It is the same document, reordered
Every guide to this promises you a different document. It is not, quite, and the honest version is more useful than the dramatic one.
You do not rebuild anything. You move the theatre block to the top, change what goes in one column, and add two lines to the header. It is a flip, not a rewrite, and it takes about ten minutes.
Theatre is searched far more often than screen on this subject, so most people writing résumé advice are writing for the smaller audience.
Which means a theatre actor opens four film-shaped templates in a row and correctly senses that something is wrong, without being able to name it.
There are four named things. This page checks all four, and one of them does not survive.
The four changes, checked one at a time
All four came from a single trade guide. That is the shape of source this site has repeatedly caught becoming an industry standard on its own, so we went looking for second opinions.
The certificate with an expiry date
Our research asked whether stage combat certifications lapse, could not find out, and said to check before publishing anything. We checked. They all do.
This turns out to be the most useful thing on the page, and it is not written down anywhere in the résumé-advice world. A combat certificate is not a qualification you hold for life. It runs out.
Awarding body, level, weapons, year. Two of the three bodies publish almost exactly this format themselves, so it is not our invention.
The weak version is the word “combat” on its own. It names no body, no level and no weapons, so nobody can act on it.
The body depends on where you are. SAFD in America. BADC or BASSC in Britain, and there is a third smaller British organisation as well.
Two details worth having. The credentials do not really travel — a British body will accept an American certificate as a reason to let you skip its beginner tier, but there is no mutual recognition and no equivalence table you can cite. And the levels are a ladder, not a pair. The British progression runs foundation, standard, intermediate, advanced, then teacher training, so “advanced” means something specific rather than meaning good.
One correction to our own draft. We were going to say the American test is judged by a Fight Master. Their own wording is that it is judged by an adjudicator, who may or may not hold that particular rank. The load-bearing fact is a different one: only certified teachers may run the test at all, so your teacher’s certification is part of what makes yours real.
The union line that stopped being true in 2023
This chapter has been telling American beginners about four possible union states. One of them closed three years ago.
The programme is EMC, the Equity Membership Candidate scheme, where you accumulated weeks of work at participating theatres towards eligibility. It is not running. Actors’ Equity phased it out when it introduced open access, and says so plainly on its own site.
British readers have a different structure and no equivalent ladder. Equity here is a trade union rather than a gatekeeper for casting, with routes in through professional work, or through graduate and student membership while you are training or just out. One honest limit: we could not reach Equity’s own website, so treat that paragraph as secondary reporting and check the detail with them directly.
What order the credits go in
The chapter established that theatre goes first and then never said how to order the theatre itself. Here is the answer, and it is not the intuitive one.
Strongest first. Not newest first. A university careers guide puts it about as bluntly as it can be put: list your most impressive credits first, and do not worry about chronological order.
That last one is worth pointing at, because a theatre actor with thirty credits usually solves the problem by shrinking the font. One page, your best work, and a line saying there is more.
How to write an understudy credit
Our research found no source on this at all and said not to publish without one. We found three, and they agree.
It is a real job and it goes on the résumé. The convention is not a separate credit line. It is a short note beside the role, and it distinguishes between covering the part and actually going on.
You covered the role
The notationu/s, beside the role name.
Why it is enoughThe job was real whether or not you went on. Covering a lead in a serious house is a credit.
You covered it and performed
The notationPerformed u/s, or u/s followed by performed.
Why it mattersIt is a materially different thing and the convention gives you a way to say so without a sentence.
You were a swing
The notationSwing, with performed added if you went on.
The general ruleHouses differ. If in doubt, ask the theatre what it prefers.
Drama school credits, and the two doors
List them. Label them. And know which door they will and will not open, because that is a different question from whether they belong.
Training productions are real work and they go on the page, grouped and asterisked. The confusion comes from treating one question as two. Whether a credit belongs on your résumé and whether it counts towards a membership gate are separate matters with separate answers.
On the experience route they say they “do not accept extra/supporting artist work, stunt credits, amateur/unpaid work or productions during training courses (as credits).”
Note that this is two separate exclusions in one sentence. Amateur and unpaid work, and productions during training, are both out.
So an all-student résumé can be a completely honest document that will not, on its own, get you through that particular door.
Saying that plainly is kinder than letting somebody find out after they have paid. Different question, different bouncer. Your drama school work is genuine experience, it belongs on the page, and it is not the currency that particular gate accepts.
Theatre is where paper still survives
The printed copy is nearly dead everywhere else and it is not dead here. If any actor is going to need a stapler, it is this one.
Open theatre auditions are the one context where bringing hard copies is still described as standard. The convention is oddly precise: an eight-by-ten photograph, the résumé trimmed to match, stapled at all four corners a quarter of an inch from the edges, headshot facing up.
Grading the sources
Our research opened by saying its own search underperformed, which was honest and turned out to be half right. Two of its gaps closed easily.
One thing we have not solved. There is still no regional theatre casting director on this page speaking for themselves. The corroboration we found is university careers offices and one agent, which is better than a single trade guide and is not the same as a person who casts plays. That remains the weakest joint in this chapter and we would rather say so.
Where we differ from the standard account
Does a combat certificate last?
Commonly saidTreated as permanent. Listed with no date.
What we foundThree or four years depending on the body, and two of the three tell you to write the year.
How do you become eligible for the American stage union?
Commonly saidAccumulate candidate weeks at participating theatres.
What we foundThat programme was phased out in 2023 and replaced with open access.
Is a theatre résumé a different document?
Commonly saidYes, rebuild it from scratch.
What we foundNo. Same document, reordered, with a handful of real changes. Ten minutes.
Do you need vocal range on a straight play?
Commonly saidYes, theatre wants it and screen does not.
What we foundNot corroborated anywhere. The trigger is whether you sing, not what kind of play it is.
What order inside the theatre section?
Commonly saidNewest first, like a job CV.
What we foundStrongest first. One guide says outright not to worry about chronology.
How do you list an understudy?
Commonly saidUsually left off out of embarrassment.
What we foundIt goes on, marked u/s, with performed added if you went on.
Do drama school credits count?
Commonly saidEither hide them or treat them as equal.
What we foundNeither. They belong on the page, labelled, and Spotlight will not take them as a joining credit.
Do one thing tonight. Find the date on your combat certificate. If it is more than three years old you have been carrying a line that is no longer true, through nobody’s fault but a gap in what you were told. Put the year on it, and if it has lapsed, book the renewal before somebody asks you to demonstrate it.