Was this sample helpful? Rate it!
Average: 4.4 (25 votes)
Contents
Key Takeaways for a Stage Manager Resume
What This Resume Gets Right
How to Write a Stage Manager Resume That Gets Interviews
Key Sections for a Stage Manager Resume
Stage Manager Resume Summary Examples
Stage Manager Work Experience Examples
Top Stage Manager Skills
Common Stage Manager Resume Mistakes
Stage Manager Resume FAQs
Summary
Stage manager with ten years running theatre productions in London's West End and beyond. Holds the whole show together — running rehearsals, calling the show from the prompt corner, coordinating cast, crew and departments, and keeping a complex production running smoothly and safely night after night. Ran the stage on long-running and high-pressure shows and kept performances on track through cast changes and technical emergencies. Runs rehearsals and the show, calls cues, coordinates cast and crew, manages the running of the production, and keeps it safe. Calm, organised and unflappable. Looking for a stage-management role with a company that knows the show only runs because someone is quietly running it.
Work Experience
Stage Manager
London West End Productions, London, UK
Jan 2017 – Present
- Hold the whole show together, the calm presence that keeps a complex production running smoothly every night.
- Ran the stage on long-running and high-pressure shows and kept performances on track through emergencies.
- Run rehearsals, keeping the company organised, the schedule on track and the director's vision moving forward.
- Call the show from the prompt corner, cueing lights, sound, scene changes and entrances to the second.
- Coordinate cast, crew and departments, the hub everyone relies on for information, timing and decisions.
- Keep the production safe and running, handling cast changes and technical emergencies without the audience noticing.
Deputy Stage Manager
UK Regional Theatre, London, UK
Feb 2014 – Dec 2016
- Supported the stage manager and called shows in a busy regional theatre, learning the craft hands-on each day.
- Ran rehearsals, called cues and coordinated crew, steadily building stage-management skills over the years.
- Learned cue-calling, scheduling and production coordination on the job across nearly three years.
- Gained the experience and certificate that led into a West End stage-manager role of my own.
Education
BA in Stage Management, Stage Management
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Sep 2010 – Jun 2013
- Degree in stage management covering production, technical theatre, cue-calling and coordination, with placements. The programme built the foundation running a theatre production requires. It led directly into professional stage management.
Theatre Safety & Production Certificate, Stage Management
Stage Management Association
Aug 2013 – Jan 2014
- Certificate covering theatre safety, production coordination and cue-calling to a recognised standard. It sharpened the stage-management toolkit. It supported running productions safely and keeping a show running smoothly.
Highlights
Ran high-pressure shows
- Ran the stage on long-running and high-pressure productions. Keeping a demanding show running cleanly night after night, with hundreds of cues and many people, is exactly the steady control a stage manager exists to provide.
Kept the show on through emergencies
- Kept performances on track through cast changes and technical emergencies without the audience noticing. Handling a crisis mid-show so the audience never sees it is the truest test of a stage manager's nerve and skill.
Certifications
Theatre Safety & Production Certificate
Stage Management Association
Jan 2014 – Present
- Certificate covering theatre safety, production coordination and cue-calling to a recognised standard, which sharpened the stage-management toolkit and supports running productions safely and keeping a show running smoothly.
Recognition
The hub the company relies on
- Trusted by directors, cast and crew as the calm, organised hand that holds the production together, relied on to call the show cleanly and to handle whatever goes wrong without the audience ever knowing.
Languages
- English (UK) — Native or Bilingual Proficiency
- French — Limited Working Proficiency
Technical Skills
- Show Calling
- Rehearsal Management
- Cast & Crew Coordination
- Production Scheduling
- Technical Theatre
- Theatre Safety
- Cue Sheets & Prompt Book
- Problem Solving
- Communication
- Department Liaison
Personal Skills
- Calm Under Pressure
- Organisation
- Composure
- Leadership
- Communication
Activities & Interests
- Boating
- Running
- Horror Movies
- Traveling
- Ghost Hunting
Key Takeaways for a Stage Manager Resume
Before the detail, here is what actually decides a strong stage manager resume:
- Be precise about the role you held. ASM, DSM, SM and CSM mean different things, and a producer reads the difference instantly.
- Show scale: number of performances, cue count, cast and crew size, venue and run length, not just 'ran the show'.
- Name what you called and ran. Calling from the book, running tech and dress, get-in and get-out, understudy tracking.
- Prove you keep a show safe under pressure. Handling a cast change or a technical failure without the audience noticing is the job's real test.
- List credits like a theatre CV: production, venue or company, director, and your exact role, so it reads the way the industry expects.
- Show the paperwork craft: prompt book, blocking notation, cue sheets, show reports and risk assessments.
What This Resume Gets Right
The sample reads like it was written by someone who has actually called a show, because it foregrounds the parts a producer screens for. Here is what lands:
- It states the seniority and setting up front, ten years running West End productions, so a reader knows the level before reading a single bullet.
