So should we be listing this membership on my D’s resume? She’s s member at her school but I don’t know a lot about it and not sure if it’s one of those things where everyone’s a member so it doesn’t pull much weight on a resume. Like do colleges even look at it? Thoughts please…I hear conflicting things about it
I would definitely list it. Thespian Society is a fairly big deal in the middle part of the country with thousands of kids attending the International Thespian Festival (and college auditions) in Nebraska every year. I know hundreds of kids go from Texas. Colleges in the Midwest and Texas participate in and sometimes host Thespian events during the year. Over 50 colleges attend auditions at the International Thespian Festival and many more attend regional Thespian audition events.
Here are some of the schools that I have seen listed at Thespian event auditions:
UCF
CCM
Coastal Carolina
Illinois Wesleyan
Miami
Northern Colorado
Ohio Northern
Oklahoma
OCU
Otterbein
PSU
Point Park
Roosevelt
Sam Houston
Santa Fe
USC
TCU
Texas State
U Arts
Viterbo
Webster
Having seen hundreds of resumes from Texas kids over the past several years from volunteering at a regional audition, I know that all of them list Thespian Society membership, officer roles, and Thespian contest awards. They also list all their Texas UIL One-Act Play Competition awards.
@EmsDad Do they list Thespian Society under Training or in some additional resume category?
Thespian Society stuff is typically listed under a topic like “Honors, Awards, Clubs, Special Skills” at the bottom of the resume in a comma-delimited format:
There are many formats for resumes, this is just one example.
So, do you suggest that one puts academic honors and non-arts clubs/executive board roles on the resume that they give to theatre departments? Is that standard? I don’t even have ITS on my resume, but now I’ll be adding it!
D did put those types of things on her resume (though she had it on common app)
My daughter’s resume is strictly performance related (theater, TV, film) and training, but like the above poster said, the academic clubs and honors were on her common app
The only thing my D is adding is the ITS membership. No other school clubs or non theatre related activities. She’s in national honor society etc but that’s not on her theatre resume.
@EmsDad and others…what do you think about attending the International Thespian Festival after senior year? My D’s school is attending for the first time…and with all that we’ve ‘invested’ in trips, prescreens, audition season, etc. I’m not sure if this makes sense? Help.
Only rising seniors attend from d’s high school, mainly to attend college auditions and kick-off the senior year application/audition process by meeting with as many theatre programs as possible in the college fair and callbacks.
I would guess that graduating seniors attend if they are really into all the convention events and going on a trip with their theatre friends (and maybe its a tradition for their troupe). Some schools put on performances at the event and if you get cast in the opening main stage show you have an opportunity to work with some Broadway professionals (video auditions due in March), so those would be additional incentives for a graduating senior to attend. There are a few college scholarships available at the event for graduation seniors, but the amounts are somewhat nominal ($1,500-ish) given the cost of attendance and travel.