before I got serious Stanislavski stuff. The class is explicitly for people with this experience, and who will be able to work at an advanced level. If you want to act in Ibsen, take this class -- after you have done other acting training. If you want to do the commercial, voice over or print modelling work, get a portfolio together and start looking for an agency that will represent you.

it's not something I'd normally do and it would be a fun way to spend the afternoon This doesn't sound like a very good reason to try to take the class. I also agree with others who've said that Stanislavsky is really not where you want to start your acting training if you really have no experience with performance whatsoever. Doing this workshop would be a huge waste of your time, and if it involves an element of participation rather than just listening to a lecture, it's also likely to be a waste of everyone else's time, too. If you don't have any acting experience and think it's something you'd like to try, why not look around your school for casting notices for school productions? When I went to a college with active theatre and film programs, there was always someone looking to do a staged reading or make a student film. Even as a freshman who wasn't yet eligible to audition for most of the official school productions, I went on multiple auditions a week and got tons of experience. If you do that, you will soon have plenty of acting experience to list on your resume. This is outside the purview of your question, but I think it's a bit premature to decide that you specifically want to do commercials and voice-over work. You can't really decide what specific kind of acting you want to do until you've actually tried acting.

Take a beginning acting class at your school and apply for roles on http://www.mandy.com/1/cast.cfm?jt=usa. A lot of student filmmakers cast through that website, and it's a good way to get experience for your resume and clips for your reel. (Of course, once a project is over, you might have to chase down the director for a copy. Don't be afraid to be pushy.) Don't worry about your resume looking sparse right now. Everyone has to start somewhere. Central Casting isn't worried about your experience. They just want faces and bodies. Since you don't have experience right now, go crazy with your "Special Skills" section. Every sport and instrument you play, language you speak, dance you know, etc. should be listed. Do you do any accents? Impersonations? Write them down. Sutton Foster used to list her dinosaur impersonation. If anything, it's something to talk about during your audition.

I would actually worry about getting headshots first. You can get hired almost purely based on looks and your personality, not experience. Start doing extra work if you live in NYC. I am not an actor (though I know a lot of them).

It's perfectly fine to list just your classes at this time. However, I'm not sure that Method/Stanislavski is going to be the right thing for you if you have little acting experience under your belt. Both types of training are really intense and take a real commitment to the role, so even though it's free, it might be better to find some community theater productions or extra work to get you more into the game before you try the more advanced training techniques.

elpea, I thought that extra work should not be put on a resume...? Or do you just mean to get general experience and network? Yeah, I definitely have been meaning to sign up for Central Casting for the longest time and will drag myself there on Tuesday! :) scody, Yup, the word 'free' makes me happy! But I also think its pretty interesting... it's not something I'd normally do and it would be a fun way to spend the afternoon. I did take an acting class for film/TV but that was several years ago... I'll try looking for low-cost classes. Thanks for the info thus far! Keep it comin'! ;)

http://ask.metafilter.com/179240/How-to-write-an-acting-resume: "I'm also a little worried that if (yeah, big IF) I get accepted to attend this masterclass that I'll be confused at some things going on and/or get odd stares and at the worst, rude questions from other students about why I'm there since I'm not a theater student (the students are a close-knit group, so they'll know)." Theatre students are a close-knit group because they're the ones who stuck it out. While their friends and fellow aspiring actors fell off over the years because they weren't good enough and/or wanted a job that earned a respectable living salary, they're still slogging it out, paying top tuition dollars to pursue their dream, knowing that most of them will still wind up not succeeding at it. They're close-knit because of their shared experience, because they didn't take shortcuts. If I were a full-time acting student and if (and, let's be honest, it's a giant if) a spot in a Master Class was given to someone who was taking it as a matter of curiosity instead of one of my fellow travelers, then yes, I'd be giving you more than an odd stare.

If I were a full-time acting student and if (and, let's be honest, it's a giant if) a spot in a Master Class was given to someone who was taking it as a matter of curiosity instead of one of my fellow travelers, then yes, I'd be giving you more than an odd stare. Let's be honest here, you are using this opportunity to discourage someone you don't even know from doing something out of the ordinary, and without any particular insight into anything. I think your take on what full-time acting students are thinking is pretty useless. It should be added that master classes these days are far more common than their name would lead you to believe, and are often a platform for so-called "experts" working in the field to promote their services, products, or a vendor, as well as of course their ideas, to young people in the field. Nowhere in this post has it been said that seating is limited for this event; this idea that you will be receiving presumptuous stares from strangers has been produced out of thin air. Why would anyone allow you to attend this class with little or no credits only to make you feel really uncomfortable and suggest to you that you are taking opportunities away from deserving actors - whomever the hell they are. Unbelievable. This type of wait-your-turn bullshit is propagated by losers. End of story.