- It separates the SM role from the earlier DSM years, showing a clean progression from calling shows under a stage manager to running them.
- It centres calling the show from the prompt corner, the defining SM skill, rather than burying it among general coordination.
- It names the high-pressure reality of the work (cast changes, technical emergencies handled without the audience noticing) instead of claiming to be 'calm under pressure' in the abstract.
- The certificate in theatre safety and production sits alongside the RADA degree, signalling both craft training and the safety grounding a venue needs.
Extra tips
A production manager scans your credits for the role you held and the scale of the show before reading anything else.
Put your exact role and the venue or company on every credit; an ambiguous title reads as inflation and gets quietly discounted.
How to Write a Stage Manager Resume That Gets Interviews
Theatre hiring runs on credits and word of mouth, so a stage manager resume has to read fast and true to anyone who knows the room. Build it this way.
Get the role title exactly right
ASM, DSM, stage manager and company stage manager are distinct jobs. A DSM calls the show and runs the book; an SM runs the whole stage-management team and the rehearsal process. Label each credit with the exact role you held, because inflating it is the fastest way to lose trust with a production manager who knows better.
Lead with credits, formatted like a theatre CV
List each production as: show title, company or venue, director, and your role, with the run length. 'Calling DSM, Hamlet, dir. X, Regional Rep, 8-week run' tells an industry reader everything. Group by role or list reverse-chronologically, but keep the format tight and scannable.
If you want to lay your credits out cleanly without wrestling a Word template, you can build the whole thing in a free online resume builder and export it print-ready.
Quantify the scale you have run
Put numbers on the invisible work: performances called, cues per show, cast and crew size, venue capacity, number of get-ins. 'Called 180 performances of a 400-cue musical, company of 32' says more than a paragraph about being organised.
Show you keep the show safe and on
Producers hire the person who handles a crisis mid-show. Give one concrete save: a sudden cast change covered, a flying cue aborted safely, a show held and restarted after a technical fault, all without the audience knowing. That is the skill they cannot train.
Name the paperwork and the tools
The book, blocking notation, cue sheets, show reports, rehearsal notes, risk assessments, cue-light and comms systems. This is the daily craft of the job, and listing it plainly reassures a company manager you can walk into their prompt corner and run it.
Key Sections for a Stage Manager Resume
A stage manager resume leans on a few blocks the industry expects to see:
A credits list as the spine of the resume: production, company or venue, director, your exact role and run length.
A skills block split between the craft (calling, book-keeping, cue sheets) and coordination (scheduling, department liaison, understudy tracking).
Training and any safety or first-aid certification, since venues need someone who can run the stage safely.
A short highlights block for the standout runs or the crises you handled cleanly.
References or a note that they are available, because theatre hiring runs heavily on who will vouch for you.
Stage Manager Resume Summary Examples
Use the top of the resume to state your level, your setting and the scale you have run. Three versions across the career ladder:
Entry-level resume summary example
Assistant stage manager with three years across fringe, regional and studio productions, moving from placements into paid ASM work. Sets and runs the rehearsal room, maintains the prop and setting lists, tracks blocking and marks up the book, and supports the DSM through tech and dress. Ran the deck on a 20-performance run of a mid-scale play, coordinating three scene changes and a company of fourteen through the run without a missed cue or a late setting. Trained in theatre safety and comfortable writing rehearsal notes and show reports that keep a production organised. Looking to build toward calling shows as a DSM with a company that trains its stage-management team properly.
Mid-level resume summary example
Deputy stage manager with six years calling shows in regional and touring theatre, from studio plays to mid-scale musicals. Runs the book, calls lighting, sound, automation and fly cues to the second, and keeps a company of up to thirty organised through rehearsals, tech and the run. Called a 400-cue musical for a full 12-week season with no show lost to a stage-management error, and covered two emergency cast changes mid-performance without the audience noticing. Fluent in blocking notation, cue sheets, risk assessments, cue-light systems and calling to timecode. Seeking a DSM or stage-manager role with a company that values a clean, calm prompt corner.
Senior-level resume summary example
Stage manager and company stage manager with twelve years running West End, touring and large-scale productions. Runs the rehearsal process, leads a stage-management team of three or four, calls the show, and acts as the hub every department relies on for timing and decisions. Held a long-running commercial show through 500-plus performances, cast changes, understudy runs and technical failures, keeping the production safe and on with the audience none the wiser. Deep in the book, scheduling, get-in and get-out planning, safety and company liaison. Targeting a stage-manager or CSM post on a major production that knows the show only runs because someone is quietly running it.
Stage Manager Work Experience Examples
Write bullets that pair the scale with the outcome, in the language of the prompt corner. Sets by role:
Assistant stage manager (ASM)
- Ran the deck on a 24-performance run of a mid-scale play, presetting a 40-item prop list and covering three quick-changes so the DSM could stay on the book without a single missed setting.
- Maintained the prompt book's blocking and setting notes across a six-week rehearsal period, keeping the record clean enough for a swing to learn the show from the book alone and to reset the staging without the DSM present.
- Coordinated a scene-change crew of four through a technically busy Act Two, rehearsing the changeovers until each landed inside its scene-change music every night with no dropped or late setting.
- Wrote nightly show reports and rehearsal notes that flagged three recurring technical faults early in previews, letting the production manager fix them before press night rather than mid-run.
Deputy stage manager (DSM) / calling shows
- Called a 400-cue musical from the prompt corner for a full 12-week season, cueing lighting, sound, automation and fly moves to the second across 96 performances with no show lost to a calling error.
- Covered two emergency cast changes mid-performance, rerouting entrances and rewriting calls in real time so the understudy swaps happened cleanly without the audience noticing anything was wrong.
- Ran tech and dress for a new production over a six-day fit-up, building the cue stack with LX and sound and keeping the schedule on track through a compressed tech week so opening night was not delayed.
- Kept the book as the single source of truth for a touring show, updating blocking and cues at each venue so the production reset cleanly across eight different stages of varying size and rig.
Stage manager / company stage manager
- Ran the stage-management team of three on a long-running West End show, holding 500-plus performances on track through cast changes, understudy runs and a mid-show technical failure without a performance cancelled.
- Led the rehearsal process for a company of 32, building and defending the schedule so the director's time was protected while every department got the technical rehearsal it needed.
- Planned and ran the get-in and get-out for a touring production, coordinating crew, transport, fit-up and de-rig across venues to hit each opening night on schedule and clear the stage on time.
- Owned backstage safety, writing and enforcing risk assessments for automation, flying and pyro so a technically heavy show ran for a full year of performances without a single reportable incident.
Top Stage Manager Skills
A stage manager resume should show both the craft of running the show and the coordination that holds a company together. The skills producers look for:
Hard skills
- Show calling / cueing
- Prompt book & blocking notation
- Cue sheet management
- Rehearsal scheduling
- Cast & crew coordination
- Get-in / get-out planning
- Tech & dress rehearsal running
- Risk assessments & theatre safety
- Department liaison (LX, sound, wardrobe, flys)
- Understudy & cover tracking
- Show reports & rehearsal notes
- Prop & setting lists
- Fit-up & changeover coordination
- Cue-light & comms systems
- Timecode & automation cueing
- Company management basics
- Backstage health & safety
- Equity / union procedures
Soft skills:
- Calm under pressure
- Organisation
- Diplomacy
- Leadership
- Clear communication
- Anticipation
- Discretion
Common Stage Manager Resume Mistakes
The errors that cost a stage manager an interview are specific to how theatre reads a CV:
- Blurring the role titles. Calling yourself SM on a credit where you were the DSM or ASM erodes trust fast with anyone who knows the production.
- Listing shows with no context. A credit needs the company or venue, the director and your exact role, or it tells a producer nothing.
- Describing duties instead of scale. 'Coordinated the crew' says little; 'called a 400-cue show, company of 32, 96 performances' says everything.
- Hiding the crisis stories. The saves, a cast change or technical failure handled cleanly, are exactly what a producer is hiring for, so lead with one.
- Ignoring safety. Leaving off risk assessments, first aid or safe running of the stage worries a venue that carries the liability.
Stage Manager Resume FAQs
The questions people most often ask when writing a stage manager resume or theatre CV:
Lead with your credits (production, company or venue, director and your exact role), then a skills block covering calling, the book, scheduling and department liaison. Add training, any safety or first-aid certification, and one or two standout runs or crises you handled cleanly.
No. Many stage managers train through drama-school programmes like the RADA route in the sample, but plenty come up through ASM and DSM work with no degree. Credits and reliable references carry more weight than any qualification in theatre hiring.
The DSM calls the show from the book and runs the prompt corner; the stage manager runs the whole stage-management team and the rehearsal process. Label each credit with the exact role you held, because producers read the distinction immediately and inflating it costs you trust.
Format each as production, company or venue, director and your role, usually reverse-chronologically or grouped by role. Keep it tight and scannable, the way a theatre CV reads, so anyone in the industry can place your experience at a glance.
One to two pages, with the credits list doing most of the work. Once you have a long list of productions, curate to the most relevant and highest-profile rather than printing every fringe show, and keep your calling and safety experience visible near the top.
Yes, and prominently. Calling the show from the prompt corner is the defining skill, so name it and quantify it: cue count, performances called and the shows you called. It is the first thing a production manager screens for in a DSM or SM.
Get Started With Our
Free Resume Creator today!
Free sign-up. No credit card required.
